Highs and Lows

Dakota and I had a date night last night. We went shopping for a Christmas present for his daddy (no, we didn't find anything yet) and then we went to dinner. We had a very good time! He turned 12 in August. For the most part Dakota is an awesome kid but since he has turned 12 he has gotten a little mouthy at times and after spending all day with him every day I tend to get tired of being around him by evening time...because I am tired of the "arguing/debating" we do back and forth all day.

Dakota and Bailee at the zoo in Albany, GA in November

He's not arguing in a loud, yelling abrasive manner. He has the type of personality where he wants to debate and question every single thing and after 12 hours of this a day I am exhausted.
Let me give you an example - Yesterday was one of those days! His father and I are planning on painting the kitchen and doing some redecorating in there. I have been looking up ideas online for putting in a backsplash and wanted to run to Home Depot and Lowe's to pick up some samples of things. I asked Dakota to go along. BIG MISTAKE!

We've already decided we are going to paint the kitchen red so I was trying to match my samples to the red paint stick thing I had. Dakota picked up some paint color books and started saying things like "wow, this green is beautiful mom" or "look at this blue and orange together...isn't it pretty?" and "THESE colors would look great in the kitchen...dontcha think so mom?" and as I looked at the colors he was pointing to and saw that they were FAR AWAY FROM RED I said "yes, they would look nice if we had not already decided on red."

Then he says "Unh...you just need to consider other colors too! You might like other colors if you would look!"

I said "Umm, excuse me how do you know we haven't looked? You are assuming we jumped right in and said we are going with red without looking at anything else?"

Then he crosses his arms and says "Well, if you aren't even going to listen to my opinion I don't know why you brought me here. You don't need me here anyway. You and dad are going to be the final judge about it and you aren't listening to me anyway so I'm not saying another word!"

That was pretty much how THAT shopping experience went so I quickly found my samples while he moped along in silence and we got out of there. I tried to discuss it with him in the car on the drive home but he was being stubborn so I said "fine, lets' work on your times tables instead!" so we did math the whole way home. Once we got home I gave him writing work and Science to do on his own and I left for a couple hours to go right up the road to meet my friend CJ for tea/dessert.

CJ and Caleb at his 2nd birthday party in November

I love getting together with her and just sitting and talking! We talk and laugh and sometimes cry...it is so refreshing and I feel rejuvenated and ready to be a mom and wife again. Dakota called me right after I had left CJ to see if I was on the way home yet. He wanted me to know he had done all his work and he was going to get online to play one of his games. I told him I was 5 mins from the house. He told me he loved me. When I got home he came up to me and said "I need a hug" and we hugged and he kissed me - all was forgiven.