One minute it's the last day of school (May 20th) and I'm freaking out about HOW on EARTH will I keep these people BUSY 24/7?! The next, it's already almost JULY!

I am still amazed at how fast this summer is flying by and how much I'm going to MISS these little people when they're gone! Well ... I'll miss them for a bit until I get used to having MOMtime ALONE 3 days a week.

But that's a-hole-nother post.

Today I'm marveling at how individual my kids are and how much I love spending time with each one of them, seperately, or in smaller quantities - lol.

Monday, Flower Child (7) started her first Day Camp with the Girl Scouts. I dropped her and her friend off at 8:30am and they RAN away to begin their day of learning as many gross-out songs as they could. And boy did they. I had Tween & Lil Miss with me, and now where in particular to go, so we stopped at the nearby Starbucks to hang out a bit.

I love that Tween is so old and that I could actually run to the bathroom and let them sit in the lobby because no one was just going to walk up and take them. I stood in line and ordered our drinks and pastries and Lil Miss is now old enough that she's not going to bolt for the door or dance on the table tops, and Tween is old enough to sit with her while I take care of other things. It's just made life so much more ... managable.

Now don't think that I use and abuse my older child, FAR FROM IT! I am all for helping out with younger siblings and the family unit as a whole, but I also want her to understand that Lil Miss is MY child and I don't expect her to help RAISE them.

So after I had all manner of Starbucksy goodness in hand, I joined them at the table. We sat and had a pretty good conversation, Tween & I, while Lil Miss monkied around and made googly eyes at all the passers by. It was actually a VERY nice time.

My oldest daughter is so mature and is such an amazing person already at her young age of almost 12. I enjoy our talks so much that it actually excites me for her to grow older. I have the occasional 'awwww my BABYs growin up!' moments, but for the most part, I am just looking so forward to the future she has before her.

My little Flower Child is a completely different child, from pregnancy to now. But the older she gets and the more time I have with her to listen to her ENDLESS stories, lol, the more I find ways to enjoy her differences.

Listening to her and her friend in the car on the way to camp today, and watching her walk off, it just struck me how mature she is getting too. Being the younger sister, I think most people including myself, see her as 'younger' no matter how mature she's getting.

Her friend and her sang songs all way to camp and they were so cute and such little sweethearts that I found myself singing right along with them! My heart just swelled thinking of how great these two little girls are and how much I love my little Flower Child.

Now Lil Miss, THAT is another story lol. We had a VERY, LONG, TOUGH weekend. My stepson is getting harder and harder to deal with and my Lil Miss is starting to show characteristics similar to his. She is becoming harder and harder to reason with, instead of easier. She's acting more wild and showing less restraint over her feelings, instead becoming more in control.

And I'm scared.

My stepson was diagnosed with ADD by a psycologist and while I don't neccessarily agree with over medicating him, I do feel that he NEEDS help. But because of California custody laws, we are not even allowed to take him to a psycologist without his mother's consent, and she hates psycologists. She refuses to let him see one, will not discuss medication options, and won't uphold dietary restrictions that are known to help. So we are stuck dealing with a child that is bordering on uncontrolable 50% of the time, and we can't do anything to help him.

That is starting to affect my youngest daughter who is starting to act just like him. On his weekends here, by Tuesday when he goes back to his mother, my husband and I are just in tears and frazzled by the two of them.

I'm trying so hard right now to find a way to deal with her and GET THROUGH to her. She is wonderful loving caring little girl and can be so sweet it makes your teeth hurt! When she wants to be ...

She can be so tender and cares so much about other people's feelings, but she just doesn't get it when you tell her not to do something. We're trying to potty train her right now and it is just hell. It's exponencially harder with her than it was with either of my other girls. I can't explain it, she just doesn't make the connection. She's like that with a lot of things, which worries me too.

But God willing, she'll be potty trained and starting part day preschool 3 days a week in August. I really hope that helps with things. I would really like to get her in 5 day preschool, even if only part day, because I have a bad feeling next year, Kindergarden is going to be a HARD transition.