THE GOOD
Grace has tried and actually swallowed several fruits!!!! She has eaten strawberries, grapes, kiwi and banana!!! She also has eaten broccoli and green beans (the yucky can kind).I got her to eat the strawberries with extra sugar several days in a row. Today she wouldn't eat them, but I think it is because I gave her all her lunch at once. I get her to eat the vegies by putting her in the highchair with only vegies while I get the rest ready. Grace is a big fan of lo mein noodles :) I never saw her eat so fast! She will eat any meat or potato I put in front of her. Anyway, big steps with the fruit and vegies!!!!
Grace can make snake and tiger sounds! She consistently says "hi". Still waiting for "mama" :) She can practically run, which makes me a nervous wreck outside. She is such a flirt to strangers. People she sees often barely get a hello, but the cranky old woman at Walmart gets the best waves and smiles. Go figure.... maybe she will be a politician :)
THE BAD
Grace's sleep has been off the past week. She wakes and screams and just wants to be with us. This happens during nap and bedtime. We had a couple nights where we were up for 3 hours. We would rock her back to sleep, lay her down and she would wake screaming 5 minutes later. The next night would be ok and then bad again. She usually ends up in our bed which CAN NOT go on for long. Brad and I both do not do well with a crowded bed!!! She will actually stay in the crib if she sees us standing there. She will peek out every minute or so to check. I stood there one night for about 20 minutes and then gave up on that because she wouldn't go to sleep. I think she just wants us near. We set up the pack and play in our room thinking we could lay her in that just so she was near us. Didn't work!!!! She screamed and ended up in our bed again last night. I'm hoping this is a short phase...
THE UGLY
Grace has taken up hitting again along with some other naughty behaviors. She throws food off her tray, opens the oven door and plays with the knobs, messes with my dishwasher and washing machine, etc. She isn't going to have a college fund if she breaks all my appliances!!! We tell her "no" firmly, remove her, try time out, etc. She just laughs! Laughs laughs, laughs! It's so frustrating. Not sure if she is testing us or what. But I'm exhausted with hearing myself say "no". You can tell she knows exactly what she is doing and for some reason she is seeking negative attention. I am always with her and have really tried to praise her when she has good behavior. This all started to escalate about a week ago. She already wasn't the best listener, but she is purposely going from one thing to the next trying to get a reaction. If this is a test, I think I'm failing :( Any advice???
5 comments:
Oh Jeanette, I can totally relate. We are going thru some of the same issues. Throwing food....just won't tolerate that. It started a few weeks ago and happens about every other day. I just take her food away but it doesn't seem to phase her. She's also fascinated with the dishwasher - I've even found Elmo in there. Marina has selective hearing and at times chooses not to acknowledge "no" or "nyet". Yes, I whip out the "nyet" and she knows she had better stop! But at times she keeps doing what she is not supposed to do.
About once a week she has been waking up at night and screaming. I think she has had a bad dream or just wakes up and is scared. But it's impossible to get her back to sleep - either in her room or our room. Last night she woke up at 4 a.m. and it was after 6 a.m. by the time she fell back to sleep. I'm not sure what we can do...
We flew to California last week for a wedding and the flights were torture. Marina acted like a different child - biting, screaming, spitting out her food, it was unbelievable and so hard to reprimand on a plane! Needless to say we will not be flying for a few years. I'm not sure why these bad behaviors are surfacing now - maybe she's testing our boundries. Regardless, it isn't pretty!
But, like you said, the good outweigh the bad, but some days the bad is very hard to manage.
Jeanette,
When I was reading "the ugly" part of your post, it reminded me so much of Lexi's behavior the first 6-9 months she was home - especially the oven door. Ugh! And if we were not giving her our undivided attention, she would do the very things she KNEW where no-nos and laugh hysterically about it. (I didn't think too much about it at the time because one of our bio sons acted much the same way.)
Over the past year, she gradually stopped [almost] all those bad behaviors and is sweeter than ever. Going to preschool in the mornings helped a lot because their routines and transitions are vey structured. I know Lexi was used to being on an extremely strict schedule in the baby home and our house was well... chaos most of the time. We just fly by the seat of pants around here. For the most part she adjusted beautifully to that, but if she wanted attention when I needed to be focused on something else, look out because the last thing you told her no about would be the first thing she would seek out! I am thankful to say that I had all but forgotten about those days until I read your post tonight. Now we just have typical 2 year old tantrums to deal with on occasion - which really aren't too bad at all.
It sounds like you're doing all the right things, just continue to do your best to stay calm, consistent, praise the good behavior, and continue to redirect, redirect, redirect. This too shall pass!
i'm hysterical about the flirting w/ the old lady at walmart!! hang in there. she has and is experiencing something we can't even comprehend. keep your cool, lots of deep breaths, and it'll pass eventually.
Sounds like someone around here..I can't think of her name..oh ya HOPE! Well Hope doesn't do the laughing thing, and doesn't like strangers (she's very afraid of people still). Hope does do a lot of naughties though..its post home/pre terrible 2's (I figure anyway)...they are getting comfortable, I put Hope in the Playpen when she is really not listening and she knows. She'll cry and I'll tell her why she is there. The crying at night happend to us a while back but no longer..I thought it was bad dreams, or some slip up of insecurity...this too will pass. Do a 'time in'..next to you in the play pen. At night you gotta reassure her and then put her back in her room. I have music and a special light at night, this helped-as soon as she'd hear the music or see the light. It set the mood, she'd calm down and go right to sleep along with her blankie. It's tough-there are so many angles we try to think of with these lil ones...do what is natural, take into consideration what they have been through,...it can be exhausting and confusing. XOX
OK, where ya been, 1 week is way to long to wait to hear whats been happening over there. Hope you post something new soon. Sally
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