Sick Kids

My mom graciously offered to take care of the kids Monday after the doctor's appointment and Tuesday. On Monday, Henry stepped onto the top step of the pool while in his tennis shoes. He also threw some of his garden tools and rocks into the pool.

I stopped by Barnes and Noble on my way home from the doctor's office. I bought books on toddler behavior. Jeff is currently reading a book called Raising Your Spirited Child, and I'm reading The Happiest Toddler on the Block.

The book that I'm reading categorizes toddler's personalities as "easy," "shy," or "spirited." If you go to a mall with your toddler, put them down on the ground, and turn your back, what do they do? Well, that's easy for us to answer when it comes to Henry. He makes a break for it without looking back. That places him in the "spirited" category. What would Miss R do? I'm pretty sure that she'd cry. That makes her "shy."

The author compares toddlers to cavemen. He says that the toddler mind is primitive. There's no point in trying to reason with a toddler. I'm only 50 pages into the book. The author recommends listening to your child and then repeating their requests or putting their feelings into words. For example, if Henry says, "Outside." Then, I'm supposed to say, "So you want to go outside, right?"

That's just the technique that we've been using for months, and Henry traps us every time with it. Here's how. After being told that we aren't going to watch TV, Henry will strike up a conversation in the following way.

HENRY: Hold You!
KATE: You want to hold me?
[Henry throws his arms around my neck and gives me a nice long, sweet hug. He pulls back and looks at me.]
KATE: May I kiss you?
[Henry leans his head forward so that I can give him a kiss.]
HENRY: Lady Tramp
KATE: So you want to watch Lady and the Tramp?
HENRY: OK.

Our attempts to clarify his requests end up being interpreted as us offering to him whatever he has just requested.

On Monday afternoon/early evening, Jeff went over to my parents' house and made them dinner. I stayed home working. The book that I'm working on has an August 15 deadline. I'm hoping to have most of my part done before we leave for Oregon. At least the data analysis part.

On Tuesday, I took Henry and Miss R to my parents' house. They both took naps, although Henry's nap didn't last long. Both kids are still coughing a little. They haven't had fevers since Saturday, which means they probably aren't contagious. Now that they are on the mend, Jeff is in full-blown cold mode. Hopefully, our house will have fully recovered by the end of the week...so that we can pick up some new illness to conquer.

On a side note, I don't think that I've mentioned how I discovered that Henry has a lot of book phrases memorized. Books that we haven't read in ages. Books that we read occasionally but not regularly. I noticed it with one of the Thomas the Tank Engine books the other day. I paused before any noises were to be expressed and asked Henry what happened. If the book said that the cars crashed, I'd pause before the word "crashed" and have Henry fill it in. He did it really well. Then, I paused before phrases were said, such as "Bust my buffers!" (a Thomas phrase) and Henry would fill in the phrase. I did this again a day later with The Haunted House, which he hasn't been interested in a month but when it was his favorite book, we read it several times a day. Henry filled in several words on a page.

Miss R is doing wonderfully with her vocabulary. Jeff commented that she appears to be going through a speech explosion. We are trying to capitalize on her current interest in words. She knows what hair and ears are now. She is absorbing a lot of information. She really loves our dog Roger. When she comes home, she wants to give him a hug and a kiss. She also likes "Bits," our crazy cat. I'm less keen on her hugging Bitsy b/c Bitsy is a bit of a thug. I love that cat, but she's unpredictable and likes to mix it up.

Tomorrow, the kids "may" be starting school. Hopefully, the rest of the night will be uneventful.