Around the Bend

Emily's interest in trains has led to a new route home. For the past few months she has asked to "go around the bend." That means instead of turning down Radio Flyer, we continue on Norris which curves around the neighborhood and eventually meets up with Rain Check Drive. :)

Her reason - apparently Gordon (her name for the Honda)likes to stay on the "main line" as long as possible before taking the branch line to Rain Check Station. :)

Underwater Madison

Today Madison went swimming for only the 2nd time. She didn't think much of the experience. I guess to her it's like sitting in a giant wet diaper.

Emily is still has a lot of anxiety about swimming and in particular, going under the water. We thought if Maddy did it, perhaps Emily might be a little more motivated. Sondra used a technique she learned at Emily's swim class to get Maddy to hold her breath. She blew on her face and put her under and very quickly brought her back up. Madison seemed unfazed by it.

Emily just laughed and said, "put Madison under the water again!"

Emily Makes Stew for Dinner

Emily has real pots and pans that she has used since she was very young to use to "pretend" to help Sondra cook. Recently, while Sondra was cooking dinner, she began using her play food to make "stew" for us to eat.

...and just what does the 3-year old put in her stew???

The recipe
2 eggs
bacon
peas
whole green pepper
whole tomato
tomato wedge
corn - still on the cobb
lettuce
whole orange
orange wedge
whole strawberry
french fries with ketchup
chocolate covered glazed donut.

Stir ingredients into pan on kitchen floor. Feed to trains.

Emily later commented "Sometimes it's just ok to eat donuts for dinner."

No Kisses? A Solution

Emily's refusal to give me hugs and kisses has expanded to any time except bedtime. This has forced me to get creative.

Previously:

Papa- "Emily, I'm leaving. I need a hug and kiss."

Emily- (turning her head, throwing her body to the ground or running away)"NO" or "NO HUGS AND KISSES!!!"

Papa- "How about a handshake instead?"

Emily will then shake my hand and smile. This was fun for a short spell but not affectionate.

One day when I leaned in to kiss her, before she could run away or drop to the floor, our eyes crosses. That inspired this.

Emily- "NO HUGS and KISSES!"

Papa- "How about and eye cross?"

Emily giggled and agreed so I expanded it to what has now become...

The Eye Cross, Eskimo Kiss, Head Butt :)

Yes, now every time we part ways we get eye to eye, rub our noses and bump our heads. It's really a lot of fun and though it may sound funny, it's very affectionate and a bonding activity for us. I guess you have to know Emily to understand :)

Quoatable

Emily - "I gave mommy a time out!"

Papa - "Why, what did she do?"

Emily - "She beat me."


I always emphasize the importance of context to my students. Case in point, Sondra beat her in a race to the back bedroom and Emily was pouting. We got a good laugh out this one. :)

Good Manners

Today I finished writing a book to teach Emily the importance of using good manners. The story is called "Good Manners Gordon" and it follows her favorite character (obsession) from Thomas and Friends as he learns the importance of manners.

I wrote the story rather easily. I don't consider myself the most creative person in the world but I have seen so many Thomas episodes and read so many books that it was almost natural. I scanned pictures from her other books and even posed her toy trains for a picture or two to complete my little 7 page book.

The real test will come when I read it to Emily for the first time. My hope is that she simply enjoys the story.



update - Emily loved the story. She sat straight up in bed to hear about how Gordon got his manners. :)

update- Emily wanted to hear the story again after nap, then bedtime and the story slept on her night stand. She also, out of the blue, said "Thank you" to my mom for some clothes she bought her. Coincidence, maybe, maybe not. She giggles and talks about "Grumpy Gordon" which is what I call him in the story.

The Bite

This has been a hard one to write.

Saturday night Emily and Madison were happily playing on the family room floor giggling and laughing with each other. Then I heard a blood curling scream and turn to see Emily drop Madison's arm.

I had never heard such a cry for help. Madison's scream reminded me of the scream I heard during a newscast when an audio clip played of a young boy who had a firecracker go off in his hand.

Sondra and I ran to both girls. Madison looked ok at first. I asked Emily what she had done. Madison doesn't cry like that for no reason. Before Emily could answer, Sondra turned Madison's hand over to see a fierce bite mark on her hand. The mark was deep but skin was not broken.

Madison cried for what felt like an eternity and her hand was sore the rest of the evening. The bite mark stayed on her hand for 2 and a half days!

For Emily's part it was hard to determine a motive. She may have simply been curious or she may have been acting out. Regardless, part of her punishment was that she had to say "sorry" to Madison. This was very hard for her. There were several failed attempts (we insisted that she look right at Madison when she said it). Emily was made to stay in her room until she made a sincere apology.

She may have lasted the entire night but thankfully it was poker night. That meant Tony and Alice would be bringing their girls to play. Missing playtime was an extra motivator for Emily.

A couple of hours later Sondra was rocking Madison to sleep when she heard Emily yelling in the next room "I didn't mean to do it!" Sondra then took Madison next door and Emily made a very sincere apology. She took Madison's cheeks in her hands, looked her right in the eye and said sorry. They have been back to giggling and playing ever since.

1st Foods

Madison ate carrots for the first time last night :)

Reward

Today I took Emily out by myself for a well deserved reward trip as she is mastering the art of potty training.

First we went to Target, her most favorite store in the world. Why? Because the trains live there of course and her reward was a new train. She wavered on what to buy. She was set on getting Arthur but once we arrived she decided she wanted Murdock,

No, wait, Maivis

No, wait, Culdee

No, wait, You get the idea

Finally, we happened across a version of James that had bees painted on him. The train went with the story "James Goes Buzz Buzz." Emily loves that story so James it was.

After picking a train, I let Emily pick Sondra's birthday card. She picked a great one based on the puppet on the front who was blue. Then I tried to get her to pick some scrapbooking stickers for mommy, but nothing caught her attention.

We ate lunch at Wendy's which is Emily's favorite because of the kid's frosty that comes with her meal. We ate healthy, both having sandwiches. She also had yogurt and I had baked lays. Aside from the frosty it was as healthy a meal as we might have had at home.

As Emily smiled at me while eating, I remember thinking about how blessed I am to be living this moment in my life. We laughed, talked and shared our food with each other. It was great fun.

When we were ready to leave I gathered our trash on the tray. I told Emily to follow me to the trash can. She wanted to be carried. I explained and showed her how my hands would be full and the power struggle began. Picture if you will Emily standing at the edge of the table, arms at her side, still as a rock. I gave her no choice in the matter but when I began to leave, she just stood there. As I rounded the corner to the trash can and looked back, she just grinned at me.

Now most parents who have a child with any sort of will have been in this situation. Let's remember for a second that Emily is 3 and those who know her will attest to her stubborn will. By now, we have the attention of the tables near us. Two moms with children are paying especially close attention (perhaps they've been through this). Most parents in my situation would simply pick up their child to avoid a scene.

Not me.

I sat on the bench and explained to Emily that even though my hands were now empty that she was going to hold my hand a walk out because that's what Papa told her to do and she must do what I say. She would not take my hand when I stood up. I looked down at her and calmly told her that we are going now. I took her hand and started to walk to the door. She took 2 steps and started screaming "NO!, NO PAPA!" Emily started to drag her feet so I dragged her out of Wendys. Once outside the door she suddenly found the ability to walk. Isn't she a smart one? :)

Having just received a new toy, I told her that the Buzz Buzz James was going to be taken away but she would have a chance to earn it back. We still had to buy Sondra a birthday gift, and that meant one more store. With the Emily meltdown in full effect, I knew that she would have to work hard to behave.

Ultimately, the goal of any punishment is to get the child to use a replacement behavior. Emily did just that. She held my hand throughout the store and was a great shopper. We didn't have any luck finding a gift so we got mommy a gift card (which was on her list and she insisted was ok).

Sick Little Emily

Emily was very sick on Thursday of this week. It just so happened that Sondra was away so I had the girls to myself.

The number one sign that Emily is sick is anytime she comes up to me and as I kneel down, she leans in and says that all she wants to do is cuddle. When she did this Thursday my hand immediately went to her head and sure enough, she was hot. She had had a low grade fever the day before in the 101 range. That fever had broken so I was surprised that she was feverish again.

I laid Emily on the couch and sat on the floor next to her. I put a cold cloth on her forehead and gave her plenty of water. Her fever continued to rise. When it hit 104 I told her it was time for medicine. She's sick, but the stubbornness is a creature of it's own who's ugly head reared itself screaming "NO Medicine!" When I returned with the tiny cup of liquid motrin her hand were vice locked over her mouth. I tried everything to calm her down without luck. I tried to move her hands without being too rough, no luck. She was so worked up that I decided to check her temp again. It had shot to 105! I knew I had to do something so my next genius idea was to put the medicine in an infant syringe. I moved one hand and squirted a little into her mouth, she spit it out (shocking). I tried again and this time she swallowed it only to begin vomiting violently.

So now I have Emily in all her wrath at 105 covered in vomit. Did I mention that I also have Madison who is a sympathy crier? I immediately put Emily in a cool bath. She preferred it to taking medicine but a cool bath is only a temporary fix. Her temp dropped to 102 so I laid her on the clean couch and she instantly fell asleep.

Then I had my epiphany. I mixed the medicine into a small amount of vanilla ice cream and Emily gobbled it up. Soon the fever was down around 100 and I could tend to a hungry Madison.

A side note to this is how great and supportive Madison was. She was very patient even when I knew she had to be very hungry, bored, etc. I had to devote so much of my attention to Emily and Madison made it easier to do. Some days it's challenging to watch both girls at the same time. When one of them is sick, and Sondra is just around the corner, the easy thing to do would be to pick up the phone and call Sondra to come help. I was determined not to do that and didn't because I had Madison's help. :)

Fever or not, the baby still has to eat and cannot feed herself. She did cry and fuss at one point, but who blames her? With Emily's fever dropping she fell asleep. So I ran to feed the baby. I fed her while staring at Emily the entire time. It felt like a long feeding but I'm sure it wasn't. I checked Emily's temperature expeting the drop to have continued. When I checked after feeding Mady, her temp was 105.7!!! and it was still 2 hours before she was due for more medication.

Back to the cool bath for us. This time, Emily cried on the way, cried in the tub, but was too weak to fight it. Perhaps it actually felt good or perhaps all the tantrums thoughout the morning had drained her. This time the bath only dropped her to 103 so I dropped the entire house temp to 74 and made sure she stayed cool. Her temp never jumped to 105 again.

The rest of the day is a blur. Sondra was gone until about 8pm. By the time she came home, Emily's temp had dropped to around 100 and was continuing to drop. What makes this illness so strange is that there were no other symptoms. A few days later, Sondra noticed some red spots and determined that she had roseola. Madison has yet to get sick and our fingers are staying crossed.