Zade has now picked some new favorite items. He found one of Aria's hats and has claimed it as his own. Whenever he has it on, I call him Cowboy, to which he responds, "I not cowboy, I Zade". It's cute. He also loves carrying around this Thomas the Train bag, which he fills with little trinkets. He'll put up a stink if he doesn't have the hat and bag, even when he goes to bed. He's a silly little guy. We also just introduced the kids to He-Man and She-Ra on Hulu.com. They're hooked. :) It's fun to see them get into shows we used to watch as kids.
Here's Tara's account of an interesting experience she's had this week:
I agreed to watch my friends two girls, Karen and Cerise,
ages 4 and 2, while she and her husband went to the temple in Mesa. As the drive to the temple from Tucson is two
hours, the entire trip took about 7 1/2 hours.
Unfortunately, Aria was being rather mean spirited to Karen. Recently, Aria has picked up a few negative
behaviors such as sticking out her tongue, spitting and hitting. In addition to
this, she will say unkind things to her friends, such as "I think your
picture looks terrible!" Karen can
be a little stubborn as well, and the two girls couldn't seem to get a long for
more than 5 seconds. I was also having
trouble getting the two year old to nap.
She threw a fit, and I didn't want to leave her in the room
screaming. I tried to get her to lay
down, but she refused. I laid down next
to her on the bed and she finally fell asleep sitting up because she refused to
lay down.
By 5:00 o'clock I had really had it, and Aria had lost t.v.
and treat privileges for an entire week.
The last straw was when I went to pick up Aria to comfort her and she
somehow jumped up and hit my chin with her head so hard that it caused me to
slice my tongue with my teeth. I
collapsed into a corner in the kitchen, sobbing. Aria and Zade were quick to offer comfort and
concern, but it was only when Dane walked in the door at 5:15 that I could
finally go to my room, lock the door, jump into bed and stare at the wall in an
emotional stupor.
The peace did not last long though because there is no
punishment so great for Aria as having mommy lock herself in her room. She immediately began pounding on the
door. "Mommy let me in! Mommy I
love you! Mommy I want cuddles! Please
Mommy!" I ignored her of course,
feeling this was good punishment. I
could hear her on the floor by the door.
"Mommy, why won't you let me in? Please let me in!" This went on for at least 15-20 minutes, even
while the other kids played happily around her.
Finally, I felt punishment had been paid, and I opened the door and
unlocked myself. I jumped back into bed
and Aria jumped in with me. I wrapped my
arms tightly around her and she snuggled in close to me. "I love you Mommy." We talked about the days events and how she
needed to be a kinder person.
The next two hours, Aria, Karen, Zade and Cerise played
happily, running around upstairs like wild monkeys. Aria was much better behaved. At bedtime I cuddled close to her, and told
her that I was glad she was so much nicer to her brother and her friends. She wrapped her arm around me, pulling me in
till our noses almost touched, and smiled, staring at me with her bright blue
eyes, until they began to get heavy and she fell asleep.
It's amazing how many emotions one can feel in a single day
of parenting.
