Give me just one more chance.........

Sounds like a country music song, which was our theme song for tonight! Gage had Camp Edventure bright and early this morning at 8 a.m. I woke him up at 7:00 in order to get him ready and he was feeling it (as were Scott and I) tonight! UGH! Scott, Gage and Emma went on a bicycle ride around the block after supper and I'm not exactly sure what happened...........I think Gage was leading and it was Emma's turn, so Scott and Emma turned around and went the other way and it completely ticked Gage off. He came home screaming and Scott came home yelling! That was enough for me! I sent Gage to his room to get his pajamas on and to get his teeth brushed and he had such a bad attitude and was hollering and yelling at me as well. I gave him one warning that if he didn't stop yelling and talking so rudely, I wasn't going to read to him tonight. Well, that was certainly below the belt in Gage's book. He started yelling at me, "OH YES YOU ARE READING TO ME!" Sorry Gage, "But oh no I'm not!" We had a similar episode the other night, and I ended up reading to him anyway. Not reading to him is also punishment on me! I decided that didn't teach him any lessons and tonight I needed to stick by my guns. It was hard, oh so hard. Once he finally calmed down and then was begging and pleading for me to read to him, and to "please just give me one more chance, please" it hurt me as much as it hurt him, but I knew I couldn't give in. I think if this happens again, and I tell him there will be no reading at bedtime, he will listen (or at least I hope so!) It was so bad at one point that Emma came up and said, "Mom, can't you just read to him?" I told her she needed to get back to her room and get to sleep. Then I hear her at Gage's doorway saying, "Gage, I will read to you if you want me to." Boy did that sound sweet. However, Emma can't read!! I sent Scott down to lay with him for awhile to get him to sleep, and after several minutes the arguing started up again. I guess if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. I ended up laying with him and gently explained to him why I couldn't read to him, and did the "shhhhhhh.....................shhhhhhhh" that only a Mom can do. He finally rolled over and went to sleep. Thank the Lord! I'm praying for a better day tomorrow. We have Camp Edventure early in the morning, then he has a baseball game tomorrow night, and Scott leaves town for the rest of the week. Pray for us.