Happenings

1600 Happenings

My last post was my 1600th.  I sure can go on and on and on and ...

General Happenings

Let's see, quick updates on happenings.  Monday, Avery went to school, I took Mom to the airport, kept the house tidy, read, played Lexulous, and cooked dinner.  Tuesday, Avery went to school, I took a nap, met some friends for lunch, read, kept the house tidy, cooked dinner, and was asleep by 8:30 pm.  Yep, I lead an exciting life.

I haven't decided what Avery and I will be doing today.   For the moment, I've built a fort in the living room, brought her some stuffed animals, and suggested that she could make tickets for them to enter the fort.  This is currently working a strategy to encourage independent playtime.  We'll see how long it lasts.

House Happenings

The deck out front is complete except for the railings.  There was a miscommunication between our GC and the guy building the deck who was unaware that there were to be any railings.  I hope all the contractors are as nice and friendly as the guy who did the deck.  He not only seemed very competent, but was friendly without being annoying and made me feel completely at ease.  I'm not sure what step is next for our house, but I think the crane will be arriving soon to put up the shingles on the front of the house.

Our GC is also coming over tonight to discuss plants and trees for landscaping.  So the project is fully underway after getting off to a slow start due to his sickness, and then due to our indecision on house color. 

Avery Happenings

I feel like her communication skills have taken another leap forward in the past few weeks.  She was able to tell me several things she did at school on our way home yesterday.  Previously, she'd maybe tell us one thing or two things.  She also had what I would call a real phone conversation with my dad the other day.  Granted it was about random things like how she was missing one of her toys and how she was holding a dinosaur, which she correctly (and on her own) identified as a brachiosaurus, but was still more of a conversation than she usually has when talking to someone on the phone.

She is still using the word "because" a lot.  She says things like, "We no go tricycling because it's raining."  Or, "I wear sunblock because it's sunny."

Another change is that she's started to tell little lies.  Mostly they involve telling us that the other parent (or Nain) said she doesn't have to do something (e.g. put on underwear or go potty).

Avery's tantrums are fewer now, though when she has them, she really has them.  Right now, my analysis is that it's always us telling her no to something that sets her off, but that's really just a cover.  I think she's just feeling frustration at that point in time and uses the tantrum as her outlet to get those feelings out.  A lot of articles on tantrums will tell you to reflect the child's feeling back, "It looks like you're frustrated/sad/whatever.  Are you feeling frustrated?"  I know that has worked for a lot of friends.  This does not work for Avery.  It just makes her more mad.  Timeouts also do not work when she's needing a full blown tantrum.  Time outs work a lot of the time, but that is because she's not needing an outlet so extreme most of the time. The best thing, as my Mom learned too, is to be silent and not touch Avery.  Just let her work through it on her own.  This is tough to do because it takes a long time and a lot of patience, but after trying a multitude of things, it's my feeling that this it the best way to handle Avery's tantrums.  I know enough about kids by now to know that it may not be the way to handle other kids' tantrums, or even that it might not be how to handle her tantrums x number of months from now.  I can also predict with pretty good accuracy when she's looking for the opportunity to have a tantrum.  So with a little maneuvering of not giving in, but not outright saying no, we can sometimes avoid it.  To be clear, I say no to her a lot, so it's not the saying of "no" that automatically causes it.  It's saying "no" when she's apparently needing that outlet. 

Dog Happenings

Eddie is slowly losing control of his ability to hold his bowels.  He's had several accidents in the house where he just can't make it outside in time.  Some have happened even when he's been let out recently, so it's not always a matter of being inside for too long.  I'm not sure anything can be done other than to clean it up.  Does anyone know if there is medication to help with this?  I don't feel like going to the vet and paying $500 for them to tell me my dog is old.