My baby just got bumped up to Junior Level in karate. She is 5 and will be able to join in with the 6-8 year olds. I'm really proud of her. The first class for her is in 20 minutes, I hope she does okay being the youngest in her class.
I am in the phase with Ry, DS#3, and he is worse than DS#1 or DS#2 ever were. I have been looking at other ways to deal with this before it extends past siblings and us parents.
I haven't read it, but a friend clued me in on a technique in Happiest Toddler on the Block that helps Ry define and speak his feelings instead of throwing, kicking, punching, hitting, etc. It's been working a little better in the last week. When DS gets mad, sad, frustrated, etc. I get right in his face and with the same level of emotion say, "You are MAD, MAD, MAD at your brother for not letting you in the room! MAD, MAD, MAD!" Then DS usually says, "I am MAD at brother for not letting me in the room!" instead of punching the door or attacking the other kids. I do it for frustration and sadness too - even if he's mad he's in timeout, I break the ignore kid in timeout rule and say, "Ry, you are MAD, MAD, MAD at me for putting you in timeout!" It seems to be working, but I also have that book on hold at the library to actually read about the technique, so I might be doing it all wrong.
ETA: And heyjude's suggestion of "Hands are not for hiring!" sounds like a CEP book. LOL at the autocorrect! That book is a good read, we have that also.
I've heard this suggestion before, and it makes sense to me - so I've tried it a couple of times with Shorti. She's such a contrary little bit when she's pissed off that she tells me that she's not mad. Like, "Shorti, you're MAD! that mama won't give you any juice!" and she yells back, "I'M NOT MAD."
*headdesk*
Then why are you screaming at me!!!!? was my automatic response. Which, yeah..not helpful. I think we need a book about feelings in general or something. I've tried pointing out when various characters are mad or sad or whatever. I'm sure it'll click eventually.
Yeah, this was a bad bad bad plan with Attitude Andrew. "You're MAD MAD MAD!!!" gets "UNH!!" and a swat at me and stomping off somewhere where he doesn't have to see my face. It's the surest way to piss him the fuck off.
I think HTOTB mentioned that some kids are sensitive to this kind of like they take it like it's mocking, which is for sure A's deal.
He also tells me he is calm when he's clearly not, but not actually hysterically crying at this split second.
It's all my temper too. Raising Your Spirited Child clued me in to how much we feed off each other, and how I need to work with him and keep myself under control. It was light on the attitude adjustment and manners though, so I've been working on 123 Magic too.
Anyways, sorry meshaliuknits I haven't had a lot of trouble with hitting, time outs did it for our mild case.
Can I share my parenting fail of the week? I signed up the wrong kid for a tonsillectomy. Well, right kid but wrong name. We had to switch doctors and at the consultation - which was pre-coffee after 5hrs of sleep - I apparently filled out the forms with the wrong name. So today the hospital calls me to give me last minute instructions and I get all indignant that they effed up which twin is getting surgery. They were appropriately horrified about the mixup. Then I realized all their other info was accurate, so it had to all have come from the forms I had just filled out. I should not be in charge of important things.
Post by 2curlydogs on Jul 20, 2015 20:02:20 GMT -5
So, I got home with S and we were first home. So we go out to the garden to pick a milkweed leaf. I was just going to drop it in the aquarium but then I looked and couldn't see the caterpillars. After some frantic searching I found two of them on the wall but couldn't find the 3rd - who was the smallest.
In the meantime S is trying to get all up on the table, pulling at the aquarium supplies, clinging to my leg, etc. I would have stopped but... the smallest is small enough to have gotten OUT. I hadn't thought to put the fine mesh on because, well, I didn't think they could climb that yet.
So I'm putting S off, not really paying attention save for when he's trying to smash things. I finally find the little guy on TOP of the large-holed grid. So then I'm trying to coax/prod him on the leaf without, you know, squishing him (he's roughly the size of a grain of rice).
I FINALLY get him on. Put the leaf in the aquarium. Put the large-holed cover on. Then I go to sit down....
And fall. Hard. Apparently S pushed my chair out of the way. I landed square on the small of my back and cracked my head hard against the wall.
Of course you know you have to put on a good face for the kids. So after a very small, gasping freak out (which freaked S out a bit), I proceeded to finish putting the fine mesh on top, secure it, cook dinner, feed two children and put them to bed (which is a process not without its own drama).
My back feels like it did after giving birth. You know? That completely bruised and battered feeling of having squished the fuck out of your colon by pushing/rolling a 8 lb bowling ball over it. I'm icing the hell out of it and having wine.
I got judged for the first time tonight about my parenting (at least to my face). DS is 8 weeks and has really bad reflux; my gut says it's a dairy allergy. I've been to 4 stores to find Similac Alimentum, but they were all OOS. So, after my kid vomiting up everything from his bedtime bottle and crying for over an hour, I ran to Wal-mart at 10pm out of desperation. As I'm walking by, some teenage girl says under her breath to her BF "who brings their baby to Wal-mart at 10 at night?"
Do I get my mommy wings now? I feel initiated.
Of course, after all that, DS fell asleep in the car and wouldn't take a bottle. Womp womp.
I got judged for the first time tonight about my parenting (at least to my face). DS is 8 weeks and has really bad reflux; my gut says it's a dairy allergy. I've been to 4 stores to find Similac Alimentum, but they were all OOS. So, after my kid vomiting up everything from his bedtime bottle and crying for over an hour, I ran to Wal-mart at 10pm out of desperation. As I'm walking by, some teenage girl says under her breath to her BF "who brings their baby to Wal-mart at 10 at night?"
Do I get my mommy wings now? I feel initiated.
Of course, after all that, DS fell asleep in the car and wouldn't take a bottle. Womp womp.
Lame! Sorry. Have you tried Nutramigen? My son is on it for diary intolerance and doing well! (He's 11m old now but switched at 5 weeks)
Lame! Sorry. Have you tried Nutramigen? My son is on it for diary intolerance and doing well! (He's 11m old now but switched at 5 weeks)
Not yet; this is the first one we tried. I'm really hoping I'm not right about this; I'm gonna cry if I have to throw away 250 oz of frozen breastmilk.
We earned our inaugural urgent care trip tonight for a split lip. I called my mom over to watch A just because we both kinda wanted to be there, esp if he needed stitches.
It turned out really nice to have two sets of hands, being that a toddler isn't easy to keep entertained for two hours, and the cell signal was bad, so YouTube was out (although we tried, and then he dropped my phone and cracked it). So now we know to grab toys or books or something. And Carl was able to absorb the instructions while I tried to keep J from hurting himself further.
No stitches. Cleaning it wasn't fun, but everyone survived. We were home with plenty of time for everyone to get a decent night's rest.
I kinda feel like we got a nice softball for our first of what I'm sure will be many urgent care/ER trips with these insane animals.
I know it's late, but I can't sleep. DD is beside me in bed and keeps talking to herself about colouring and her brother. It's pretty cute. H is sleeping in the spare room due to snoring. I don't mind sleeping with her since she is always pretty cuddly. I just wish I could get to sleep. I just feel sad about some issues, and it keeps me awake. I hate laying a wake at night just feeling sad and lovely.
On the bright side, I've found some antiques I'm going to be taking a look at tomorrow! I'm pretty excited about it!