Thursday, January 11, 2007

Adventures In Parenting

While staying with Brian's parents in Beaumont, Lily slept in the trundle portion of a day bed with few problems. Upon returning home, we thought it might be a good idea to turn her baby bed into a toddler bed...because she was so grown up.

Bad idea. No amount of consequences or positive reinforcement will keep that child in her bed. This week has been the worst. Usually, she does get up and down, but at some point she finally goes to sleep. Not only has she been getting up and down, but she's been keeping Darcy entertained, which keeps Darcy awake. So now I have two children who have not had naps and a husband that needs to work late. Did I mention that everyone is sick this week? Including me?

Lily's entertainment this week has resulted in removing all her clothes, baby lotion all over every stick of furniture and the carpet, a whole box of Kleenex emptied, a box of wipes emptied and Darcy being given a thermometer with Vaseline on the end. Darcy apparently thought was a comb and promptly put in her hair. Have you ever tried to get Vaseline out of hair? It takes more than a shampoo or two. It takes a miracle. After two consecutive days of Vaseline in the hair, I knew something had to be done. Way back in my pre-baby brain, I thought I recalled reading a trick in either Glamour or Cosmo about how to get rid of the "greasies" : baby powder. So this morning, I powdered Darcy's head. Now Darcy kind of looks like a 50 year old baby which is interesting. I am pleased to report: I think it's working. Of course, I'll know more when I give her a bath this afternoon. If it doesn't work, I don't think we'll be any worse off than we are now.

As for Lily, we were parenting outside of the funnel. We gave her a privilege that she was unable to handle which resulted in big trouble for her and us. We are now back to the crib. She didn't get up at all last night...imagine that. I guess she's not ready for a big girl bed yet. This is the second time we've tried this. I think she might be ready for it, but we are still trying to get back on track from our vacation. Somehow, Lily has forgotten her manners and that Mama and Daddy are in charge. Surely we'll get back on the straight and narrow before long.

The thing that hurts me the most is that I'm here with Lily all day and it's my responsibility to see that she minds and I have to be the one that administers discipline when Brian's not here. And everytime I spank her or make her do something that she doesn't want to do, she tells me "I want my daddy to come home." She's not kidding about that, either. It isn't as though when Brian spanks her she wants me. She wants him all the time. I run a very distant second. When we took her to the Emergency Room to have her head stitched up, we left the room while they did the work. The doctors and nurses told us that all she did was scream for her daddy. My mother and I have a strained relationship and always have, but even I wanted my mom when I was sick or hurt. I hope this isn't the way it's always going to be.

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