We are still away at the lake and will be for another week. It's grand--blissful, really--in a weird, masochistic sort of way. We've fallen into a pretty nice little routine, which always happens around day 3 or so, and generally are enjoying ourselves. We still, however, are seeing a lot of the naughty-ness that accompanies a family with 2 little girls and 1 baby brother. A, as the oldest of our brood, seems hellbent on waking up sleeping children. Either by touching, talking to, pinching, or tickling--it's her life's truest desire. I will not mince words: This. Pisses. Me. Off. She's pretty good about adhering to a decent time out though and for the most part (more than 50% of the time), 'gets' it and moves on. This I have to live with--and this is fine. I still hate that she must wake the littler ones, though. Can't she just awaken Hubby when HE'S sleeping? Now Little Miss C...she is a different kid altogether--and will not, I repeat WILL NOT adhere to, nor be confined to, a simple time out. No way, no how, it's not gonna happen. I was not happy about this until that article a few weeks ago about the Clean-Up Fairy enlightened me. (read past entries to catch up!) The lady who gave life to my now favorite Fairy really should be nominated for sainthood--well, in my humble little mommy opinion! C becomes very nearly unhinged when we mention the "C.U.F." She bolts around the room, doing whatever needs to be done to tidy things up, and make any mess appear far less messy. It's done as if a 3 year old was doing it still--but it works. Yay. Somehow, a small success. Trouble arose though during the first day or so of our vacation when we were really having trouble with C's tantrums and screaming fits. (Whomever said it was the Terrible Twos never had kids... in reality it's the Life-Threatening-Threes that'll give you your battle scars as a parent) I tried to think of a way in which my friend "C.U.F" could help me and then I decided to try something new. C was doing something naughty-- screaming for the sake of screaming--when I calmly told her I needed her to listen to mommy, and to calm down. I warned her again, "Please calm down and listen to Mommy or else the Listening Fairy would come and take away your corks" (now this brings up another topic entirely--my 3 year old's continuing to use her corks...that's pacifiers to the general public) Anyway--a really cool thing happened with my latest threat--it worked!! She stopped screaming, apologized, and snapped back into angelic-three-year-old-mode. **sound the alleujah chorus**
Stay tuned....
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