I'm Better Today

Really. Sometimes a pity party is in order, you know?

I've decided the little Bugger I'm incubating has already got her days and nights confused. I'm hoping when she can actually see day and night that will change. She is pretty quiet through most of the day, but when I lie down to go to sleep, I get attacked from the inside.

My daughter's best friend (as much as a 2 year old can have a best friend) who is also 2 had to get stitches last night. She had a really cute little band-aid across her forehead this morning. Poor little thing. Even worse, she's going to smack my daughter before the day is out for repeatedly asking, "What happened?" My daughter must have asked her at least a dozen times in the 4 minutes before I left.

That's my daughter's new thing. "What happened?" Over and over again. I think she's preparing me for when she reaches the "Why?" stage. I don't want to be this prepared. If I drop something on the floor (and manage not to curse -- that's the tricky part), she asks, "What happened, Mama?"
"Oh, I just dropped on the floor."
"You dropped it?"
"Yes."
"What happened?" (Didn't I just explain this part?)

She is also learning to say that she is sorry. Our timeout routine consists of the following:
1. She does something wrong (usually hitting, kicking, or spitting).
2. I take her to timeout (she has her own corner -- lucky her).
3. She sits and cries for about 15 seconds.
4. She quits crying and starts looking for stuff to play with.
5. I let her sit for another 45 seconds or so. I've found that timeout is ineffective once she starts looking for stuff to play with. Then it's just a timeout for mommy.
6. I get down on my knees and tell her to come to me.
7. She runs over arms already out (she knows the drill).
8. I ask her what she did wrong (no hugs until this question can be answered). She's gotten to where she can tell me. My husband thinks this is because there are very few offenses that she gets put in timeout for, so she just starts going through the list (in actuality, she doesn't list them -- she usually knows exactly why she was in trouble).
9. I repeat why she was in timeout and tell her why what she did was wrong.
10. Then she hugs me and tells me that she's sorry.

Timeout with Daddy goes like this:
1. She does something wrong.
2. Warning from Daddy.
3. She does it again.
4. Another warning.
5. And one more time.
6. No more warnings.
7. He takes her to timeout.
8. She screams and cries like she's being tortured (for about 15 seconds -- apparently that is her attention span).
9. She then doesn't bother to get up or anything, but starts saying, "Sorry, Daddy," from her corner.
10. He tells her to come out.
11. She runs over and gives him a hug.
12. He asks her what she did wrong.
13. She says, "Ummmmm..........."
14. He tells her and tells her why it was wrong.
15. Another hug.

Don't you love our consistency? Several warnings from Daddy, but Mommy means business. Don't mess with Mommy. She will just stick you in timeout. I'm sure child experts would tell me that I'm messing her up. She needs another chance to do better. Yeah, when I am nice enough to give warnings (more consistency), she spits at me (kind of a raspberry kind of thing, but the disrespect is there -- she's learned not to hit at or kick at Mommy).

Don't worry, Mommy actually gives warnings for most things. There are just a few (biting, hitting, kicking, and spitting top the list) that are zero-tolerance offenses with me. It's an automatic timout with no warnings.

I hope she's in a good mood when I pick her up today. Despite the sinus headache that is centered around my left eye, I'm in a pretty good mood myself. I'd be in a better mood if I hadn't been exposed to strep throat, but, you know, what can I do? I'm hoping that the person who had it was already past the contagious phase.