Stormy Morning

Just a second ago, there was blue skies overhead but now the huge dark thundercloud that was looming in the distance has moved over our house and it is now very dark in here. I like it though I'll be rethinking that logic when I'm driving among the amateurs (you know, the ones that still go 80 mph) and getting soaking wet lugging I. in and out of the car. But for now, I like it.



Yesterday was a day all about parenting. I got to try out a couple of the parenting ideas I've been collecting lately and they worked surprisingly well. The latest one was something that I thought up as a result of reading about how the consequence should be tied to the problem. I knew that, I was just having a hard time to tie something to this year-long potty training. No, I'm not an ogre and am not trying to stress my child out about this topic. But we are in month 11 of this exercise and she's almost 4.5 years old so all it is is your garden variety power struggle. Much of my frustration has been that I'm the only one receiving the consequences, I. could honestly care less. Even if I had her wash them, she would enjoy it so much, it wouldn't be a consequence and I'd have all water mess to clean up. In a moment of brilliance, I figured out a good consequence and levied it yesterday. It went like this:

I. (in a singsong voice): Mommy, my underwear are wet.
Me (in a sad voice): Oh, that's so sad I. because now Mommy will have to work on laundry this afternoon and I was hoping to play with you. Oh well, maybe tomorrow you won't wet your underwear and I'll have time to play with you.

I. was pretty speechless and in the afternoon when we had some time to play, I went upstairs and folded her laundry and got another load going while she played downstairs. I was very happy with that whole episode and will be interested in seeing how it plays out in the future.

The shots were horrible and the very worst part of being a mommy. Everything was fine until it was time to get on my lap and then all hell broke loose. I ended up having to put her legs in between mine to keep them from kicking and wrap my arms around her like a straitjacket to keep her from flailing. All the while, I. is screaming at the top of her lungs and crying like a banshee. I don't have to tell you that those shots really hurt because she was so tensed up and still moving around. I was just glad that the needles didn't break off, that's how bad it was. I think that's it for shots for awhile, at least I hope so. I need a long recovery time from this one plus time to up my upper body strength training at the gym because I'm gonna need it next time.