Friday, April 23, 2010

“I had a long day.”


Yes, these are the exact words my toddler decided to scream the other night after 30 minutes of trying to get her to bed. It was hysterical. Jason started writing all of the things she was screaming down and I have listed them at the bottom of this because it really was funny. So among the almost tears of dealing with putting her back to bed a million and one times, we sat and looked at the list and realized just why she was being such a terror. Before, all those lines had worked on us. To be quite honest, I think we truly failed as parents during the past few weeks, mostly during our vacation. We inadvertently created a little blond-haired monster. One who knew how to get her way by crying loudly, hitting us, screaming at the top of her lungs and then playing hungry, tired, sick, and needy. Oh, yeah, and that she had a long day. (She must have heard this from her teachers:)).
Anyway, that was the first night we implemented the Super Nanny way of getting her back in her bed (thanks to insight from my mother-in-law). After telling Sydney one time she had to stay in her bed, every time she got out, we put her back in gently with no talking. By the time she stopped, I was sweating from the up and down the hall, tired, sore and really over it. But, you know what…it worked. And last night, although painful again, I do think it took less than 45 minutes. Let’s see how tonight goes. Time out is next with this approach, because we are fighting to keep her in her room for time out, so I think the “naughty spot” might be making an appearance at our house vs. her room. Anyone else done that? 123 Magic says use the room, but we either have to put a lock on the outside of her door (which I am not a huge fan of) or stand in her door way.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. We are heading to the Inman Park Festival and parade tomorrow and very excited about. We will miss our friends Lauren, Jonathan and Lizzie, since they turned us on to it years ago, but we will see them soon.

 
Quotes from the Toddler "Fighting Sleep" Bedroom

  •  I’m sick 
  • I don’t feel good
  • I want to give you a big smoochie
  • I want to give you a big hug
  • My stomach hurts
  • I’m hungry
  • I’m not tired
  • I don’t feel better
  • I had a long day
  • Talk to me, Mommy
  • You hurt me
  • I want my sleeping bag

4 comments:

  1. Ah, what sweet photos, and thanks for sharing a story we can all relate to in our crazy mommy worlds. Don't ever say you failed as a parent. You can never fail, you love her and she loves you too much for that to happen. Mistakes will happen, and you're a great example of how important it is to try new things as parents.

    You guys also had a long vacation making it hard to get back into the swing of things. But when you look back at all those great photos, the bad stuff will be long forgotten.

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  2. Thank you, my friend! You are probably very right.

    On another note, can't believe you get to keep rooting for Tebow!:)

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  3. Ahhhh...I remember the days you are describing. So not fun, but they do pass (although they do make occasional appearances still). About the lock, we put child safety covers over all our knobs. It made me feel less Mommy Dearest than putting locks on the door, but she couldn't open the doors when they were shut completely. I even put one on the outside of my bedroom door for when mommy needed a timeout (we don't have any locks on any of our doors).

    Have fun at Inman...if it's not raining, we may go Sat. morning.

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  4. Thanks, Amy. You are so right about feeling like Mommy Dearest:) I like the idea of the child safety covers. Thank you! Have to report that last night she was so tired she passed out before I could even stop rocking her (for like one minute). We'll see!

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