Our Kids

I have been posting about how the girls are competing for attention, time and with each other and it has not gotten better or worse. In this weeks parenting class I got a gentle reminder about why kids do what they do, how they cause us to react and what we can do about it. Barb has this awesome “mistaken goals” chart that tells you when your child acts like xxx and it makes you feel xxx then this is what is really happening and this is what you should do. I had forgotten about the chart but when I looked up what we had been seeing I could see that the girls were telling me they needed more attention. MORE ATTENTION, WTF! But what I was forgetting is that needed undivided personal attention not food on the table, shoes on the feet, butt wiping attention.

On that note I started “Just Be” time with the girls this week. I have been dreading it and putting it off but now that I am doing it I quite like it. So for 10-15 per day per child I spend time with just one child doing whatever it is she wants. She has my total undivided attention, no tv, no computer, no cell phones nada, just she and I. It seems to be working well. Today the girls were at each other and me all day. So we decided to have our 15 min of just be time and now the girls are all lovey dovey, happy clammy! It is the littlest things some times that can make the biggest difference. I know they see me nursing Landis throughout the day and see that she gets my undivided attention and that might be driving some of the girls behavior. I am hoping we can add some “just be” time into Jason’s routine as well. After all who would not want to be the apple of someone’s eye for 15 min a day?

Well it is true, Landis is officially walking. It is now her most favored form of transport other than being carried in your arms:) She is so cute, like a little Frankenstein. She is extremely pleased with herself as she toddles along. I am afraid it will make her all the more lethal since she puts everything in her mouth and is already grabbing for things out of her reach. Oh well! I am sort of glad because the weather is finally cooling and we will be spending the next 5 to 6 months outdoors where it would be better for her to be toddling than crawling. On the crawling front she is finally a speed demon getting to where she is going in no time flat. Fun times ahead, keep the bathroom door closed:)