Monday, December 26, 2011

Sleeping with the Enemy

Hahaha! I thought that would be a clever title for this post. FINALLY, D has slept with us in bed!! Yes, after two years and ten months (well, not counting those weeks when she first came home and slept on me..) she finally slept with us!! I LOVED IT!! It was so sweet to have her sleeping between us. Her sweet little head nestled against my head. Then, when she switched positions, she held onto my hand as she slept. So dreaaamy.
I have always been very jealous of my friends who had early risers, but could pull the little tyke into their beds to gain maybe another hour of sleep. D would never do that. When she woke, she was awake. Don't try to stick her into our bed. She would have none of that. Everybody get up...
But last night, she was sick. She woke up at 4am saying she wanted out of her travel crib (she had been sleeping in her travel crib in our room so her cousins could stay in her room). So, I just unzipped her crib and left her to her own devices. Didn't care what she was going to do with herself because as far as I was concerned, she needed to be sleeping but to leave her in her crib zipped up would've meant her crying at the top of her lungs.
Lo and behold, I don't know what she was doing when she came out of her crib, but shortly thereafter, she crawled up into our bed and slept right by our heads. We got to sleep in until 7:30am!!! That was a blessing!! Hallelujah!! That was my xmas present. :oD

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Looking at you, looking at me

Oh, dear D....sometimes I look at you and the things that I can't stand about you...are from me.
Like, I hate that you get up SO EARLY in the morning!! Last weekend, I had posted on FB that I was up at 7am (before even), sitting on the couch reading a magazine and drinking tea. Bliss. But how did that come about?? Because you were not home! You were at Auntie A's for a sleepover.
I love waking up early...around 7 is good for me but I'll do 6:30. But you..YOU..insist on getting up around 6am (your clock is set for 6:15 which I have now changed to 6:30) but you rarely now stay in bed until then. Actually, lately you have been getting up around 5:45 and I want to D-I-E...
But I was always an early riser, still am but you beat me to it...I hate it.
And, I really don't like that you have such a terrible temper. Well, and I know you get that from me too because your father does not have a temper. Blah.
Sometimes I want to shake you and say, "Why can't you be more like your father??!!!"

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Acknowledging good behavior

We all know that we should be acknowledging good behavior right? As a reinforcer. I do that all the time when D shares her toys or if she says thank you and please.
But last night, D pointed out quite a few times that she was sitting nicely in her chair and not moving around.
See for the past few days, she had been acting so antsy and not wanting to sit in her chair and eat a proper breakfast/lunch/dinner whatever. She would move about, chew her food slowly. Aaargh! Basically, annoying me.
One morning I was really mad that she would not finish her breakfast. Later in the day, I got to thinking and really tried to re-adjust my attitude! Who cares if she doesn't finish her breakfast, maybe she wasn't hungry.
So my new tactic is to not force her to eat but make it a point to just say, "Are you full? You are done with dinner?" And if she nods, then fine. She's done. "You may leave the table." I was thinking that maybe she doesn't quite understand how to convey the fact that she just may be full and does not want to eat.
But interestingly enough, last night she was really being a good girl and sat and ate her dinner without jumping on and off her chair and she made it a point to tell me, "Am I sitting in my chair and not moving, mama?"
And I replied, "Yes!! You are! You are being so good!!!"
I think I read somewhere that we aren't supposed to relegate kids to good girl, bad girl references. Punish the deed, not the person? Or something? But obviously that part didn't stick with me because I can't, for the life of me, recall how you are supposed to reference good/bad deeds without saying, "Good girl or bad girl"....must be because I am a dog person at heart.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Ahh, peaceful bliss

Can you guess what's going on over here? D is away for the evening! Whoopeee!!!
Y'know, I was at my friend's house earlier this evening and her mother asked, "So, are you gonna miss D tonight?
You KNOW my reply, "No." Not one bit. I don't have co-dependency with my daughter. I don't have to be with her 24/7. It doesn't mean I don't love her. It just means that I appreciate my own space.
And, as I've posted before, being a mother to me is like looking in the mirror, being not quite satisfied with what I see and working hard to be better. Soooo, naturally I appreciate a breather once in a while! I know she is a great girl when she is around others. She is a doll and so well-behaved so I don't have to worry about what she's getting into. I also know that my sister ADORES D so I don't have to worry about her well-being. It would be sad if I didn't allow D to spend the night at her cousin's! She loooves H.
Everybody has to grow up sometime. And the fact that D just looked at me and said, "Buh-bye" this afternoon when I warned her that I was not going with her to Auntie A's reassured me that she wanted to be with A and H. :oD Whoohooo! Whooohoo!! More, please.