How to be a mime/ Parenting 101

There have been two times in my parenting career that I have felt like I was the most brilliant parent ever. The first came by way of Dora and the second was my own brilliantness coming through. Last year Whitney became very interested in Dora. At the same time I was having a hard time getting her to do anything I asked for example; take a bath, go to bed, eat dinner, etc. I am the type of person that likes to have a plan. There are a few times that I can just go with the flow and all will be well, but most of the time I like a plan. (Really I think I just like the control I feel with a plan, relenquishing that control is a little tough.) I thought that maybe Whit was just having a problem with being told what to do all the time and never knowing what was going to happen. So I took a clue from Dora. In each episode they have something they are supposed to do and typically two places they need to go through first. Then they sing a little song about where they are going. So our final destinastion was bed, but we needed to eat dinner first and have a bath. So we made a map and sang the "where are we going" song which was bed and off we went. Our evenings were a lot easier. Followed by our shopping days and any other day. She just needed to know the plan.

Now that she is older this trait has come out significantly. She is definitely a plan girl. Each morning she wants to know what day it is and what do we do on that day even if she knows what we do on that day. If we stray from the normal, try to have dinner at our house on Sunday instead of Grandma's, it becomes a problem. It's not that she doesn't like change she just likes routine and to know what is going to happen. I am sure if I let her know in advance about a change in our Sabbath day dining habits she would not feel like her world had been turned upside down and she had no control.

More recently we have had a volume problem when Ryan is sleeping. Apprantely it is just hard to play quietly for any length of time. Don't get me wrong she can play by herself and do it quietly but there is something about Ryan sleeping that makes it complicated. So in a stroke of genius I pulled out a pair of white gloves and taught her how to be a mime. I explained to her that when mimes have on their white gloves they don't speak or make any noise. So now when she gets just a little too loud we find her own size mime gloves and she can pretend to lock herself in an invisible closet. I enjoy the quiet and she thinks it is hilarious to press your face against a fake glass door.

Date with Dad

Whitney and Tom went on a date last week. They went to dinner and then the Nutcracker ballet. Whit was so excited. She loves the movie Barbie and the Nutcracker so she was very excited to see the ballet in real life. They went to a fancy dinner at a restaurant of Whitney's choosing, Wendy's, (I am sure they were the best dressed people there!) and then to the show.

She said her favorite part was when the rat king died. She has now decided that she wants to become a ballerina. She dances around the house in her leotard, tights on the outside, and ballet shoes and carries her program of the show with her from room to room so she can pose like the pictures. If she continues to want to do ballet then we will have to get her in a class.

Benedict Mom

Ryan has always been known for his hansom locks. Anywhere we go people comment on his hair. The challenge with being born needing a hair cut is that you have to have it cut frequently. We started hair cuts at 2 months and have had them about every two months. Now that he is more aware it has become a more complicated process. Because of this we have not cut his hair for about 5 months. Our last hair cut was in July and we went super short. Unfortunately today was hair cut day. This happens to be his least favorite day of all days even worse than vaccine day. Shots are over in a few seconds while the hair cut takes at least 5 minutes.

Liz is so wonderful to cut it even though he screams the entire time. I only have before and after pictures because it takes two of us for the actual cut. I have to restrain him while Liz cuts. He cried the entire time and looked at me like I was a traitor. He treated me as such when it was over. He has held a grudge pretty much the entire night. He has only wanted Tom all afternoon and evening. If I try to pick him up he cries and reaches for Tom. If Tom leaves the room he whines and runs after him. (This actually turned out to be beneficial when his diaper needed changing.) I am sure he will forget about it by tomorrow, but we will relive this scenario in 2 months.

I will admit that he looks super cute with it longer. But he just doesn't like having it combed and bed head all day is unacceptable. I combed it right before the picture. It did not look like this 3 hours later when we went to get it cut. It was a little disheveled.