Thursday, September 22, 2011

Baby's got a cold

And she's lost her voice!! Just like her mama does. Do you know what that tells me? That tells me that sweet D is going to be a jabberjaw when she grows up. Probably really opinionated and loud. JUST like her mom. :oD

I've also maintained that the reason why I always lose my voice when I get sick is because that's God's way of giving my friends and those closest to me - a break. :o)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Motormouth

D is now at that stage where she will try to get out of napping as often as possible. It is almost impossible to get her to go down for a nap if I just say, "Okay, it's time for a nap." While that's worked in the past for the longest time, now she just fights it. She will sit in her room, roll around on her bed, sing, talk whatever but she will not sleep.
Nowadays, if we try to get her to nap on her own she will cry and if tired enough, eventually will go to sleep. Now some might say that she might be over her naps. Well, yeah. I would be inclined to think so if she didn't always fall right asleep whenever we pack her up in the car to go someplace. So the scenario is we try to tell her to nap. She fights it, does whatever in her bedroom for maybe in hour. Well, since she is not napping then we decide to go do something else. Of course, if we just stay home for the rest of the afternoon or we go walking then of course, she's kept busy and will not fall asleep. But if we take a stroller or jump in the car, she is fast asleep.
Can you imagine how annoying that is? Here we are waiting for her to take her nap and then since she's "decided not to nap" we then decide to do something and then she falls asleep. No good.
So, she DOES need her nap, she just is trying to exercise her right to avoid them.
The funny thing is while I am driving her around, trying to get her to fall asleep, she is talking my ear off. She is asking questions about the day, she is singing and then today, she is even talking to herself and announcing that she is talking to herself. Funny, but also a little bit like, "D! STOP TALKING! RELAX so you can fall asleep." :o)

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Oh nooo I DI'ENT

Y'know, I attended the Waldorf Buttercup program in Nashville when we lived there and they are very against any kind of electronics. Computers and televisions are no good and iPhones, for shame! I kind of buy into that theory that all that stuff is bad for their overall development. I can't say how but I just buy into it and that's that.
Well...today G and I were extremely busy and D did a great job of just entertaining herself. She loves to crawl into little boxes and pretend like she is in a car going someplace.
Just as I was shutting down (due to guilt that I am not paying enough attention to my child), G comes up with a great idea - Hey! I found the Ni Hao Kai Lan DVD....should we put that in to buy us an hour?? Then you and I can both get some serious work done.
While I hesitated for a short moment cuz "TV is bad"...I could not ignore the ability to get some serious work done this morning! So, we plopped her in front of the TV. Might not have been for the full hour...I don't think. But it was brainless TV nonetheless.
Sigh. I feel terrible. But at least I got my work done.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Over NVC

I think I might be over Non-violent communication. Well to be honest, I did not even do any reading up on it and just tried to glean what I could from watching the teachers at D's school. Just a lot of finding out what these kids are feeling and getting them to use their words to express their feelings rather than acting out.
I mean, I was beginning to think that "time outs" weren't that great because it leaves the child feeling ostracized (?) Just seems like we should be able to "talk" things out.
But, seriously...what are you to say to a child who responds to "Why did you scratch daddy?" With, "Because I wanted to." Because a butterfly...
"D, why do you always reference a butterfly? What does that mean to you?"
D: "It goes 'ssssss'"

WHAAAT? Whatever man...

But also, I watched an interaction today between two children. One kid was chasing the other kid with a magnifying glass. The other kid being chased kept saying, "No, I don't like that. Don't chase me with that." (Perfect example of communication and moving away from said annoyance)
But the instigator kept chasing him. So a teacher intervened and was saying to instigator, "Hey, X, I here Y saying that he doesn't want to be chased by you with the magnifying glass." Instigator still trying to tap the other kid and really, smirking at the teacher. Finally the teacher just led him away to distract him. Was that useful? Was that helpful? I'm not so sure. Sure, the teacher did not resort to telling the kid what to do directly but wouldn't a simple, "Hey, X, please stop doing that to Y." have sufficed? Who needs to hear kids feelings anyway? Hahahah.