Leia had a pretty hard week this week (which translated into a pretty hard week for Mom and Dad). Lots and lots and lots of whining! I would be a millionaire if I could bottle up the whining! (More on specific events in the Mom Chronicles Section Below.) Even Josh, who has been so uncharacteristically patient and calm thanks to our new Arbonne Healthy Eating Program, finally lost his cool with her behavior, but then he came up with a great plan. He set up a sticker chart, and if she can act like a big girl, without whining, for 30 days, she can earn a big girl bed. We are definitely seeing some improvement, and a lot of effort, after implementing the plan. One morning it was pretty cool because even though it was a work morning, and I was trying to get out of the house, I felt like we had a few minutes to spare for hanging out, so Leia and I were having a great morning. Then we got Arwyn up. Leia got really jealous and flipped her internal switch. She started being mean to Arwyn for no reason, causing me to have to give more attention to Arwyn to make her feel better. Finally I just looked at Leia and explained the situation: “I see that you are wanting my attention, but when you do mean things to Arwyn, then I just have to give her more attention. If you want my attention you should try to be nice to Arwyn and not make her cry, then I’ll have more time for you.” And that was it. A few minutes later I could see her brain wheels turning, and she just gave Arwyn the object they’d been fighting about, everyone calmed down, and Leia got more positive attention from me. Yay, I love it when the psychology works the way it’s supposed to! And the next day when things started to go downhill again and Leia was getting frustrated, she just stopped and told me that she needed some attention. Of course we were still in a hurry to get out of the house, but I acknowledged her needs and rewarded her calm actions, so I think it had the needed effect. We also had a hassle one morning with sunscreen because she always wants to put it off and do it on her terms, but then it got forgotten in the rush and she almost lost her treat privileges Again I acknowledged her desire to do it on her terms, but explained my need to be efficient on these rushed mornings. She’s been much more cooperative since! I like to think we are making progress but I’m sure we’ll probably fall off the wagon again soon, but I’ll keep taking these small victories.
Arwyn has actually had a pretty good week. It gives her a lot of satisfaction to see Leia struggling with behavior, and to be able to point out that she herself is cooperating while Leia is not. She really loves her classroom and demonstrates a lot of pride each morning when she shows me all the cool “stations” that they do in her classroom. I have noticed recently that Mommy Time as switched from being a "bonus activity" when I bring it up, to being something she’s requesting every morning when she wakes up now. Unfortunately I can’t really give her the time on work mornings, but luckily the 45 seconds it takes to put her in my lap and read the little Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme book seems to satisfy her. She's been frustrating me with her need to pick her clothes coupled with her inability to move along and do the job efficiently on these rushed work mornings. It's so hard to remain calm when slow people are making you late! Leia and Arwyn are always bugging me to let them nap together, and in a weak and experimental moment, I finally said they could try. Unfortunately they proved that they could NOT sleep together, and then Arwyn couldn’t sleep alone in Leia’s room, and in the end couldn’t sleep in our room either! She had her first no nap day! (Of course, it also didn’t help that she fell asleep in the car, and Poppy ended up waking her up to pee instead of putting her straight to bed. Oh well, lesson learned.) Arwyn has been doing lots of fighting with Leia about toys, and I’m tired of dealing with it, so I’ve been letting them fight it out themselves more. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before Arwyn will be in a place where she can problem solve a little better so the two of them can work these things out more calmly. We had a really fun day sledding with Emmett and Aunt Stacia this weekend. Unfortunately Arwyn hit a bump and flipped her sled one run, ending up with a bloody nose. But she impressed me so much because after just one more sled run with me, she was ready to get back on the horse and do it by herself again. Go Arwyn!
Mom Chronicles
I went to pick the girls up from school last Friday, and Leia decided that she wanted to eat at McDonalds for dinner. She proceeded to have a full meltdown tantrum when I said not tonight. She tried every excuse in the books, telling me in tears that she hasn’t been in so long and she’d been so tired all day that she had to miss the special treats that the other kids got because she was too tired, and something else happened as well, so she needed to eat McDonald’s in the car so she could go straight to bed when she got home. Otherwise she’d be too tired to ski tomorrow. She was not interested in compromising and going for lunch the next day when Poppy would be taking her out anyway, it had to be now. She screamed the whole way home as well, after having delayed us at least 10-15 minutes for screaming at school. We called ahead so Josh would have dinner ready, so she could eat and go right to bed, and I even let her pick the dinner menu, but nothing made her stop screaming. I don’t even remember how she calmed down in the end, but when she did, and she’d gotten settled and I tried to help her get right to bed since she was so tired, she just said she wasn’t tired at all anymore! Hmm, amazing how someone can stop being tired when it doesn't suit their needs. The next morning she was super whiny, rude, demanding, uncooperative, and obstinate again, to the point where I completely exploded (it didn’t help that I hadn’t gotten enough sleep and was stressed about getting to swim class on time in snowy weather). She was acting so awful that I wanted to just lock her in the car and leave her, but after I screamed my lungs out across the parking lot and calmed down, I did let her out. It was so emotionally exhausting, and I was so mad at myself for handling it so poorly, that I really felt like I got hit by a Mac truck for the rest of the day! I guess the good news is that I don't have a Mom Chronicle every day, so I must be doing something right most of the time.
Leia created a special toilet in her room for Teddy Beddy, complete with a special little roller ball but wiper. She's so creative!
And she was annoyed that Teddy Beddy only had a single pair of PJ's and no other clothes, so we have started a little sewing project to make a shirt and pants for him during our Mommy Time.
We have been so impressed with all our beautiful and delicious Arbonne approved dinners these days...this was Chicken Cacciatore on Spaghetti Squash. Yum!
Arwyn's is turning into a little performer these days. She's never actually taken yoga or modern dance, but they both seem to provide her with inspiration!
Arwyn learning the Breast Stroke.
Arwyn is really getting her kicking down at her swim lessons!
Poppy took the girls for haircuts with Stephanie today!
Leia had to take her itchy pants off mid-haircut...too much crawling around on the hairy floor?
Happy girl with her special post-haircut Stephanie braid.
It's officially a tradition, she can't have a haircut without a braid. And who could blame her, it's gorgeous!
Arwyn's hair looking so neat and clean after her cut and special blow-dry!
Watch out for this girl and her light saber!
These little tricksters thought they were so sneaky, hiding behind the stairs instead of coming up for nap. Busted!
So excited to sleep next to each other in Grandma's room. Too excited to even sleep, in fact!
Aunt Stacia and Emmett sent us these fun pics of their sledding day. We decided we had better go join them!
I think Emmett likes to sled!
Fun retirement party for Julia Mancuso!
Getting snuggly in the tight fitting sled!
Cutest Arbonne delivery service ever!
Fun morning sledding with Cousin Emmett!
Arwyn was such a big girl to head down all by herself!
A little bloody nose and a little shaken up after a big crash...
...but that didn't stop this tough girl from getting right back onto the horse! And face first no less!
I have been begging Leia to go sledding for weeks. She finally agreed, and of course had a blast!
Fresh snow makes for great sledding! After watching a video of Emmett from the day before, I finally got the girls to go, and they had a blast. And everyone was so brave, despite a big crash!
Fun experimenting with DIY hair accessories!
Leia likes "doing" my hair. It will be fun when she can actually do cool things to my hair!
A little harder with Arwyn's fine hair, but we got it!
One hair clip is never enough, you need at least 10!
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