August is almost over!

It was a busy weekend, and I'm ready for today to be over so it can be tomorrow and I can go to my ultrasound - prayers please that a.) the baby is still healthy and b.) it feels like showing off the goods!

Friday we met my Mom and she took us shopping - she bought Cayden a lot of fall/winter clothes, which I REALLY appreciated, and I feel better knowing he's got some warm stuff. It's hard to imagine that it'll ever be cold, especially when it's so freaking hot outside. But it's also hard to realize that August is almost over which means that fall is just around the corner. She then took him for an overnight, which is nice because I really have been so very tired lately and the un-interrupted nights sleep and being able to sleep in seemed to REALLY recharge my batteries. I felt a little bad because hubby wanted to go to a dollar movie and was even going to let me pick, but most of the shows didn't start till 10, and I knew I wouldn't make it till them. We ended up renting a movie (the last song - the book was way better, and I'm sorry, I think Miley Cyrus is a horrible actress and she just bothers me.) but I crashed halfway through it anyway.

Saturday my son came home and we took him out to this car show in town. My son? Obsessed with cars. No joke. Yesterday morning I came downstairs and I went "I you Cayden" (which is how we say I love you) and he looked at me, dead serious and responded with "Uhhh.... Cars." and walked away. Anyway, it actually turned out to be a nice little show - especially for a free one. I'm not HUGE into cars but I do like looking at the old ones. They also had some cars for the kids to "play" in - an Army Hummer, a moving truck, a garbage truck, an ambulance, and a bus. Cayden's favorite was the bus, because they let him honk the horn, which he thought was the best thing in the world:


As you can see from this picture, the car show really wore him out:
(he's in a pink car seat because it's my Mom's that we borrowed for my husbands car when she got a new one. My sister talked her into the pink.)

Saturday night we came home to play outside for a bit - but then it started to rain, so we decided to finish the car themed night by watching the movie Cars. Once that was over, Jeremy wanted to "experiment" by seeing if Cayden would watch the NASCAR races. And not only did Cayden watch, but he loved screaming "go go go go!" at the TV.

Sunday we got up and headed out to meet my mom for more shopping. Mom wanted to pick up some birthday gifts - and also got my son a few more tee shirts. She then went to Kohl's and bought him two pairs of tennis shoes and two pairs of sandals (Kohl's has their sandals SERIOUSLY on sale. She got Cayden a pair of car sandals for now that light up - marked down to 4.99. Then she bought him a part of Carters sandals that will hopefully fit next year for 2.99!) My son? Spoiled.

Then we hung out at her house for awhile and came home to play outside, where pretty much all hell broke loose. I know last week I think it was, I mentioned my neighbors who son wasn't being watched and ate poop out of a dirty diaper. I was going to call CPS after that incident, but she seemed to have learned her lesson - because the one year old was watched like a hawk after that. He wasn't left outside by himself, and wasn't being watched by his brother.

Well last night we get home, and the one year old is standing right off his back patio. The way our back porches are, they're divided by half fences which open into the common yard. I couldn't see on his back porch but assumed his Mom was out there. Jeremy went inside to put our bags away and I stayed outside with Cayden - we were waiting for our other neighbors to get home to play.

Well the one year old starts taking off towards this busy road we have semi-near our yard. I wait a minute thinking his Mom is going to go after him - but she doesn't. I call him name, thinking maybe she's reading or something and didn't notice he walked off. Nope - nothing. So then I start to chase after him - no one is on their back porch. Their door is closed. I don't know if she was ever out there. I had no idea what to do - I started to chase after him but then I was leaving my son alone. But I also didn't want the one year old out in the street. Finally at the last second his older brother came around the corner and grabbed him - but he was with his friends and it was clear he wasn't supposed to be watching.

Then later that night, we were outside - it was dark, we were packing up the toys to go inside and put the kids to bed. The one year old comes from around the front of the house. We say hi, and wait for someone to come out from behind him. No one comes. We waited for a few minutes and then my neighbor had to pick him up and put him back in his house - I dunno how he got out, but it was clear no one knew he was outside.

I came inside and called CPS.

I like this woman, but I should have just called last week. I don't know WHY she lets her one year old wander by himself, but he's WAY too young and I just can't believe the kid was almost out on this road and NO ONE would have known. I dunno if she was out when we got home and went inside assuming we'd watch him, but she didn't ask me, and frankly I have a hard enough time chasing after my own child while 6 months pregnant, I don't want to add another toddler to it - not yet at least.

None of these kids have any supervision and I'm so over it. I can't leave anything on my back porch because the kids take it and break it or it goes missing - even things that aren't toys. We had a bottle of ant killer on the back porch, the kids sprayed it everywhere. It was freaking poison! My husband had a grill brush out there and the kids used it as a shovel and got it caked in mud. Then last night it was seriously like Lord of the Flies - the neighbors next door have this bouncy horse they keep out back. The older kids were picking it up and throwing it around, and they were going to break it - but it wasn't my toy and so that wasn't what I was worried about. I was more worried about them hitting one of the little kids. I asked them nicely to stop a couple times, and then I finally just snapped:
Me: You guys need to QUIT. I've asked you several times, not only is that going to get broken, but someone is going to get hit and it's going to hurt.
7 year old in a smart tone: Actually no one was going to get hit because we're throwing it this way and everyone else is that way.

Which, wasn't true, the kids were running around and they were throwing this stupid thing everywhere. And I mean, it's like a ride on toy, so it's a pretty decent size, so it really would have done some damage if it hit the one year old, or my son, or my neighbors son, or even caught one of the older boys in the head.

So I just kinda snapped at him: Actually, you're throwing it all over the place and I've asked you to stop. You boys play too rough around these little kids, and I'm tired of it. If you want to play rough you need to go somewhere else. You hurt Tyler (my neighbors 2 year old) the other night and called it an accident, but it wasn't an accident because you had been asked to stop and didn't (they were pulling a ride on car around with this rope, and actually clotheslined Tyler with the rope. It could have really hurt him. They didn't even bother to say sorry to him just 'it was an accident' And while I don't think it was on purpose, the do act reckless ALL the time and we ask them to stop and they don't - so they had been warned.)

Well then the 7 year old decides to mumble something under his breath - and my husband was already fed up at this point just kinda lost it.

Jeremy: What did you say?
7 year old: Nothing.
Jeremy: That's funny, I heard you say something, and if you've got something to say, you need to speak up and say it. Actually, I've got something to say - if you hit my son with anything, I will call the police and you will go to jail. You've been asked to stop which means it's NOT an accident anymore.

Now, I told Jeremy it was a little much to threaten a kid with jail. But I do understand his frustration. When his Mom does come outside, he doesn't act like that, because he knows he'll get in trouble. But his Mom hardly ever watches him, so he does what he wants.

So then he tried to blockade the kids off his back porch because he was mad at us - which is fine. I don't want my son playing with him anyway - like I said they're too old and they play too rough. But my other neighbor Natalie wasn't hearing it - and she had a good point. These kids come up to our porch whenever they want and play with whatever they want - why should they be allowed to do that and then our kids are banned?

So she told the 7 year old that - he could either stay off our porch and leave our things alone or he could share and play nicely.

It's just frustrating because they're ALWAYS around, and they don't listen to any of us. Sure, if we tell them they're playing too rough or they're too big for a toy they'll stop/get off it - but then ten minutes later we just have to repeat ourselves. And I know a lot of people are like "it's just kids" but they do know better, because most of the time all you have to do is say their names, and they stop. I mean I wouldn't mind sharing our stuff - and I did in the beginning - but they don't take care of it or treat it right and like I said - so much stuff has gotten broken or missing that I just stopped. And it's like - it's a common area, I really can't tell them they can't play there, but I also don't think I should have to risk my child being hurt because they're being too rough.

I just don't know what to do anymore - I can't talk to the Mom since she doesn't understand anything, and I don't think it's fair to keep Cayden cooped up inside and not go play because they're being hoodlums.

Ahhh!

So that was last night's drama. I'm just ready for it to be tomorrow - the big ultrasound and then I get my phone back - replaced free of charge because the Sprint Store can't find a reason for it being broken.

Whoot! I'll update tomorrow with the ultrasound findings.