Holiday Recovery
Well, the Christmas weekend was nice. We had lots of great family time, which involved lots of traveling, hosting at our home, eating lots of food (most of which I couldn't have) and staying up very late (I was one of the early ones to bed Christmas night at 3 a.m.).
I got to know one or two of DH's relatives better that I hadn't talked with much before. We sang carols, including AJ's very first solo in front of a group. The girls acted out the story of Christ's birth with clay figures they made as DH told the story. We had a fabulous white elephant gift exchange with the family--fast becoming a favorite holiday tradition, as there are too many of us for a traditional gift exchange to be practical. We also had a couple of somewhat funny mishaps around Christmas meals . . . I'll post about them later.
Baby E and I got sick Christmas Eve. We both have miserable colds with a mild cough. Now DH is coming down with it too. Baby E is waking up every hour or so in the night, and is fussy and clingy during the day. Having a cold and cough/sore throat on top of teething must be miserable for her, poor thing.
I'd really like it if we could go more than 2 weeks at a time without getting sick here.
The girls are tired and over-socialized, and are grouchy and testing the limits in every possible way. Part of it is probably that I'm tired and not feeling well, so it doesn't take much to get on my nerves. But do you ever get the feeling that you'd like to run away from home, or send everyone else to Timbuktu? Not that I really would, of course, but the thought does cross my mind.
They got up this morning and helped themselves to potato chips for breakfast. Then they came in screaming and crying over some argument and woke the baby, who had finally dropped off to sleep just before I did, around 5 a.m.--about 30 minutes before DH got up and woke us again.
And thus the day proceeded.
MM is currently testing to see if we can tell whether she's telling the truth or not. It's gotten to the point that I can't believe anything she says, no matter how minor. I really hope she gets tired of dealing with the consequences of this soon.
Tonight the girls ate a pretty good dinner, after eating almost nothing at breakfast and lunch. Rice, carrots, tangerines and just a very small helping of meat.
Mealtime rules are simple here. They must taste at least one bite of everything, and then if they don't want something they don't have to eat it. What we're having for dinner is what they get, and they can eat it or be hungry later. We do have snacks sometimes, but not as a substitute for an uneaten meal.
If there's dessert (usually fruit or some other food they particularly like), we set a minimum amount of the other foods they have to eat to earn it. If they don't eat it, fine, but no dessert and no snacks later.
One of DH's sisters baked cookies as a Christmas gift for us, so I told the girls that if they ate all of the small helping of food on their plates, they could have one. AJ quickly complied and earned her cookie.
MM soon stuffed the last of her meat in her mouth and joyfully proclaimed, "I did it, Mommy! It's all gone. Now I can have a cookie?"
As she finished her cookie and went upstairs to have Daddy help brush her teeth, I put the baby down and went to clear the table.
There was a pile of chewed-up meat in the middle of MM's plate. She must have stuffed it all in her cheeks and waited until I wasn't looking to spit it out--after I gave her the cookie.
Because she lied about eating it all in order to get her cookie, there had to be a consequence. So I did what my mom did when I committed the same crime around that age. It made me gag, but the idea didn't seem to bother her as much as the fact that it was dry and hard to swallow by that point.
She sat there and ate it--every last little bit.
Including the bits which she surreptitiously managed to drop on the floor.
And no, she didn't get another cookie when she finished it, even though she thought she should.
Then I had to go upstairs and deal with AJ for reading after I'd told her it was time to put the book down and go to sleep.
"But Mommy, I really love to read!"
"I'm glad you love reading so much, but you are supposed to be sleeping."
It's payback time for all the things I did as a kid, I guess.
Oops, gotta go. Baby E is waking up screaming after being asleep for about 15 minutes.
I got to know one or two of DH's relatives better that I hadn't talked with much before. We sang carols, including AJ's very first solo in front of a group. The girls acted out the story of Christ's birth with clay figures they made as DH told the story. We had a fabulous white elephant gift exchange with the family--fast becoming a favorite holiday tradition, as there are too many of us for a traditional gift exchange to be practical. We also had a couple of somewhat funny mishaps around Christmas meals . . . I'll post about them later.
Baby E and I got sick Christmas Eve. We both have miserable colds with a mild cough. Now DH is coming down with it too. Baby E is waking up every hour or so in the night, and is fussy and clingy during the day. Having a cold and cough/sore throat on top of teething must be miserable for her, poor thing.
I'd really like it if we could go more than 2 weeks at a time without getting sick here.
The girls are tired and over-socialized, and are grouchy and testing the limits in every possible way. Part of it is probably that I'm tired and not feeling well, so it doesn't take much to get on my nerves. But do you ever get the feeling that you'd like to run away from home, or send everyone else to Timbuktu? Not that I really would, of course, but the thought does cross my mind.
They got up this morning and helped themselves to potato chips for breakfast. Then they came in screaming and crying over some argument and woke the baby, who had finally dropped off to sleep just before I did, around 5 a.m.--about 30 minutes before DH got up and woke us again.
And thus the day proceeded.
MM is currently testing to see if we can tell whether she's telling the truth or not. It's gotten to the point that I can't believe anything she says, no matter how minor. I really hope she gets tired of dealing with the consequences of this soon.
Tonight the girls ate a pretty good dinner, after eating almost nothing at breakfast and lunch. Rice, carrots, tangerines and just a very small helping of meat.
Mealtime rules are simple here. They must taste at least one bite of everything, and then if they don't want something they don't have to eat it. What we're having for dinner is what they get, and they can eat it or be hungry later. We do have snacks sometimes, but not as a substitute for an uneaten meal.
If there's dessert (usually fruit or some other food they particularly like), we set a minimum amount of the other foods they have to eat to earn it. If they don't eat it, fine, but no dessert and no snacks later.
One of DH's sisters baked cookies as a Christmas gift for us, so I told the girls that if they ate all of the small helping of food on their plates, they could have one. AJ quickly complied and earned her cookie.
MM soon stuffed the last of her meat in her mouth and joyfully proclaimed, "I did it, Mommy! It's all gone. Now I can have a cookie?"
As she finished her cookie and went upstairs to have Daddy help brush her teeth, I put the baby down and went to clear the table.
There was a pile of chewed-up meat in the middle of MM's plate. She must have stuffed it all in her cheeks and waited until I wasn't looking to spit it out--after I gave her the cookie.
Because she lied about eating it all in order to get her cookie, there had to be a consequence. So I did what my mom did when I committed the same crime around that age. It made me gag, but the idea didn't seem to bother her as much as the fact that it was dry and hard to swallow by that point.
She sat there and ate it--every last little bit.
Including the bits which she surreptitiously managed to drop on the floor.
And no, she didn't get another cookie when she finished it, even though she thought she should.
Then I had to go upstairs and deal with AJ for reading after I'd told her it was time to put the book down and go to sleep.
"But Mommy, I really love to read!"
"I'm glad you love reading so much, but you are supposed to be sleeping."
It's payback time for all the things I did as a kid, I guess.
Oops, gotta go. Baby E is waking up screaming after being asleep for about 15 minutes.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted by purple_kangaroo at 9:20 PM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
I hope you all get some much needed rest and feel better soon!
MM is a sneaky little thing. I was laughing, but I know it is not funny if you are the oen to have to deal with the problem. The meat thing is gross, but she will probably not try that trick again.
Ha, Ha. It's fun to read about what I have to look forward to.
CCW and Doug, actually I did think it was funny even at the time. I couldn't help chuckling because I clearly remember doing something very similar as a child myself.
lovely girls, you have! you must really been blessed!
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