Quick, before something blows up!

My kids - all of them - are outside playing in the water. Yup. Even Mar. There have been arguments, but they are using their "steps" and solving their own problems. Even with water balloons involved! Going on almost on hour.

Shhhhhhh ... don't look directly at them or you might throw them off.

FYI: Mar has caught up on almost three weeks of school. She has fought it every second of the way, but I stay as playful as possible. If she still tries to work her way into a fit/rage, I go in for the hug or cuddle. Today I asked if I could sit behind her like we were in a bobsled, so I could hug her while she pretended to have a small stroke affecting her cognitive abilities did her schoolwork. I did some silly things, moving her hands and making her clap, etc.

Then I started doing some silly rubbing/tapping behind her, "Even though I don't want to do what my mom says, I can totally put these bulbs in parallel. Even though I don't want to do what my mom says, I am really great at mapping out a circuit board." It just got sillier and sillier. By my second time through, she finished it up and was done for the day.

God bless silliness. Some days I HATE it. It gets old, ya' know? But it's medicine for my Mar.