Saturday, May 31, 2008

We need to teach her

The Princess has been testing my limits and my patience. It's not the fact that she throws food and her dishes on the floor (she broke her Dora bowl!), it's that she looks at me as she does it and she KNOWS she shouldn't. She's moved past the baby-dropping no coordination thing. This is intentional. I don't care so much about food, the dogs will get that, but it's annoying when she flings her dishes, especially her milk. I was asking SkyWalker what we should do... if we should put her in timeout (no, I wouldn't really, but I wanted to see what he would say). He said "No, [Princess] can't go in timeout. Not like me. I go in timeout when I'm in trouble. [Princess] can't go in timeout." So what should we do? "We need to TEACH her." So funny.


We had our playdate yesterday. It went really really well. There was a lot of conflict and kids fighting over SkyWalker's toys (it's pretty funny hearing 2 boys grabbing SkyWalker's toys and yelling "Mine!". Um, no.) There were some tantrums. Not from my kids, but from the other boys. SkyWalker was very quiet as he always is when other kids are having tantrums. He didn't really talk to anybody, but he did play on the playset with them and play downstairs and he didn't hide in the bathroom so it's progress. The Princess tried hard to be a 3 year old and crawled all over the deck. But then she got tired and needed a nap. It was actually kind of nice to put her down and have just the big kids playing. And the BiG news is that the dogs were outside with the kids the entire time and were absolutely fine! Isaac had his crazy ball and Haze had a stick that the moms threw and they were so good! I was so proud and happy and relieved! We had lunch and one mom who lived on Long Island for a little while (the one starting over since her friends have moved away) was just saying the "right" things. Hard to explain but for the first time in a long time I have some hope. 

I've started weaning the Princess off the pacifier. It's much harder than when SkyWalker was a year. When he was a year I took it away and he didn't even notice. But I've been finding her still sucking on it after she's been asleep for an hour. She only gets it in the crib and in the car. I've stopped giving it to her in the car and she's been okay. I'm starting to take it away for her naps now. Once I break that then I'll take it away at night. I'm sure we'll have a few rough nights. I'm not really sure how she got so addicted to it... I don't even give it to her anymore. It's in the crib and she just puts it in her mouth herself. 

We have a birthday party to go today and another floor guy coming tomorrow. Another busy weekend. I need to make cupcakes today and do some laundry and figure out my June schedule. Oh and dishes and a million other things.

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2 comments:

Bee said...

Glad to hear that the playdates have been going so well for you (and the kids)! It's always nice to find your niche... An evil little part of me is happy to see Princess being a little defiant, too, since your kids are always too damn perfect! Teeheehee... She will get over the disobedient stage someday (even if it's when she turns 20!), so don't sweat it... Boogie sure as heck still thinks it's funny to do something he knows is wrong, so I wouldn't count on Princess stopping anytime soon... Good luck with the pacifier, too... Every kid is different, so she may very well be more difficult than SkyWalker... The good thing is that consistency helps kids adjust faster, and I have faith that you and Vader will not cave in and give back the pacifier just because she cries a little bit... Best of luck with everything, and have a good weekend!

Shinesalot said...

I'm glad to see that you can actually see some light at the end of the tunnel. :) And I am also glad to hear that the playdates are going well. And finally, I hated that pacifier business is a pain - I remember weaning Littleman at around a year and half...just after Christmas. First the car, then the nap, then bedtime. Lots of fun...I'm sure it'll go fine.