Well hello again.
It's been awhile since I posted. See, it's that new schedule again. I'm at the tail end of my stretch of working 6 days out of 8. Ugh.
In that time, Chris has been working with the people at Allstate to get our car situation figured out. The initial appraiser offered us $3000.00 flat on site for our poor, battered, beaten car. Sorry, Buddy, she's worth waaaaay more than that. So Chris is in the middle of negotiations with the guy who handles payouts for totaled cars. But seeing how he loves negotiations (and not to mention the challenge of finding a suitable replacement car for a reasonable price), he has been reveling in the challenge.
I've decided, during this crazy week, why youngest children in a family with three or more kids are often spoiled little Monsters. By the time you get to your third baby's toddlerhood, you're tired. I think most parents out there have an idea of how they want to discipline their children- some before the said children are even born. We'd talked about it anyway. And we were good about enforcing rules, following guidelines, blah, blah, blah.
With the second baby, you're a little more lax. You've figured out what works, what doesn't, what you care about, and what you don't when it comes to discipline. Your methods have been trialed- you know what things to be a stickler about and what things to let slide. All in all making for a fairly rounded child, I think.
And the third.... well...... You're just tired. Finn is growing into his personality and his independence. He has discovered his "I am NOT happy about that" voice, and it is not a pleasant sound. There were many times when I found myself thinking to myself "oh for God's sake, just give him the ______________ (insert dangerous/heavy/taboo/expensive item here) so he'll stop screaming at me!!!" Then I had to stop, take a step back, and remind myself that giving-in behavior is what causes little Monsters.
I stayed strong and didn't give in. But the kid is smart. Distraction just does not work very well with him. As a result, we had a lot of temper tantrums this week, and I'm sure we'll have our fair share of many more. *sigh*
It has been a challenging week in many ways. I'm not sorry to say that I'm happy to see it go.
Here's to brighter days in my coming days off!
I hear ya on that! Garrett doesn't distract easily either--I can take him away from whatever it was he was after (say, the dog dish) across to the opposite side of the next room, & sit him in front of his favorite toys, look away for a second, and he's back across the room at the dog dish again! I did this 4 times one morning! Grrrr! And G's "not happy" voice isn't pleasant either.
ReplyDeleteAren't toddlers fun? LOL!