When Ella got home from school today, she seemed a little bit off and I could tell that she wasn't 100% happy about something, but she said she was fine and had a good day. Alyssa and Chaka were both here, so I couldn't immediately get to the bottom of it, but I figured I'd talk to Ella once I was done working.
In a completely unprecedented event, she fell asleep on the couch around 4:10 pm. I woke her up at 4:30 to see if she was feeling sick or what was wrong. She was hard to wake up, and said she didn't feel good, but couldn't say what was wrong (wasn't her throat, wasn't her stomach, she didn't have a fever).
It was our night to bring the snack for her Daisy troop meeting, so I said let's go pick up snack at the store and if she didn't feel up to the meeting, we'd just drop snack off and come back home. I was thinking that she'd want to go to Daisies, especially after picking up all the ingredients for strawberry shortcakes, but she still seemed to feel very unwell and we just dropped snack off at the girl scout house before the meeting started.
We came home and I got her showered and while dinner was cooking (which I figured she'd be too sick to eat), we were sitting in the playroom talking. All of a sudden she said to me "When you were little did you ever get in trouble on the bus?" ... I asked her if she got in trouble on the bus today, and then it all came out. She had talked back to her bus driver in the afternoon (he is incredibly sweet, super nice guy, Ella sits right behind him and really likes talking to him), and was feeling so guilty about it.
We talked about what she could've done instead, and what she can do next time to make sure it doesn't happen again. While we talked, it was like she had a miraculous recovery - she became chatty and talkative and I could see her starting to feel better.
It was quite a thing to observe, and by the time I put her to bed tonight, she was completely back to her normal happy self. It could be a complete coincidence but seems to be a case of a heavy conscience taking a physical toll. Yikes!
Showing posts with label yikes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yikes. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Monday, March 11, 2013
Toy Closet Stand-Off
Although our house is truly wonderful in almost every way, one downside is that we are really short on storage space for Ella's toys downstairs. Her playroom is very open and so I don't like it to be too cluttered with toys when she's not playing with them. We have a big hall closet that is a built-out space under the stairs (with a very low ceiling), and so we've turned this closet into her toy closet as we don't need very much space for coats, and it's been a great solution to not have toys scattered all over the downstairs.
We are pretty good about getting her to clean up the playroom because she can see the mess, knows it needs to be done, and is reasonably good at cleaning it up. But the closet is a different story because it's an enclosed area, not as easy to clean up, plus she can just shut the door and call it a day. She also piles her toys in there when she's cleaning up her playroom. So, the past several weeks, the closet has been getting messier and messier. I had repeatedly told her we needed to clean it out but she had no desire and really I didn't either, so didn't push the issue.
Well, last week I finally hit my limit when I saw her coming out of the closet while standing on / walking over her toys! We had a big talk about taking care of her toys and I said we were going to clean it out by the end of the weekend. We had a really busy weekend and finally had some free time after dinner on Sunday night. I asked her if she was ready to clean it and she said no; I told her that was fine, but all of the toys in the closet were going to be off-limits until she was ready to clean it out. She said sure and didn't really seem to care.
The next night we were playing in the playroom and she said she needed to get something else and headed over to the closet - I said "are you ready to clean it out so you can play with the toys in there?" You would've thought the door knob was covered in fire because she quickly dropped her hand, did an about-face, and headed right back into the playroom.
Since she has her new swing set, she's been playing outside every day anyway, so after whatever cost-benefit analysis she ran in her head, she decided that for the time being, she could live without all of the toys in her closet. Neither one of us brought it up again all week, she just stopped going to it and seemed perfectly content to play with what was in her playroom and outside.
I was sort of in a predicament because I really wanted to get it cleaned up, but had given her the 'choice' and so I decided I had to stick it out. She has been asking to have a friend come over and play on her new swing set with her, and so we set up a play date on Sunday afternoon for our friends to come over. I reminded Ella on Saturday morning that her toy closet was off-limits and would be for her play date the next day too, unless we cleaned it up first. She said no problem because they were just going to play outside anyway. She played outside for hours on Saturday as happy as can be, with no need for her closet full of toys. Sigh...
Well, I finally got my break. We woke up Sunday morning to a lot of rain and completely gray sky, plus the time change made it darker than usual. She opened up her blinds, looked outside for a few minutes, and asked if Caleb could still come over if it rained. I said of course he could, we'd just have to stay inside instead. She was quiet and I could see the little wheels turning in her head.
During breakfast she said the words that were music to my ears -- "After breakfast we better clean out my toy closet!" And so we did. We got the whole thing cleaned out and cleaned out all the bins in the playroom while we were at it. She lost interest about half-way though and ended up mostly watching me finish it up, but I'll take it. She was really happy with the result and glad to have earned back all of her toys. And I am so glad to have it cleaned out and looking so nice again. All's well that ends well. And thank God for a rainy morning yesterday!
We are pretty good about getting her to clean up the playroom because she can see the mess, knows it needs to be done, and is reasonably good at cleaning it up. But the closet is a different story because it's an enclosed area, not as easy to clean up, plus she can just shut the door and call it a day. She also piles her toys in there when she's cleaning up her playroom. So, the past several weeks, the closet has been getting messier and messier. I had repeatedly told her we needed to clean it out but she had no desire and really I didn't either, so didn't push the issue.
Well, last week I finally hit my limit when I saw her coming out of the closet while standing on / walking over her toys! We had a big talk about taking care of her toys and I said we were going to clean it out by the end of the weekend. We had a really busy weekend and finally had some free time after dinner on Sunday night. I asked her if she was ready to clean it and she said no; I told her that was fine, but all of the toys in the closet were going to be off-limits until she was ready to clean it out. She said sure and didn't really seem to care.
The next night we were playing in the playroom and she said she needed to get something else and headed over to the closet - I said "are you ready to clean it out so you can play with the toys in there?" You would've thought the door knob was covered in fire because she quickly dropped her hand, did an about-face, and headed right back into the playroom.
Since she has her new swing set, she's been playing outside every day anyway, so after whatever cost-benefit analysis she ran in her head, she decided that for the time being, she could live without all of the toys in her closet. Neither one of us brought it up again all week, she just stopped going to it and seemed perfectly content to play with what was in her playroom and outside.
I was sort of in a predicament because I really wanted to get it cleaned up, but had given her the 'choice' and so I decided I had to stick it out. She has been asking to have a friend come over and play on her new swing set with her, and so we set up a play date on Sunday afternoon for our friends to come over. I reminded Ella on Saturday morning that her toy closet was off-limits and would be for her play date the next day too, unless we cleaned it up first. She said no problem because they were just going to play outside anyway. She played outside for hours on Saturday as happy as can be, with no need for her closet full of toys. Sigh...
Well, I finally got my break. We woke up Sunday morning to a lot of rain and completely gray sky, plus the time change made it darker than usual. She opened up her blinds, looked outside for a few minutes, and asked if Caleb could still come over if it rained. I said of course he could, we'd just have to stay inside instead. She was quiet and I could see the little wheels turning in her head.
During breakfast she said the words that were music to my ears -- "After breakfast we better clean out my toy closet!" And so we did. We got the whole thing cleaned out and cleaned out all the bins in the playroom while we were at it. She lost interest about half-way though and ended up mostly watching me finish it up, but I'll take it. She was really happy with the result and glad to have earned back all of her toys. And I am so glad to have it cleaned out and looking so nice again. All's well that ends well. And thank God for a rainy morning yesterday!
Friday, August 26, 2011
Birthday Grinch
Lately Ella has proven to be quite the stingy lady when it comes to gifts for her friends that are turning 4. If it's a gift for someone younger or older than her, she's just fine, but if it's for a friend her age, and something she'd like to have herself - well, forget it!
Several weeks ago, we were shopping for a birthday gift for her friend's party, and every suggestion I made, she said no. All Ella wanted to get her was a pizza party set, which she has and really likes, so I figured ok, no big deal, she just wanted to stick with something tried and true that she knew would be a hit.
For the next party, same thing - all she would agree to was pizza party! I suggested some really neat things and finally realized what was going on when she said SHE'd like them, but her friend would not. Hmmm.
Last weekend, I had to get gifts for 2 birthday parties. Steve took Ella to one store, and I went by myself to Target and figured that on my own I'd finally be free to buy something other than pizza party! I got a Cars (the movie) atlas game and a Princess beauty parlor set. Steve and Ella picked me up at the curb and as I got in Ella said immediately "what's that Cars toy in your bag?" (how she spotted this is beyond me) - I told her it was Spencer's gift. She told me 'oh, Spencer doesn't like Cars. Let me see it." I gave it to her to look at and told her that I do think Spencer really likes Cars, because I've heard him talk about it before. She repeatedly said he wouldn't like that toy, but SHE would like it. Then, I really couldn't believe it when she said "You need to go buy Pizza Party for Spencer's birthday and I'll keep this!" (BTW: the theme of Spencer's party? Yup, Cars!)
I purposely didn't show or mention the Princess beauty parlor set, because I didn't want to have a whole week of Ella asking if she could have it. Well, she found it anyway and of course said she had to have it and told me that if I just gave that one to her, we could go get Maddie another one for her birthday. She's always got the answers! Glenn came this week and took Ella shopping to pick out a toy for a special treat ...and, what did she pick? The princess beauty parlor set! According to both Glenn and Ella, she absolutely zeroed in on it and had her mind made up that was what she needed.
I see we have a long way to go in conveying the spirit of giving gifts. Yikes!!
Several weeks ago, we were shopping for a birthday gift for her friend's party, and every suggestion I made, she said no. All Ella wanted to get her was a pizza party set, which she has and really likes, so I figured ok, no big deal, she just wanted to stick with something tried and true that she knew would be a hit.
For the next party, same thing - all she would agree to was pizza party! I suggested some really neat things and finally realized what was going on when she said SHE'd like them, but her friend would not. Hmmm.
Last weekend, I had to get gifts for 2 birthday parties. Steve took Ella to one store, and I went by myself to Target and figured that on my own I'd finally be free to buy something other than pizza party! I got a Cars (the movie) atlas game and a Princess beauty parlor set. Steve and Ella picked me up at the curb and as I got in Ella said immediately "what's that Cars toy in your bag?" (how she spotted this is beyond me) - I told her it was Spencer's gift. She told me 'oh, Spencer doesn't like Cars. Let me see it." I gave it to her to look at and told her that I do think Spencer really likes Cars, because I've heard him talk about it before. She repeatedly said he wouldn't like that toy, but SHE would like it. Then, I really couldn't believe it when she said "You need to go buy Pizza Party for Spencer's birthday and I'll keep this!" (BTW: the theme of Spencer's party? Yup, Cars!)
I purposely didn't show or mention the Princess beauty parlor set, because I didn't want to have a whole week of Ella asking if she could have it. Well, she found it anyway and of course said she had to have it and told me that if I just gave that one to her, we could go get Maddie another one for her birthday. She's always got the answers! Glenn came this week and took Ella shopping to pick out a toy for a special treat ...and, what did she pick? The princess beauty parlor set! According to both Glenn and Ella, she absolutely zeroed in on it and had her mind made up that was what she needed.
I see we have a long way to go in conveying the spirit of giving gifts. Yikes!!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Tornado
We had bad storms predicted for this past Saturday afternoon, but had no idea how bad they would turn out to be. It was predicted to be a really rainy day with bad thunderstorms in the afternoon. Ella and I ran a few errands in the morning and it was really windy and a little drizzly, but that was it. We went home for a little while, and then the three of us went to the mall and out to lunch, and got home a little after 3pm, the rain hadn't started yet but seemed imminent. Cory was acting really nervous and we could tell the storm was very close, so I took Cory and Ella for a quick walk before, what we were expecting, would be a full afternoon/evening of rain.
We had only been walking about a minute or so when the thunder started, so we turned around ASAP and went back inside. Steve and I were attempting to put Ella down for a nap when it really started to rain and got very windy. The amount of thunder was pretty notable, it was just thunder upon thunder upon thunder. Steve tried to turn the TV on but the satellite signal was lost, so unfortunately we had no idea a tornado was on the way. We watched a lot of the storm from Ella's window, which is at the back of our house. It rained very hard and what was really odd that we noticed, was that at one point, the rain seemed to be coming from all directions at once - it was pounding on the side of the house, swirling away from the house, trees were blowing, all at once. Our power went out and the storm passed, and we figured that was the end of it, just another big spring thunderstorm, and that our power would be back on quickly.
It was hours later before we started to learn the extent of what happened, and a few days before we fully knew. In all, there were about 25 different tornadoes that came through central NC between 2:30 and 5:00 pm. In our area, the tornado traveled from Sanford, where it destroyed a Lowe's store as well as a lot of other damage. It entered Holly Springs from the southwest, and crossed the main road about a quarter-mile from our house, went through the neighborhood behind ours, and then continued through other parts of the town.
It is pretty unbelievable that we were less than 2 minutes away from its path, and had no idea a tornado came through. I think we would have had a better idea if we'd looked out our front windows, since that was facing the direction of the tornado, instead of the back of our house, which was where we'd been.
I did not take any of these pictures, I copied them off our local news site. All of them were taken within a 3 minute distance (in the car) from of our house -
In our town there are houses destroyed and damaged, many trees downed, and power out for extended periods of time, but thankfully no one was killed or seriously injured. After the tornado left Holly Springs, it traveled into Raleigh where it got even stronger. Tragically it caused several deaths, the saddest story being a family that lost 4 children when a tree came through their mobile home; 3 were killed instantly and the 4th, a baby, died a few days later. It is just heartbreaking to imagine the mother, in a closet trying to protect her children and nieces/nephews, and a tree came crashing through where they were.
Our town has worked very hard and cleaned up so much since the weekend, but driving around town, there is still a lot of damage evident. There are cars with trees on top of them, giant trees with roots uprooted, piles of debris. It is crazy to see homes with blue tarps over a missing roof and then right next door, a house with no damage at all. The power company said that the reason it took so long to restore power was because when they would get to the areas to fix the structures, the structures themselves were completely gone, so they had to rebuild them from scratch.
We were so fortunate. A few things were tossed around our yard, but we had zero damage. Several weeks ago a big storm puled apart a piece of our fence, and Steve fixed it and reinforced it from both the inside and outside. Amazingly, the fence survived perfectly. We spent the first night at a friend's house and then the second night at Mom and Glenn's, so we really didn't even go without power for more than a few hours at a time when we were at our house. Our power came back on Monday evening.
I am very grateful for several things from this experience - I know we are fortunate that we got home when we did - had we been even 15 minutes later we may have been on the road caught up in the storm. We were less than prepared since we didn't even realize a tornado was coming and were standing at the window on our second floor watching the storm (eek!), and we are lucky that didn't end up turning into trouble (and lesson learned for future, as we had falsely assumed we had a tornado siren system). We had a place to stay both nights with power and hot water, and were even able to save everything in our freezer.
Unfortunately there are many people who did not fare as well as we did, and my heart goes out to everyone who is still suffering the consequences of the tornadoes. I have heard several people say that they haven't seen anything like this in the area since Hurricane Fran in the late 1990s, which was much worse. Saddest of all are those who lost loved ones or lost everything they owned, and are now left with needing to rebuild their lives. I am very grateful this was not a life-altering experience for us, as it has been for many, but am still certain it is an experience I will not soon forget.
We had only been walking about a minute or so when the thunder started, so we turned around ASAP and went back inside. Steve and I were attempting to put Ella down for a nap when it really started to rain and got very windy. The amount of thunder was pretty notable, it was just thunder upon thunder upon thunder. Steve tried to turn the TV on but the satellite signal was lost, so unfortunately we had no idea a tornado was on the way. We watched a lot of the storm from Ella's window, which is at the back of our house. It rained very hard and what was really odd that we noticed, was that at one point, the rain seemed to be coming from all directions at once - it was pounding on the side of the house, swirling away from the house, trees were blowing, all at once. Our power went out and the storm passed, and we figured that was the end of it, just another big spring thunderstorm, and that our power would be back on quickly.
It was hours later before we started to learn the extent of what happened, and a few days before we fully knew. In all, there were about 25 different tornadoes that came through central NC between 2:30 and 5:00 pm. In our area, the tornado traveled from Sanford, where it destroyed a Lowe's store as well as a lot of other damage. It entered Holly Springs from the southwest, and crossed the main road about a quarter-mile from our house, went through the neighborhood behind ours, and then continued through other parts of the town.
It is pretty unbelievable that we were less than 2 minutes away from its path, and had no idea a tornado came through. I think we would have had a better idea if we'd looked out our front windows, since that was facing the direction of the tornado, instead of the back of our house, which was where we'd been.
I did not take any of these pictures, I copied them off our local news site. All of them were taken within a 3 minute distance (in the car) from of our house -
In our town there are houses destroyed and damaged, many trees downed, and power out for extended periods of time, but thankfully no one was killed or seriously injured. After the tornado left Holly Springs, it traveled into Raleigh where it got even stronger. Tragically it caused several deaths, the saddest story being a family that lost 4 children when a tree came through their mobile home; 3 were killed instantly and the 4th, a baby, died a few days later. It is just heartbreaking to imagine the mother, in a closet trying to protect her children and nieces/nephews, and a tree came crashing through where they were.
Our town has worked very hard and cleaned up so much since the weekend, but driving around town, there is still a lot of damage evident. There are cars with trees on top of them, giant trees with roots uprooted, piles of debris. It is crazy to see homes with blue tarps over a missing roof and then right next door, a house with no damage at all. The power company said that the reason it took so long to restore power was because when they would get to the areas to fix the structures, the structures themselves were completely gone, so they had to rebuild them from scratch.
We were so fortunate. A few things were tossed around our yard, but we had zero damage. Several weeks ago a big storm puled apart a piece of our fence, and Steve fixed it and reinforced it from both the inside and outside. Amazingly, the fence survived perfectly. We spent the first night at a friend's house and then the second night at Mom and Glenn's, so we really didn't even go without power for more than a few hours at a time when we were at our house. Our power came back on Monday evening.
I am very grateful for several things from this experience - I know we are fortunate that we got home when we did - had we been even 15 minutes later we may have been on the road caught up in the storm. We were less than prepared since we didn't even realize a tornado was coming and were standing at the window on our second floor watching the storm (eek!), and we are lucky that didn't end up turning into trouble (and lesson learned for future, as we had falsely assumed we had a tornado siren system). We had a place to stay both nights with power and hot water, and were even able to save everything in our freezer.
Unfortunately there are many people who did not fare as well as we did, and my heart goes out to everyone who is still suffering the consequences of the tornadoes. I have heard several people say that they haven't seen anything like this in the area since Hurricane Fran in the late 1990s, which was much worse. Saddest of all are those who lost loved ones or lost everything they owned, and are now left with needing to rebuild their lives. I am very grateful this was not a life-altering experience for us, as it has been for many, but am still certain it is an experience I will not soon forget.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Big Bed
I have been in no hurry to move Ella out of her crib into a bed. Her sleep has been so good, she enjoys her crib, plus the fact that everything I read says that it is not an easy transition, all made me pretty positive that it would be the last of the big changes we had to tackle this summer (#1 - lose the pacifier, #2 - potty training, and # 3 - move to big girl bed). I knew we were getting close to needing to do it though, and since #1 and #2 are complete, I figured it was about time. We had many busy weekends in a row so I had planned we would make the move the weekend of September 18, our first free weekend...unfortunately I forgot to give Ella the memo and she decided otherwise.
Last Monday I stayed home for the day because Ella was sick. (She had a fever and a sore throat on Sunday, I took her to the doctor on Monday and she said it was a virus. Fortunately she was completely better by Tuesday.) Anyway, as weird timing would have it, we were having 2 rooms upstairs painted, and so I took Ella over to mom's house so that we could avoid the painters and paint smells. I was downstairs at mom's, attempting to work while Ella napped, and she appeared downstairs! She was really proud of herself and said 'I'm climbed out of my crib.' I couldn't believe it. I figured it was just a weird fluke though and put her back to sleep, and she did take a nap after. That night was completely normal and no escape attempts.
The next day she said to me "Mommy, I'm climbed out of my crib to come check on you. You were on the 'puter. I was just hungry, wanted some mac and cheese." So silly! I told her though that it wasn't safe to climb out of her crib and she had to stay in there when she's supposed to be sleeping. That night she decided she was completely done with her crib. She just did not want to be left alone, she would not stay in her crib, and after practically launching herself out of it with a giant thunk, I was just too worried that she could get hurt and I ended up bringing her in bed, and figured we'd come up with a plan the next day. Since we planned on dealing with all of this in several weeks, we had no bed for her or any real back up plan (not to mention our entire upstairs in disarray because of the painting).
We decided she could sleep in the spare room while we decided on the long-term solution, so Steve bought the bed rail and we got Ella very excited for her first night in a big bed. She was thrilled! She talked about it all evening and was so excited. Everything went great until she realized that she was expected to sleep in there by herself. It was a disaster. She wanted to sleep in the hallway at the top of the stairs and said no way to the bed. She would walk around with her blanket on her head. She was 'sirsty.' She was hungry. She had to go potty. At one point she said to me "talk louder to Daddy so I can hear." I asked her if she wanted to go back in her crib, she said yes - and then escaped 30 seconds later. I decided to try her pack and play, thinking it'd be harder to climb out of, and she escaped from that in about .2 seconds. After 2 hours of attempting to keep her in there, I finally ended up sleeping in the spare room bed with her - of course that was the ideal solution for her so she was a happy little camper. And I was a cranky big camper.
As a sidenote, she is absurdly sweet to snuggle with in bed. She'll say things like "you're my best friend" and "I love you more in the world." She wraps her arms so tight around my neck, rests her head on me, wants to be sung to, gives tons of kisses, and has a happy little grin. She is such a snugglebug so it is hard to resist!!!
However, we know this is not for the best, and the next night we were determined that she needed to sleep by herself in bed. A friend gave me some good tips on how to keep her in bed and so I felt prepared (and extra-determined after 2 nights of 2 hr+ bedtime attempts ending in giving in!). Although it took almost an hour of in and out, it actually worked, and she went to sleep on her own in the bed. I was really amazed and kept expecting her to wake up and start calling for me. In the morning she was so proud of herself and we were so proud of her.
We were headed to the beach the next day for the long weekend so I couldn't even imagine what fun was going to wait for us there with the bed situation. It worked out perfectly though, because there was a bunk bed in our room, right next to our bed. It was surprisingly easy, and she slept in there with no problem all weekend. Funnily enough, Steve and I went out to dinner one night and Mom and Glenn put her to bed (in her bed) and when we got back and Steve checked on her, she, along with all of her sleeping stuff, had moved into our bed!
When we got back, she slept again in the spare room for a few nights and it went pretty well. She is waking up earlier than usual and comes in to our room first thing, last night she woke up at 3am. Bedtime has gotten a lot easier because it has only taken 2 or 3 extra tries to get her back in bed each night (way better than the several hours the first few nights!). Tonight is her first night in her room in bed, we still have some more work to do in her bedroom but we're getting there. I had visions of her moving into a perfectly prepared room but instead this is the piecemeal approach. Needless to say, this is not at all how I envisioned this step, but it's a good lesson for me that it's okay when things don't go exactly as I have planned, and that improvising and bumps in the road are all just a part of being a parent.
Sleeping in the spare room bed last night
Tonight, her first night in the bed in her bedroom
Last Monday I stayed home for the day because Ella was sick. (She had a fever and a sore throat on Sunday, I took her to the doctor on Monday and she said it was a virus. Fortunately she was completely better by Tuesday.) Anyway, as weird timing would have it, we were having 2 rooms upstairs painted, and so I took Ella over to mom's house so that we could avoid the painters and paint smells. I was downstairs at mom's, attempting to work while Ella napped, and she appeared downstairs! She was really proud of herself and said 'I'm climbed out of my crib.' I couldn't believe it. I figured it was just a weird fluke though and put her back to sleep, and she did take a nap after. That night was completely normal and no escape attempts.
The next day she said to me "Mommy, I'm climbed out of my crib to come check on you. You were on the 'puter. I was just hungry, wanted some mac and cheese." So silly! I told her though that it wasn't safe to climb out of her crib and she had to stay in there when she's supposed to be sleeping. That night she decided she was completely done with her crib. She just did not want to be left alone, she would not stay in her crib, and after practically launching herself out of it with a giant thunk, I was just too worried that she could get hurt and I ended up bringing her in bed, and figured we'd come up with a plan the next day. Since we planned on dealing with all of this in several weeks, we had no bed for her or any real back up plan (not to mention our entire upstairs in disarray because of the painting).
We decided she could sleep in the spare room while we decided on the long-term solution, so Steve bought the bed rail and we got Ella very excited for her first night in a big bed. She was thrilled! She talked about it all evening and was so excited. Everything went great until she realized that she was expected to sleep in there by herself. It was a disaster. She wanted to sleep in the hallway at the top of the stairs and said no way to the bed. She would walk around with her blanket on her head. She was 'sirsty.' She was hungry. She had to go potty. At one point she said to me "talk louder to Daddy so I can hear." I asked her if she wanted to go back in her crib, she said yes - and then escaped 30 seconds later. I decided to try her pack and play, thinking it'd be harder to climb out of, and she escaped from that in about .2 seconds. After 2 hours of attempting to keep her in there, I finally ended up sleeping in the spare room bed with her - of course that was the ideal solution for her so she was a happy little camper. And I was a cranky big camper.
As a sidenote, she is absurdly sweet to snuggle with in bed. She'll say things like "you're my best friend" and "I love you more in the world." She wraps her arms so tight around my neck, rests her head on me, wants to be sung to, gives tons of kisses, and has a happy little grin. She is such a snugglebug so it is hard to resist!!!
However, we know this is not for the best, and the next night we were determined that she needed to sleep by herself in bed. A friend gave me some good tips on how to keep her in bed and so I felt prepared (and extra-determined after 2 nights of 2 hr+ bedtime attempts ending in giving in!). Although it took almost an hour of in and out, it actually worked, and she went to sleep on her own in the bed. I was really amazed and kept expecting her to wake up and start calling for me. In the morning she was so proud of herself and we were so proud of her.
We were headed to the beach the next day for the long weekend so I couldn't even imagine what fun was going to wait for us there with the bed situation. It worked out perfectly though, because there was a bunk bed in our room, right next to our bed. It was surprisingly easy, and she slept in there with no problem all weekend. Funnily enough, Steve and I went out to dinner one night and Mom and Glenn put her to bed (in her bed) and when we got back and Steve checked on her, she, along with all of her sleeping stuff, had moved into our bed!
When we got back, she slept again in the spare room for a few nights and it went pretty well. She is waking up earlier than usual and comes in to our room first thing, last night she woke up at 3am. Bedtime has gotten a lot easier because it has only taken 2 or 3 extra tries to get her back in bed each night (way better than the several hours the first few nights!). Tonight is her first night in her room in bed, we still have some more work to do in her bedroom but we're getting there. I had visions of her moving into a perfectly prepared room but instead this is the piecemeal approach. Needless to say, this is not at all how I envisioned this step, but it's a good lesson for me that it's okay when things don't go exactly as I have planned, and that improvising and bumps in the road are all just a part of being a parent.
Sleeping in the spare room bed last night
Tonight, her first night in the bed in her bedroom
Monday, February 8, 2010
First Broken Bone
So, this is definitely one "first" that I wish I was not writing about. Our sweet little angel has a fractured tibia :(.
I took her to the playground yesterday afternoon and we were on the steps climbing up to the big slide, which we'd done several times in a row already, and Ella fell backwards off a step, just several inches high, and on to the metal platform below. It was a small distance, but she twisted and fell pretty hard, and really hit the step below. The way she was crying I knew she was really hurt - she screamed and screamed. And in a way-to-make-me-feel-even-worse, she wailed "I - WANT - DADDY"...I did get her to settle down after about 5 minutes and asked her if she wanted to keep playing or go home. She said 'home', which was my first sign that something was really wrong. She seemed really down in the car ride home, and when I brought her in the house she would not put any weight at all on her leg and just wanted to be held. She sat with me on the couch for a while which she never does, I was thinking she was really shaken up and scared still. I fed her dinner and gave her a bath, and every time she was sitting in one place she was so happy and content, but still just refused to put any weight on it. My final diagnosis occurred in the playroom because she always has a million things to do in there and I was sure she'd start moving around. But she didn't, she just stayed in one place and scooted around a little, but still wouldn't stand. At that point I called our pediatrician after-hours service and the nurse said we should bring her to the ER.
There are several hospitals in the area, one of them is only about 15 minutes away, but there is a Children's ER at one about 45 minutes away, and that is the one she told us to go to. We got there around 9pm and were there until after midnight. I could write a twenty-page essay on the ER experience, which I will spare you, but the final result was that the first reading of the Xray showed a fracture, but they could not conclusively decide, and told us to go home and if she was still unable to bear weight after a night of sleep, to get her in to see an orthopedist today. Ella was such an amazing sport the entire night - she was up from 3:00 pm until 12:30 pm and didn't have a meltdown once - she was sweet and snuggly and just wanted to be held the whole time.
This morning she woke up and was the same, so I made an appointment for this afternoon with an orthopedist that was referred by our pediatrician. After making the appointment, a nurse from the ER called and said that there had been a mistake when they read her Xray and we should not have been discharged without having set her leg, and that we needed to come back in to the ER today to be seen again - like I was going to repeat that experience on a weekday when there are doctor's offices open!! I said thank you but we'd already made our own arrangements and would be taking care of it ourselves. Hmph.
I finally felt that things were well handled this afternoon, and the orthopedist office was great. The doctor was wonderful and was able to point out the fracture on the Xray so that we were even able to see it. It is a buckle fracture, on the tibia which is the larger of the bones in the lower leg, right above her ankle. She explained that the way she must have landed on it very hard caused the bone to actually buckle into a little horseshoe shape. Ella was so brave during the appointment and when the doctor pressed on the spot where the fracture was she just buried her head in my chest and whimpered but didn't even cry. She is a little champ.
The doctor said she was going to need a plaster cast (I chose purple which I thought Ella would like) but then came back in with this lady who fits children for walking casts and said that they did have one small enough for Ella. That was a small miracle and we were so happy with the change in plans. It is like a boot cast that we can take off to give her a bath, and will be much more comfortable for her than a plaster cast. She will need to wear it for 3 weeks and then we'll take her back for another Xray and assuming it's healed, she'll be able to stop wearing it. The doctor said that little kids' bones are so much more resilient than adults and that the same injury on an adult would take 8-12 weeks to heal (but I guess this also explains why theirs break easier as well).
We got home around 5pm, almost exactly 24 hours after she fell - 24 hours I am very glad are past us. Ella is such a trooper and has once again made me feel incredibly proud to be her mom. It is so hard not be thinking that I somehow failed her, and the 'what-if' I could have done differently and maybe she wouldn't have fallen. But I know that's not productive and we just need to make the best of it now that it's happened and focus on taking good care of her. She won't be able to go to Little Gym for the next 4 weeks and is really going to be limited in her activity - she's watched more TV in the past day then she has in the last 6 months, and I'm thinking at least the next week or so will be the same. She loves books so we've read a lot and she does play in one place and hopefully she'll be feeling better each day and will want to play more and more. It's hard to think of things to do in just one place because she's alwasy so busy and plays outside a lot, but we'll do our best to come up with things to keep her busy and happy.
I am sure I'll be writing more about this the next few weeks so I'll wrap up here for now because this is already very long, definitely not the abridged version! Here are a few pictures of my sweet little angel in her "Wee Walker".
Her boot
Taking Motrin, which she really likes the taste of!
How is she still so darn cute, even after the day she has had??
Cheerful on the couch before bedtime
My poor little girl!!!
I took her to the playground yesterday afternoon and we were on the steps climbing up to the big slide, which we'd done several times in a row already, and Ella fell backwards off a step, just several inches high, and on to the metal platform below. It was a small distance, but she twisted and fell pretty hard, and really hit the step below. The way she was crying I knew she was really hurt - she screamed and screamed. And in a way-to-make-me-feel-even-worse, she wailed "I - WANT - DADDY"...I did get her to settle down after about 5 minutes and asked her if she wanted to keep playing or go home. She said 'home', which was my first sign that something was really wrong. She seemed really down in the car ride home, and when I brought her in the house she would not put any weight at all on her leg and just wanted to be held. She sat with me on the couch for a while which she never does, I was thinking she was really shaken up and scared still. I fed her dinner and gave her a bath, and every time she was sitting in one place she was so happy and content, but still just refused to put any weight on it. My final diagnosis occurred in the playroom because she always has a million things to do in there and I was sure she'd start moving around. But she didn't, she just stayed in one place and scooted around a little, but still wouldn't stand. At that point I called our pediatrician after-hours service and the nurse said we should bring her to the ER.
There are several hospitals in the area, one of them is only about 15 minutes away, but there is a Children's ER at one about 45 minutes away, and that is the one she told us to go to. We got there around 9pm and were there until after midnight. I could write a twenty-page essay on the ER experience, which I will spare you, but the final result was that the first reading of the Xray showed a fracture, but they could not conclusively decide, and told us to go home and if she was still unable to bear weight after a night of sleep, to get her in to see an orthopedist today. Ella was such an amazing sport the entire night - she was up from 3:00 pm until 12:30 pm and didn't have a meltdown once - she was sweet and snuggly and just wanted to be held the whole time.
This morning she woke up and was the same, so I made an appointment for this afternoon with an orthopedist that was referred by our pediatrician. After making the appointment, a nurse from the ER called and said that there had been a mistake when they read her Xray and we should not have been discharged without having set her leg, and that we needed to come back in to the ER today to be seen again - like I was going to repeat that experience on a weekday when there are doctor's offices open!! I said thank you but we'd already made our own arrangements and would be taking care of it ourselves. Hmph.
I finally felt that things were well handled this afternoon, and the orthopedist office was great. The doctor was wonderful and was able to point out the fracture on the Xray so that we were even able to see it. It is a buckle fracture, on the tibia which is the larger of the bones in the lower leg, right above her ankle. She explained that the way she must have landed on it very hard caused the bone to actually buckle into a little horseshoe shape. Ella was so brave during the appointment and when the doctor pressed on the spot where the fracture was she just buried her head in my chest and whimpered but didn't even cry. She is a little champ.
The doctor said she was going to need a plaster cast (I chose purple which I thought Ella would like) but then came back in with this lady who fits children for walking casts and said that they did have one small enough for Ella. That was a small miracle and we were so happy with the change in plans. It is like a boot cast that we can take off to give her a bath, and will be much more comfortable for her than a plaster cast. She will need to wear it for 3 weeks and then we'll take her back for another Xray and assuming it's healed, she'll be able to stop wearing it. The doctor said that little kids' bones are so much more resilient than adults and that the same injury on an adult would take 8-12 weeks to heal (but I guess this also explains why theirs break easier as well).
We got home around 5pm, almost exactly 24 hours after she fell - 24 hours I am very glad are past us. Ella is such a trooper and has once again made me feel incredibly proud to be her mom. It is so hard not be thinking that I somehow failed her, and the 'what-if' I could have done differently and maybe she wouldn't have fallen. But I know that's not productive and we just need to make the best of it now that it's happened and focus on taking good care of her. She won't be able to go to Little Gym for the next 4 weeks and is really going to be limited in her activity - she's watched more TV in the past day then she has in the last 6 months, and I'm thinking at least the next week or so will be the same. She loves books so we've read a lot and she does play in one place and hopefully she'll be feeling better each day and will want to play more and more. It's hard to think of things to do in just one place because she's alwasy so busy and plays outside a lot, but we'll do our best to come up with things to keep her busy and happy.
I am sure I'll be writing more about this the next few weeks so I'll wrap up here for now because this is already very long, definitely not the abridged version! Here are a few pictures of my sweet little angel in her "Wee Walker".
Her boot
Taking Motrin, which she really likes the taste of!
How is she still so darn cute, even after the day she has had??
Cheerful on the couch before bedtime
My poor little girl!!!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Two Dollars Well Spent
Ella has always loved bath time, although washing her hair has always been a bit shaky. She doesn't like getting tipped backward in the water but also doesn't like water being poured on her head, so we've just been pretty fast with the hair washing and she loves the rest of bath time. She would happily head up the stairs for bath time, get all excited, play and play while she was in there, and then not want to get out.
But recently she started crying when I'd wash her hair and it got worse quickly over a span of several days so that by the beginning of last week, she was crying from the minute she got into the tub until she got out. We started washing her hair every other day to make it less horrible for her, but she still was really upset the entire time. Then, it got even worse and one night last week when it was time to go up for bath time she said "no, night-night" because she wanted to just go to bed instead of having to take a bath :(. Her sweet little face got so upset and she started crying before I even got her in the bath...it was really upsetting and we just felt so horrible for her because she was clearly really scared. I'm the usual bath-giver but it was so stressful last week that Steve and I traded off nights so that she wouldn't be traumatized by me :(. She has tons of toys in the bath, I've brought in her favorite dolls and animals to sit on the sink so she can see them, I've tried singing, but nothing worked. She was miserable in the tub and wanted nothing to do with it.
I was at a loss for what to do but knew we had to come up with something to make bath time back to the happy fun time it was before. This past Saturday I was at Babies R Us with my friend to get some baby supplies for her, and when we were at the cash register on the impulse buy display there was a package of "bath tub crayons" for $1.99...I figured Ella likes crayons, it might be a fun distraction for her, and for two dollars, definitely worth a try even if she doesn't go for it.
So that afternoon when she woke up from her nap, I told her I got her a really fun surprise for the bath tub and she kept shaking her head and saying no, although she did seem to be getting a little interested since I kept hyping up her bath surprise. Once it was bath time I showed her the new bath crayons and that she could take them in the tub with her and draw on the tub and wall. She seemed suspicious but got in the bath tub, sans tears, which was the first time in several days. Once she figured out that the crayons were legit and she really could color with them, she started to really get into it and reasonably enjoyed the bath, with the exception of hair washing.
I also started filling less water in the tub thinking that she probably feels more secure when her head can rest on the tub bottom instead of kind of floating when I lean her back to wash her hair. I think that's made a good difference too. With the crayons, she draws on the wall of the tub, then says "what's that?" and laughs while I come up with guesses as to what is the amazing artwork that she has created. She also enjoys dumping a bucket of water on the drawings to help rinse them.
Today is Day 4 into the crayon experiment, and I am happy to report that tonight's bath time was 100% tear free - and - not only tear free, but, she actually told me she was READY to wash her hair and smiled while I was doing it - whoo-hoo!!! I called Steve in to watch and he couldn't believe it either. She was so proud of herself after and I was so proud of her, she did so great.
Moral of the story? Thank goodness for the bath tub crayons, quite possibly the best two-dollar purchase I've made!
But recently she started crying when I'd wash her hair and it got worse quickly over a span of several days so that by the beginning of last week, she was crying from the minute she got into the tub until she got out. We started washing her hair every other day to make it less horrible for her, but she still was really upset the entire time. Then, it got even worse and one night last week when it was time to go up for bath time she said "no, night-night" because she wanted to just go to bed instead of having to take a bath :(. Her sweet little face got so upset and she started crying before I even got her in the bath...it was really upsetting and we just felt so horrible for her because she was clearly really scared. I'm the usual bath-giver but it was so stressful last week that Steve and I traded off nights so that she wouldn't be traumatized by me :(. She has tons of toys in the bath, I've brought in her favorite dolls and animals to sit on the sink so she can see them, I've tried singing, but nothing worked. She was miserable in the tub and wanted nothing to do with it.
I was at a loss for what to do but knew we had to come up with something to make bath time back to the happy fun time it was before. This past Saturday I was at Babies R Us with my friend to get some baby supplies for her, and when we were at the cash register on the impulse buy display there was a package of "bath tub crayons" for $1.99...I figured Ella likes crayons, it might be a fun distraction for her, and for two dollars, definitely worth a try even if she doesn't go for it.
So that afternoon when she woke up from her nap, I told her I got her a really fun surprise for the bath tub and she kept shaking her head and saying no, although she did seem to be getting a little interested since I kept hyping up her bath surprise. Once it was bath time I showed her the new bath crayons and that she could take them in the tub with her and draw on the tub and wall. She seemed suspicious but got in the bath tub, sans tears, which was the first time in several days. Once she figured out that the crayons were legit and she really could color with them, she started to really get into it and reasonably enjoyed the bath, with the exception of hair washing.
I also started filling less water in the tub thinking that she probably feels more secure when her head can rest on the tub bottom instead of kind of floating when I lean her back to wash her hair. I think that's made a good difference too. With the crayons, she draws on the wall of the tub, then says "what's that?" and laughs while I come up with guesses as to what is the amazing artwork that she has created. She also enjoys dumping a bucket of water on the drawings to help rinse them.
Today is Day 4 into the crayon experiment, and I am happy to report that tonight's bath time was 100% tear free - and - not only tear free, but, she actually told me she was READY to wash her hair and smiled while I was doing it - whoo-hoo!!! I called Steve in to watch and he couldn't believe it either. She was so proud of herself after and I was so proud of her, she did so great.
Moral of the story? Thank goodness for the bath tub crayons, quite possibly the best two-dollar purchase I've made!
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Magic
Ella has many tricks up her sleeve but her current favorite seems to be making things disappear on us. On Sunday afternoon I wanted to take a picture of my favorite little subject, but could not find my camera anywhere. My camera is never far away and there are about 2 or 3 places I keep it, always downstairs and I always know where it is. I looked around in all my usual places, but no camera.
Extra worrisome was the fact that I had done a garage sale on Saturday morning and the only piece of electronics I did not sell was my old digital camera, so I was beginning to worry that maybe the 'reason' I hadn't sold it was God telling me that I'd be needing to use it since my excellent camera was now missing. I've never misplaced it before and was getting worried I had thrown it out in the middle of packing and unpacking boxes from the garage sale.
We were wondering if Ella might have gotten it and put it somewhere so last night I looked through all her toys - I checked in the cargo holders of her riding toys, her toy boxes, her kitchen cabinets, etc., but no camera. Resigning myself to camera phone and old digital camera for a while, I was just hoping and praying it'd turn up, and sooner rather than later.
This morning around 11am Steve called to tell me that he doesn't know where she had gotten it from, but Ella had my camera! So she must have gone into her secret stash and produced it! I felt waves of relief and about 10 pounds lighter. Now I must locate her hiding place, I'm assuming we'll find a bunch of barettes, singleton socks and sippy cup lids in there (...or not, but these all have a way of disappearing at light speed!!).
Tonight the phone rang and Steve wasn't able to find it - when he finally did, it was in the drawer of my nightstand - Ella strikes again!
She also managed yesterday to get a hold of a box of our wedding photo proofs and scatter them all over the computer room floor - that was more of a slight-of-hand trick I suppose. Then again, I can't be sure, because a magician should never reveal their secrets.
And for some REAL magic, at least in the eyes of my precious 22 month old, I present to you - MAGNETS - Ella's newest delight :).
Extra worrisome was the fact that I had done a garage sale on Saturday morning and the only piece of electronics I did not sell was my old digital camera, so I was beginning to worry that maybe the 'reason' I hadn't sold it was God telling me that I'd be needing to use it since my excellent camera was now missing. I've never misplaced it before and was getting worried I had thrown it out in the middle of packing and unpacking boxes from the garage sale.
We were wondering if Ella might have gotten it and put it somewhere so last night I looked through all her toys - I checked in the cargo holders of her riding toys, her toy boxes, her kitchen cabinets, etc., but no camera. Resigning myself to camera phone and old digital camera for a while, I was just hoping and praying it'd turn up, and sooner rather than later.
This morning around 11am Steve called to tell me that he doesn't know where she had gotten it from, but Ella had my camera! So she must have gone into her secret stash and produced it! I felt waves of relief and about 10 pounds lighter. Now I must locate her hiding place, I'm assuming we'll find a bunch of barettes, singleton socks and sippy cup lids in there (...or not, but these all have a way of disappearing at light speed!!).
Tonight the phone rang and Steve wasn't able to find it - when he finally did, it was in the drawer of my nightstand - Ella strikes again!
She also managed yesterday to get a hold of a box of our wedding photo proofs and scatter them all over the computer room floor - that was more of a slight-of-hand trick I suppose. Then again, I can't be sure, because a magician should never reveal their secrets.
And for some REAL magic, at least in the eyes of my precious 22 month old, I present to you - MAGNETS - Ella's newest delight :).
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
I have decided the time has come...
...for this little girl to get a haircut!
View from the front - all looks good, and no need for a haircut
But...
Check out the side view
Yikes! There is that long tail-piece in the back. When it curls up it's all the same length but when it's brushed out (like here) it's clearly much longer than the rest.
So, I have taken the first step in deciding that it is finally time to get it cut, now I just need to actually do it!
View from the front - all looks good, and no need for a haircut
But...
Check out the side view
Yikes! There is that long tail-piece in the back. When it curls up it's all the same length but when it's brushed out (like here) it's clearly much longer than the rest.
So, I have taken the first step in deciding that it is finally time to get it cut, now I just need to actually do it!
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Holy Timeouts, Batman
This post could also be called "The Night of 4 Timeouts within 1 Hour". EEEK. Our evening started out very pleasantly - I caught up with my girlfriends on our walk and Ella got to chat with her buddy Dominic as we got some exercise and fresh air. We came home and had about 10 minutes before Steve was finished cooking dinner, so of course Ella had to get back to playing with her new kitchen (which she is pretty much obsessed with). When it was time for dinner, I said "alright Ella, dinner time" to which she loudly yelled "NO" with a big smile...I said "Ella, it's dinner, I need you to come get in your chair." Repeat the NO from said little girl. Then I resorted to my "Ella, I am going to count to 3. If you are not here by the time I get to 3, you will have a timeout." Now, previously, this has been quite effective. Her eyes get big when I start counting and she hustles on over. Not tonight. She turned her back on me and went back to playing in her kitchen. So...bring on Timeout #1.
Timeout #1 turned into Timeout #2 as she talked and walked around midway through the first timeout. We successfully got through a 90-second timeout and had a very peaceful and nice dinner.
Bath time...as usual, Ella loves her some bathtime, and did not want to get out. I gave her a 2 minute warning, and we sang a song 3 times in a row. After the last time, I said it was time to get out - which was greeted with a loud laughing "NO"...ehhh, not again. Repeat same process as paragraph 1, except this time I am in a dilemma because she is naked and I do not want to take the time to get her dressed first because by then she'll forget what the timeout is all about. So, I pull her out dripping wet and she gets a timeout in her room, in her birthday suit. After it's over she gives me a hug and says the requisite 'sorry' (pronounced dough-y, or something similar), and then I tell her it's time to get jammies on so she needs to come get dressed. At this point the little nakey runs laughing out into the computer room where Steve is...apparently that timeout had a major effect.
Same procedure in the computer room to get her back into her room to get dressed, leading to timeout #4...another naked timeout in her room. Except, this time, I closed the door and stood in the hallway. I've only done that once before but she seemed truly sorry after (sidenote: that time, she had pretty much mauled my face with her hands which thankfully was the first and only time for that). She started crying after about 10seconds and I feel so bad with her crying, but really, she is completely safe, I am on the other side of the door, and she's crying because she does not want to be separated from me, which truly is the point of a time out. It still felt like torture though and I don't think it was more than 40 seconds. BUT, when I went in, she stood up and gave me a hug right away, said dough-y, and I said "okay it's time to get dressed" and she ran right over to her changing table and held her hands up to get put up there. Remainder of evening (all 20 minutes of it, ha!) went smooth as pie :).
I know that it's all about consistency but PHHHHEW...I see why it's easier to ignore this stuff than deal with it!
Lest you think this little girl is all snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, I will leave you with some parting pre-Halloween cheer :)
Timeout #1 turned into Timeout #2 as she talked and walked around midway through the first timeout. We successfully got through a 90-second timeout and had a very peaceful and nice dinner.
Bath time...as usual, Ella loves her some bathtime, and did not want to get out. I gave her a 2 minute warning, and we sang a song 3 times in a row. After the last time, I said it was time to get out - which was greeted with a loud laughing "NO"...ehhh, not again. Repeat same process as paragraph 1, except this time I am in a dilemma because she is naked and I do not want to take the time to get her dressed first because by then she'll forget what the timeout is all about. So, I pull her out dripping wet and she gets a timeout in her room, in her birthday suit. After it's over she gives me a hug and says the requisite 'sorry' (pronounced dough-y, or something similar), and then I tell her it's time to get jammies on so she needs to come get dressed. At this point the little nakey runs laughing out into the computer room where Steve is...apparently that timeout had a major effect.
Same procedure in the computer room to get her back into her room to get dressed, leading to timeout #4...another naked timeout in her room. Except, this time, I closed the door and stood in the hallway. I've only done that once before but she seemed truly sorry after (sidenote: that time, she had pretty much mauled my face with her hands which thankfully was the first and only time for that). She started crying after about 10seconds and I feel so bad with her crying, but really, she is completely safe, I am on the other side of the door, and she's crying because she does not want to be separated from me, which truly is the point of a time out. It still felt like torture though and I don't think it was more than 40 seconds. BUT, when I went in, she stood up and gave me a hug right away, said dough-y, and I said "okay it's time to get dressed" and she ran right over to her changing table and held her hands up to get put up there. Remainder of evening (all 20 minutes of it, ha!) went smooth as pie :).
I know that it's all about consistency but PHHHHEW...I see why it's easier to ignore this stuff than deal with it!
Lest you think this little girl is all snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, I will leave you with some parting pre-Halloween cheer :)
Friday, August 28, 2009
Grazin' Days
As I’ve written before on this blog, Ella’s eating is always an area that causes me concern. Whether it’s the fact that she refuses food just upon sight, spends more time feeding the dogs than herself, or flings her food the moment she is done, it's always an adventure.
Well, I’ve read in several books that the absolute worst thing you can do is turn eating into a battle, so we’ve always done the method that when she’s done eating, she’s done. We’re not going to make her eat, and she’ll eat when she’s hungry. So this has worked reasonably well, especially when she will raise her hands and say “all done” when she’s done.
However. She is a clever one, and has figured out some tricks. She will now “finish” eating in about 5 minutes, begin throwing her food off the tray to signal she is done (uggg, this one needs to get tackled next), then spend the rest of time while we eat dinner getting little bites here and there and wandering around. She’ll get food from us, go play for a bit, come back, repeat. It’s kind of snuck up on us (and allows us to eat dinner peacefully), but has definitely become a problem because now her goal is to get out of her seat as quickly as possible then continue to eat. Aside from the fact it’s not good for her to be eating and walking around at the same time, I really want her to sit through a meal with us and eat in her seat, not while she’s playing.
So, we decided this week that the problem is ending and dinner has been anything but peaceful!
Monday night – We had pizza for dinner which Ella loves. She ate about four bites and then began flinging it off her tray. So, I said, you’re done, and pulled her out of her seat. Then, she walked right over to Steve and asked for some of his. He said “you need to sit in your seat to eat”…she began to frantically sign ‘more’ and ‘eat’, whine, yell, cry, you get the idea. She came over to my chair, buried her head in my lap and sobbed because she just couldn’t believe the injustice. And she absolutely refused to go back in her seat. She finally calmed down after about 15 minutes of this craziness, and we got her back in her chair, although without the tray, and I pulled it right up next to my seat next to the table. She proceeded to eat at least two full slices of pizza, not exaggerating. In fact, I got up to get her more milk, and she slid my plate over to her, pushed the pizza off my plate onto the table, held up my plate and said “all gone”… Although it was not the relaxing dinner we’d like, score 1 for the parents because she did not get a single bite wandering around, and she DID eventually get back in her chair to eat.
Tuesday night – More of the same, but this time with a twist. She WOULD eat sitting in her chair, but ONLY on the condition that it come from MY bowl, not her own. She wanted me to feed her (with a metal fork, not a toddler-friendly spoon) from my bowl and my bowl only. She did not want to feed herself, and did not want to eat her own meal, even though it was the exact same (although many degrees cooler!). Steve started to pour some of her meal into mine so we could share it, and she flipped out. It’s crazy how particular she can be about things.
The past few nights have been similar - tonight it took FIVE tries in her seat, and she ended up eating about 10 grapes and a handful of cereal. But I am happy to say that we are no longer encouraging her grazing mealtime behavior and hopefully with a few more weeks of unpeaceful meals she may just be sitting and eating all at once!
Well, I’ve read in several books that the absolute worst thing you can do is turn eating into a battle, so we’ve always done the method that when she’s done eating, she’s done. We’re not going to make her eat, and she’ll eat when she’s hungry. So this has worked reasonably well, especially when she will raise her hands and say “all done” when she’s done.
However. She is a clever one, and has figured out some tricks. She will now “finish” eating in about 5 minutes, begin throwing her food off the tray to signal she is done (uggg, this one needs to get tackled next), then spend the rest of time while we eat dinner getting little bites here and there and wandering around. She’ll get food from us, go play for a bit, come back, repeat. It’s kind of snuck up on us (and allows us to eat dinner peacefully), but has definitely become a problem because now her goal is to get out of her seat as quickly as possible then continue to eat. Aside from the fact it’s not good for her to be eating and walking around at the same time, I really want her to sit through a meal with us and eat in her seat, not while she’s playing.
So, we decided this week that the problem is ending and dinner has been anything but peaceful!
Monday night – We had pizza for dinner which Ella loves. She ate about four bites and then began flinging it off her tray. So, I said, you’re done, and pulled her out of her seat. Then, she walked right over to Steve and asked for some of his. He said “you need to sit in your seat to eat”…she began to frantically sign ‘more’ and ‘eat’, whine, yell, cry, you get the idea. She came over to my chair, buried her head in my lap and sobbed because she just couldn’t believe the injustice. And she absolutely refused to go back in her seat. She finally calmed down after about 15 minutes of this craziness, and we got her back in her chair, although without the tray, and I pulled it right up next to my seat next to the table. She proceeded to eat at least two full slices of pizza, not exaggerating. In fact, I got up to get her more milk, and she slid my plate over to her, pushed the pizza off my plate onto the table, held up my plate and said “all gone”… Although it was not the relaxing dinner we’d like, score 1 for the parents because she did not get a single bite wandering around, and she DID eventually get back in her chair to eat.
Tuesday night – More of the same, but this time with a twist. She WOULD eat sitting in her chair, but ONLY on the condition that it come from MY bowl, not her own. She wanted me to feed her (with a metal fork, not a toddler-friendly spoon) from my bowl and my bowl only. She did not want to feed herself, and did not want to eat her own meal, even though it was the exact same (although many degrees cooler!). Steve started to pour some of her meal into mine so we could share it, and she flipped out. It’s crazy how particular she can be about things.
The past few nights have been similar - tonight it took FIVE tries in her seat, and she ended up eating about 10 grapes and a handful of cereal. But I am happy to say that we are no longer encouraging her grazing mealtime behavior and hopefully with a few more weeks of unpeaceful meals she may just be sitting and eating all at once!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Who knew 18-month photos were so hard??
I took Ella to get her 18-month professional photos taken several weeks ago and you would've thought I had taken her to a torture session. She.would.not.leave.my.lap. The entire time! It was crazy. I would put her down, walk the 3 steps away to get out of the picture, and she would start screaming and crying. She was just miserable, suspicious of the photos being taken, and wouldn't leave my side.
After about half an hour and thinking it just wasn't going to happen and maybe we should call it a day, I got the idea (a.k.a. pure desperation and last ditch effort) to hide under a blanket and Tina could crop me out later. Tina found a white blanket and I got underneath and held Ella on my lap. Voila! - that made all the difference in the world! She thought it was hysterical - we played peekabo, she lauged and carried on, and had an almost-complete recovery. Here are a bunch of the photos, and yes, I am the white shape in them :).
I love how the photos turned out - from looking at them you would never imagine what went on behind the scenes!
After about half an hour and thinking it just wasn't going to happen and maybe we should call it a day, I got the idea (a.k.a. pure desperation and last ditch effort) to hide under a blanket and Tina could crop me out later. Tina found a white blanket and I got underneath and held Ella on my lap. Voila! - that made all the difference in the world! She thought it was hysterical - we played peekabo, she lauged and carried on, and had an almost-complete recovery. Here are a bunch of the photos, and yes, I am the white shape in them :).
I love how the photos turned out - from looking at them you would never imagine what went on behind the scenes!
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