Riding the Vomit Comet

The problem with going so long without blogging is that I get all tied up in all the things that I want to post about, and then I have a hard time writing anything, because I want to write about everything!

The big event of the weekend with the teen was that I gave him the rules for the summer. Only 4 hours/day on the computer and bedtime at 11 pm. You'd have thought I'd stuck a knife in him and twisted it. He tried strenuously to talk me out of my decisions, arguing like a lawyer about every detail. I kept it simple, though, no exceptions, no complications, just the basics. 4 hours. 11 pm. No exceptions.

He took it very badly, finally grabbing the phone and storming off to his room. I found out later that he took the phone, not to call a friend to commiserate (as I'd assumed,) but to call his mother. He left a short, but very nasty little message on her answering machine, to the effect that she'd thrown him away, didn't love him, had ruined his life, and he hated her.

I just love getting upset emails from her, especially when I have no idea what's going on.

I wanted to punish him, on the grounds that his mother deserves a certain amount of respect from him, no matter what the problems between them. The husband told me to stay out of it though. If he was here, he'd handle it, but at the moment we're just ignoring it.

On the bright side, the baby seems to have figured out Mama and Dada! At any rate, as of this weekend, she will look at me and babble, "mamamamama," and look at her father and babble, "dadadadada," which is good enough for us to declare this the weekend she said her first words!

Oh, and I also bought a car for the husband. We had to have a second car, but he didn't have the time to do it. So, I went to a friend of ours who sells cars and she found us a great one. Not too old, not too expensive, not too many miles, very nice and even pretty. And I handled everything from beginning to end all by myself - test drives, negotiating, finding financing - I feel so adult! I've never done the whole process by myself before. The husband just showed up in time to sign where he was told. Picture me doing a little triumph dance here!

Swoopy feelings all over the place. Too many highs and lows in such a short space of time.