LIFE WITH MY CHILDREN PART 18

Actually this part should have been before the last one...but I got ahead of myself.

The first summer we lived on Hamilton, I was just seeing Joe occasionally. My life was still centered around my kids when I wasn't working and we were a close unit. We did everything together and they went everywhere with me...the grocery store, the laundromat, the bank, visiting relatives and friends...when I wasn't working. When I went out at night, I didn't leave until after they were in bed, usually asleep.

But getting them to bed and then to go to sleep was a nightly hassle. We began bedtime at 8...but it was a rare night, especially when they didn't have school, that they were asleep before 10.

We had both their twin beds in one bedroom until one night after several trips in there to settle them down, I was in the living room watching TV and I smelled smoke. I checked all over the apartment..then opened Tammy and Buddy's bedroom door. There they were, both in one bed....under the tented blanket, lighting matches! I was furious! I dragged them both out of the bed and used a paddle (from the ball and paddle toy) on their behinds. All the while, lecturing them on the dangers of playing with matches.

The next day I changed things around. I moved the dining room table into the kitchen and Buddy's bed into the dining room. They cried and begged me not to separate them. But I told them I could no longer trust them together, so get over it!

Bedtimes became much calmer and easier after that. Tammy had her own room with a door. Buddys room was open...with doors into the kitchen, living room and hall. As I worked around the apartment doing my usual nightly housekeeping, I had to be especially quiet to not wake Buddy. The doorway from Buddy's room into the living room was a wide arch...and I soon found out he could ...and did...watch TV from his bed. This meant I also had to rearrange the furniture in the living room, moving the TV to where Buddy couldn't see it.

For the first time, that summer, Tammy and Buddy started doing things that didn't include each other. Buddy joined the Boy's club. Tammy began having overnights with either Debbie or Suetta. My babies were growing up.