Apparently I haven't been finding the time to blog or to take many pictures lately, but while it feels like time is flying (it is the 9th already!!), I feel like I have really been enjoying (most) of my time with the kids.
Andrew is quite the challenge right now. He started throwing MASSIVE temper tantrums about 10 days ago. For nearly the first week, we stuck to our guns. "You can not whine and cry to get what you want. We are putting you in your happy chair and when you are ready to act like a big boy, you can come out of your room." Sounds great, right? WRONG. The fight ensued. Andrew would follow us out of the room screaming and crying. We would pick him up, put him back into his room and repeat (meanwhile inside our heads saying, don't let him break you...). This would go on for an hour at breakfast and dinner (and yes, lunch was at daycare). Finally, last Friday I spoke with the Center for Parenting the Young Child at Vanderbilt. Dana listened attentively to my stories about how and why the tantrums start and our approach to dealing with them. She said, "I am glad you are being consistent, but you are feeding into him. He is doing this for attention". Yes, I thought. I know that! She insists (and I am sure she is right) we have to ignore him as long as he is not hurting himself....I pose the question, "What do I do when he tries to climb me or hang on me?" She says go into your room and close him out. Its been a rough couple days....3 days to be exact....only 3 days and I think we are still at the it gets worse before it gets better stage. Tonight I ate my dinner locked in my room.
Honestly the kid can make my heart melt 2 minutes after its all over. Sometimes he even apologizes. Tonight he asked Samantha if she wanted her Hello Kitty watch. She politely said, "No, thank you". His response was, "But its beautiful". Then he ate his dinner and told me he was done crying and whining and that big boys don't cry and whine...hmmm.
Samantha is being a great sport with all of this. Really I think she realizes now its more fun to get positive attention than negative attention.
They really enjoyed their swim lessons this summer and we are having fun with them at the pool on Sunday afternoons. We keep wishing we could get there one more time during the week but its just very difficult to find the time. They are also enjoying their evening time in the den. Its been so terribly, terribly hot (indexes in the 105-110 range) that its not pleasant to be outdoors, so we dance and wrestle and play in the den after dinner each night. When it is cool enough to play outdoors, we are spending alot of time playing soccer (don't try to convince Andrew its a soccer ball...because you kick it with your foot...it must be a football) and trying, trying and trying to hit the wiffle ball. At one point this weekend, Andrew got so tired of trying to hit the ball I built him a T-ball stand with recycling materials. Samantha doesn't always want to play 'ball'. She would rather flutter around the yard and collect plant materials. She is also loving all the butterflies this year. They adore our lantana, so we spend alot of time in the front yard observing them. Samantha has also taken a liking to my camera (not sure I want her trying to carry it around just yet, but I do let her take a few pictures now and then).
Happy Birthday Uncle Joey!! Its my brother's 32nd birthday today. I cannot believe that. We are meeting (the siblings) in NC this weekend and then the gang will come to Franklin for a visit. We cannot wait. As long as he doesn't bring any watermelons to blow up, I think he and Andrew will get along just fine!
(Its lights out time here. I will post some pictures in the next post.)
Posts
