Friday, December 03, 2004

Morning difficulties

Few things can spin a morning out of control and totally sap your spirits like young children in a bad mood.

unfortunately, Tegan and I were on the receiving end of one of these ill-timed fits today.

Lately Ariel and Ruth have been holding onto a coughed that they just can't get rid of. It usually strikes at night and it makes it difficult for them to go down for sleep or it wakes them up at inconvenient hours of the morning.

But last night, Ruth slept very well (much better than the night before). When I came back upstairs from eating my bowl of cereal, I heard her calling out for someone. Her default request is usually for Mommy, especially since she often calls me Mommy as well.
I sometimes don't know how to take that--either I do a pretty good job of parenting, so that she doesn't distinguish (which I know isn't really true) or it is another example of rule 7B (sorry--that's a work joke).

Anyway, I went in there to pick Ruth up and everything was fine at first. I was picking out an outfit for her to wear and I laid her down on the changing pad to begin taking off her pajamas and the diaper. Complicating the issue was the fact that Ruth was continuing to hold onto a blanket, a stuffed Pooh Bear doll and a stuffed Eeyore doll. So, I got Eeyore away from her so I could negotiate the pj zipper.

She wasn't happy about THAT, and she let me know quickly. But I still couldn't successfully get the pjs off. So, next I took the blanket. This made her madder and now Ruth is starting to twist this way and that to get off of the changing pad to get to her items that I took away. Needless to say, this made taking the diaper off rather complicated.

By now she is in full wailing mode, clearly pissed off at me. I backtrack a bit and return the blanket to her, but it is FAR too late for any reconciliation on my part.

Tegan appears, after hearing the wailing (along with several of our neighbors, maybe.) She takes over, hoping a change of parent (and the insertion of Mommy) might soothe things. But even that won't work. I retreat to get Sarah out of bed and in some clothes, but the wailing continues, as it did for just about the entire rest of the morning's preparations and most of the drive to the daycare.

But its not all bad. I've got great little girls who are very intelligent, happy (mostly), spectacularly blessed with so many things. Quickly vent on the negative and then resume focusing on the positive.

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