Thursday, July 28, 2011

The power of communication

We are traveling to San Francisco June 27 and we will be staying with G's sister and family. They have a bunk bed and R, his sister, called to say she's got a bed set up for D in the girls' room.
So, to prepare we are going to transition her crib to a toddler bed ASAP. I kept telling D, "We are going to transition you into a big girl's bed, D! Daddy is going to change your bed into a big girl bed!!"
So every day D would ask, "Am I going to get a big girl bed?" And alas, we just didn't get around to ordering the converter so off we fly to SF.
When we got in, it was already almost 9pm. Her cousins were fast asleep. D had dinner, played for a few and then I took her up to bed. We showed her her own big girl bed then showed her that her two cousins were already asleep. I put her security blankets, baby giraffe on the bed and then said good night...she fell right asleep!
Whoohoo!
Today - girls played around all day. While N, D's younger cousin caught a nice nap while driving around the city, apparently everyone was too loud for D to take a nap so no nap for her today. Given recent experiences in the past week, I didn't think D would ever consider taking a nap if she could hear her cousins horsing around downstairs.
She was a bit more sensitive than other days but no major meltdowns.
By 6pm I thought it better to just put her to bed even though regular bedtime for all three girls is 7:30/8pm. I was a bit apprehensive at first to put D to bed in her big girl bed without all the other girls sleeping because I was afraid she'd just jump right up and walk around.
Alas, that did not happen. I put her to bed and she fell right asleep! Sweet!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

update

Hysterics for maybe 5 minutes. Now silence. Fast asleep. Peace at last...

Melt down? Hysterics?

Hmmm...D did not take a nap today. Well, she fell asleep on the way out with G. He was on his way to an errand and she fell asleep. Of course, I blame him b/c he should've put her down for a nap when she was supposed to go down. But whatever. She's gone without naps before.
So, she falls asleep, he puts her in her crib. She's maybe asleep for 10 more minutes? And then wakes up? G blames the fact that the walls in our new house are so thin and she wakes up because he is talking on the phone. Perhaps? But usually she is pretty good at sleeping through everything. She's never really been a very light sleeper.
So, she doesn't nap and I take her around on some errands with me. By 4pm we're on our way home and she falls asleep 5 minutes before we get home. It's 4:30. There is no way she is napping at that time so I wake her up when we get home.
We hang out, eat dinner...all the while she is acting up, being bratty. Not listening, obviously b/c she missed her nap.
Now, we just put her down to sleep and she is in hysterics. Calling out my name, crying, screaming, hysterical...ugggh. Hate listening to it but I know there's nothing I can do to help her short of going in there and taking her out which would obviously be the wrong thing to do because clearly this girl needs to SLEEEEP!

Hsiao peng yo no longer

A couple posts ago I wrote how D had a new imaginary friend that she referred to as "Hsiao Peng Yo" (literally translated from Chinese: little friend). Well, for some reason, D does not treat this "little friend" very well at all.
She will ask, "Where is HPY sitting?" And if I respond, "Right here, next to me." She will run over and sit ON her declaring, "I just crushed HPY."
I mean it just goes on and on like that. Some days she'll ask where is HPY and I will say next to her waiting to share some food and she will reach out and say, "I just hit HPY" or "I just ate all my food so HPY doesn't get any." I mean, WTF...
So, today I got sick and tired of it and when she asked, "what is HPY doing?" I responded, "Well, D, you don't treat HPY very well so I am not going to play this game at all anymore."
And refused to respond to any inquiries into HPY.
I mean, I don't know where this is coming from but it's kind of disturbing to me. I can maybe understand this type of behavior if there was a new sibling in the house - maybe she needs to get her aggressions out or something, but this girl, she's a bit spoiled if you ask me so why in the world would she feel the need to be mean to her imaginary friend?
Maybe just to irritate me. Not sure.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Don't play with water...

Sooooo, D discovered how to spray water from the sink spout by holding her hand right under it and spraying water all over the place. I am currently practicing NOT losing it at her so when she does it I kindly remind her not to play with water like that. It makes a mess and it wastes water. She tried to do it again today when we were at her school and while I was able to prevent, I could see she's just short of doing it again if given the chance.
This evening, she did it again and I kindly reminded her again not to play with water. She just laughed her mischievous laugh. In my mind I am a bit panicked as to how to help her realize that it is not proper to play with water in the bathroom (especially at school) without spanking her or something. There, I said it, yes I do spank her sometimes just to get the point across and I am working on stopping that nasty reflex.
Well, something in the universe must be on my side because she jumped off the sink laughing as I my voice is probably trailing behind her reprimanding her water play and then here she comes running at me into the bathroom and slips in the water she just splashed onto the floor! Slipped and fell back on her head. There you go. There was my lesson.
I picked her up promptly but did not let the lesson go unnoticed. I told her, "Oh nooo, baby. You slipped. You see? This is why mommy tells you not to play with the bathroom water..Daddy then chimes in, 'we don't play with water inside'..." And then I point out to her, see the floor, it is wet from the water you splashed.
There. Lesson learned. I hope. We'll see what happens tomorrow when she brushes her teeth.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Savin' it just for Dad

Why is it that sometimes D is just on her worst behavior with her dad? Or is it just that everything seems compounded when he is around because I am aware that he is HYPER-aware?
Take for instance yesterday - we went out to lunch with the fam. D had taken a short snoozer on our way out to the restaurant (which was about an hour away). After lunch we decided to go into Pasadena to the kidspace museum up there - activities, climbing apparatuses, water play...
I mean, she has gone full days without naps without overreacting. Yet, of course, with her father around, she throws a complete fit in the car as we are driving my sister and niece back to their place. She is screaming at the top of her lungs, crying hysterically...saying she wants to "go home to Nashville" She wants "her own bed"...that sort of thing.
Mind you, right after we let my sister and niece off, D stops her hysterics. But still...her father's response - "Never again. We will never push her. She NEEDS her naps."
Oh, bother. Please...she does not need her naps. Give me a break....

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Moving

It's been kind of quiet on here lately. Mainly because we just moved from N to LA and we are homeless. :o) Kind of a lot going on here trying to manage schedules. And having D spend time with her grandma, her grandma 2, her grandpa and her grandpa's wife, another grandma. Whew!
Anyhooo, moving has been pretty cool. We explained the whole process to D as it unfolded:
Don't mess up the house, we are trying to sell it. There are people coming to look at our house.
Once we moved out and were staying at our neighbors: We are now staying at Court and Andrew's house. That is not our house anymore. And she would repeat while looking at our (old) house from the window - "That's not our house anymore. We are moving to Los Angeles."
And now that we are in Los Angeles, oftentimes she will ask about her friends in N. Well, more their moms like, "Where's Faye? Where's Jennifer?"
And I will say, "She is in Nashville."
And D would say, "There is no more Nashville..."
And I of course would explain to her that Nashville is still in existence, we just don't live there anymore. We live in Los Angeles now.
The funny thing is, right now we are staying with a friend's mom but visiting my father and my mother at their respective houses. And now D always asks, "Who's house are we going to?" When I say we are headed home.
Thankfully, we have found a home and will be moving in and settling in soon.