Dinner and bed

Sometimes I find myself getting frustrated with the kids. Mostly it's just them not listening the first time, or the second time. And so I get angry, and speak sharply to them, and with Jack it works, and with Kate sometimes she thinks it's all a joke, until she finally figures it out and either does what I want, or cries because I spoke sharply to her.

And I feel bad even as I'm doing it, because I know it's partly my fault. We do kid around, and we're not always firm, so when we ARE being firm, small wonder they think it's a joke sometimes.

At dinner tonight, I said I was sorry for yelling (some sort of situation where they weren't doing what I asked, so on and so forth). And then Kate said, "You not mad anymore?" And I said no, I'm not mad. And she said, "I not mad. I happy!"

So I said, let's see your mad face. And she gave me this "grrr" look that was totally goofy with her gap teeth. And we all cracked up. And then I asked Jack for his mad face, and his mad face was basically a lips-pursed smile, trying hard not to laugh, while he lowered his eyebrows and flared his nostrils. And we all laughed again.

Then I washed them up, read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, and put them both to bed.