Dilemma

Slept better last night. Still thinking we need a new mattress.

Something funny happened yesterday afternoon. I started a load of laundry, Alex's, which I usually do on the weekend along with Ethan's. I had already done one for him, but he had missed one of his uniforms in his closet so I waited till he had a small (very small, LOL) load and threw them in the washer. I turned it on, grabbed a dryer sheet, threw it in and proceeded to walk toward the stairs...

Wait a minute! Did I just say I grabbed a dryer sheet and threw it in the washer? Yeah, that's right! I did. LOL. I realized quickly enough, grabbed it back out and added some laundry soap instead. Geez. Pregnancy brain.

Last night after a very rough day for all of us - Ethan, our 9 yr old who has Asperger's, had a very hard day, getting frustrated and angry and started hitting himself in class :( after he had such a wonderful day on Monday, and Alex also had a "yellow" day meaning he got his card moved for misbehaving, mostly talking out and disrupting class multiple times, also after having a great day Monday - the boys played outside for a bit and got out some extra energy. They were in a better mood, till dinner time. They ate the Shepherd's pie but didn't really like it all that much. I agree it needed something, more flavor. Oh well, try again another time. It was time for haircuts and showers, so I cut Ethan's hair per his request and he was in the shower while Alex sat with Jason and I. I noticed Alex still hadn't done his math homework or put his bike back in the garage. He had left it behind my van, about 20 feet back or so. I told him to do those things and he did. Or so I thought. Jason checked his homework and cut his hair, then he showered and went to bed.

Well, we got up and got going this morning. No big deal at all. We had a great morning. Until we were backing out of the driveway. Can you guess what happened?

Yeah. Alex now needs a new bike. Thank goodness it didn't do any damage to our van, since we've had it less than a month!! I always pull over far enough to leave plenty of walking room between our old van that is parked there and the new van. That way the kids can ride their bikes through and not scratch up anything. At the end of our driveway is a ditch/creek and there are large concrete pieces that sit over the metal drains. When you back up, you have to be careful not to catch them with your tire so they don't topple over or you don't wreck your car on them. I always back slowly and start to angle towards the middle of the drive before backing into the road - very sharply to avoid my idiot neighbor's employees' cars that are parked directly across the end of my driveway instead of in his huge driveway but I digress- and it's a good thing too. When I hit the bike, I missed it with the tires and it got wedged under the edge on the passenger side not too far and didn't damage anything underneath. The driveway has some scuffs/gouges and the bike is beyond repair. But that's ok. The bike is paid for. The van is not. The seat was scraped up, pedal bent in and scraped badly and the handle bars are twisted sideways and bent up. Poor Alex was soooo upset. I feel bad for him, because now he has no bike. I know I should have checked, but I did tell him to put it away. He is constantly told not to leave it out and especially not in the driveway. I told Jason that he needed to put it away and he said he would say something to him also. Jason left at 6:15am this morning and probably saw it there and didn't call or text me. I honestly didn't see it when I got in the van. Neither did the kids. Should I replace it with our money or should I make Alex replace it with his money (he currently doesn't have enough so he will have to save for several months)? I want to teach him to be responsible for his things, but am I expecting too much considering he is only 6? (almost 6 1/2) What would you do??