Everybody lost it

It's Wednesday again, and Wednesday is "Positivity Day" because of Jane. I blame Jane. She is the one responsible for making me sit here right now searching for positivity. If It wasn't for Jane I could have stayed rooted firmly in my negativity. I like it here. But I also like Jane, and her Small Steps Amazing Achievement linky, which to me has a "one tiny light in the sea of dark" theme. And this week I've had both - tiny lights, and a sea of dark. 

"Why?" You ask? well, simply put, because we are four weeks into the summer holidays. Four weeks, which are twenty eight days, or 672 hours, or 40,320 minutes, you can see where I am going with it. It has been a very, and I mean very, long 4 weeks. 

I think we've all lost it. Completely. For God sake, last Tuesday we took the kids to see The Smurfs 2, and I cried. I cried at the end when the guy says about the stepdad "this is my father". Seriously, with real tears and everything. I know, I told you I've lost it. And it's not as if I even have a reason to, my kids don't have stepparents, and neither do we. I am not even pregnant and have the hormones excuse. No, it's just that I've completely and utterly lost it.

This whole house is full of people doing crazy things. 

Yon walks around the house talking to himself. No, wait, that's normal for him. But he reenact bits from movies we've seen. He IS the characters, he runs in slow-motion, he talks about himself "'take that glass.' Said Yon". We told him that he is "living in a movie" (it works in Hebrew. Promise), but he said it isn't true. It's a Wii game.
Also, he got into a habit of taking his bed with him everywhere, so he could sleep at every given moment. So he walks around the house with his blanket, pillow, and teddy. From room to room. In search of new sleeping grounds.
I told Yon today that he needs a haircut and he told me he doesn't, since he already had three haircuts in the past year.
That's why it didn't surprise me that Yon refused to progress with his studying. He thinks it's all a game you see, so he counts with his fingers even when he doesn't need to, he makes me write all his numbers "together", and gives the overall impression that he doesn't retain any knowledge in his brain. How could he? It's all filled to the brim with movie quotes. 

Ron, turned within a month from someone who only reads a chapter a day, and only football books, into a complete bookworm who read 5 books in under 3 weeks. Including the first Lord of the Rings and 2 Wimpy kid books. To be able to "read in peace" he turned his reading corner (that is located under his bunk-bed) into a fortress, complete with walls and a gate, and today Yon couldn't find him there.
On the other hand after really doing well and progressing with his summer-studies, this week he actually became worse with every Bond 11 test he completed.
Both kids are starting to resemble an iPad, though with Yon we still can't find the mute button. They walk around the house like iPad zombies mumbling "Need iPad. Now".
Yon got into the habit of watching nature videos on YouTube, the kind where the lion eats the zebra. His process is like this - find the video (he keeps them on favourite) on the iPad, press play, take down all the throw-pillows from the couch (aka the lions) to the carpet (aka the grass), and watch the video / fight with the pillows. That is of course, unless he leaves it there playing, and go to another room to play something else. And comes back running and screaming if you even think about shutting it down. We asked him to stop, because it upsets me (and Ron. Who eats meat, and knows where it comes from, but doesn't like those videos), but he just said he likes it. Particularly I think he likes saying to the screen "that's not very nice lion".
Ron, it seems, left home completely and moved into the world of Real Football 13 (it's an iPad game, to those with non-football kids).

This past weekend, after we were fed up with them jumping on our bed and trying to turn it into a trampoline, we took the kids to Ikea, officially to buy glasses. We've been in Ikea for four hours. FOUR HOURS. and most of it wasn't even in the checkout queue. Or the cafe. It was in the bed section, where Yon had to climb into each and every one of the beds "to sleep". Apparently my kids feel that Ikea is their own personal playground for pretend-play. I have to say the people at Ikea Tottenham were very nice, and no one told us off, even when Yon climbed on the fifth bed. Or when he tried every sofa, or dining room chair. We left Ikea after four hours with two very tired kids, and new glasses. It has been our first visit to Ikea in 3 years, and the first time we've ever spent less than 200 pounds in one. Told you we lost it. 

 

And how can we forget the whining and complaining, our constant companions these days? On Sunday for example, after Ikea on Saturday morning and watching football in the afternoon, Hidai played with the kids, at their request (that naturally came in the form of "you never play with us") I might add, air-hockey and pool and watched some more football, Ron still grumbled about Scrabble. 

 

And every night after we finish the whole night-ritual, they compose and sing to themselves a song about what happened today. There usually is a line about " and mummy shouted stop" somewhere there. 

Like I said, everyone here lost it. A sea of black.

But, 

Ron did read five books not about football, in less than three weeks, and enjoyed them so much he actually wants to go to the library today and get new ones.

He really did make good progress with not getting upset while working on the bond 11 tests (after the first attempt, in which he hit the bin, the door and the wall, screamed at me, and basically gave me a glimpse at what the future has in store for me), and was even willing to write things down and not do it all in his head. Though he did ask me to grade his "overall performance in these tests" (his words), and got slightly crossed when I wouldn't give him a numbered grade.

Yon went down the stairs of the tube station by himself. He still needed to hold the rail of course, but it was the first time he asked to do that. And he managed to, all by himself.

But the most amazing thing this past week belongs to Yon, who ,even though he loves his "lettering" (working on letters, for normal people), kept "forgetting" how to hold his pencil every five minutes, kept not liking to write the letters themselves, and kept thinking in letters and refusing to progress to the combined sounds that make a word. I am always a bit weary when I teach Yon anything, because he doesn't like being told things. He always says no, and this time was no different. We got into a fight, where he refused to acknowledge that he can read his name. Which I know he can. I left it alone because I really didn't know what else to do, and he got so upset about it, that it didn't really seem worth it. But of course I couldn't put away the guilt that stem from not teaching him as best as I could, the fear that he will never be able to write, and the feeling of being a failure because I didn't accomplish what I set out to do this summer - make sure he is ready for Reception.

We continued with the regular booklet work, and then one day I told him, that today I will teach him to write his name, thinking that he might believe me that it has more than one letter. To my surprise he held the pencil correctly and wrote it without any help. And than Ron's name, and daddy, and mummy. And iPad. 

And about 20 animals. Until I ran out of animals I can spell without checking. 

My baby can write.