Cheerful vs. Stubborn

I'm feeling pretty cheerful this evening. Tired, but cheerful. I have Chewy Ginger Cookie dough chilling in the fridge and I'm looking forward to a little late-night baking once it's firm. Lila helped me make the dough, which made us both feel good. Lila loves to help cook. Serving is definitely one of her main love languages. It made me feel good to know that I was showing her love and letting her show me love in this way because I don't do it very often. Let her help me cook, I mean. I usually want to be left entirely alone while I'm cooking. Even Doug's helpful offers and suggestions are usually met with a wild-eyed stare.
 

It's not that I don't appreciate the desire to spend time with me or help me out. I just can't think about anything else when I'm cooking and one question too many could make my head explode. Really!

 

Eli seems to have given up both eating and bathing. As soon as we were done with our day's school work, both kids disappeared upstairs. I didn't see them for an hour after that! When I went up to tell them that it was shower time, they ignored me. I finally got them to acknowledge that they did hear and understand the language that I was speaking, but no one came to be bathed. I waited around for 15 minutes (no great tragedy. i spent that time reading on my bed.) and then came back downstairs.

 

Lila, who doesn't really need help anyway, went ahead and took her shower about half an hour later. Well, she stood under the water for a while. She didn't discover until she was already in the shower and wet that their body wash was not in there with her. She yelled my name for several minutes (which i didn't hear because i was downstairs with the radio on) and then decided that she'd rather declare herself Clean Enough than get out and get the soap.

 

When we were 15 minutes away from dinner time, I reminded Eli that we'd be eating soon and he was welcome to join us once he was clean. I forgot that this strategy is not so effective on someone who opts not to eat dinner half the time anyway. He ended up riding his bike around and around the house while the rest of us ate. He is currently being put to bed. No dinner, no bath. Oh well... he'll eat again at breakfast and I know he'll bathe tomorrow night because he'll be at Grammie and Papa Joe's!