Finally.....I have got myself organised enough to acknowledge this happy sunshiney award kindly given to me by Miss Prudence. Thanks for thinking of me! I have a very small band of bloggy friends, however, and cannot think of 12 people to bestow it upon so I am simply awarding it to CT at wee hour stitches who is worth her weight in blog awards. It sounds corny but a hello from CT on my blog really does feel like a little burst of sunlight in my day.I have managed to coax a few more photos out of our temperamental camera. My little Curly Whirl Girl has a thing for stockings, or "snockings" as we prefer to call them. She is well and truly in the developmental stage of assserting her independance and will ONLY wear clothes that she chooses to wear. She doesn't care much for wearing her big sister's hand-me-downs (except for some reason for the really really shabby ones!) so I decided to let her choose a couple of new long sleeved shirts at Target. It's getting quite chilly here now that it is almost winter and she usually refuses point blank to wear a long sleeved shirt because she "doesn't like any of them". So...she chose a shirt and then wanted to go to Pumpkin Patch to look at "snockings". After much deliberation she chose these two pairs. I wish I could get them in my size. "The snowflake ones will be really really good for Christmas" she told me earnestly. I didn't like to point out that it will be warmish here in December. Funny how Australian kids grow up expecting things to be like they are in fairy tales and kids cartoons from the BBC in England.
My little girl is quite challenging at the moment. Adorable and loving, yes, but SO SO stubborn and mischievous. She is literally at times completely out of my control and I find myself either giving up trying to get her to stop doing something she shouldn't be doing or do something she should be doing, losing my temper and yelling and stomping about , or this week, just sitting and crying tears of frustration and tiredness. This at first made her laugh, but then she realised that I actually was sad and gently stroked my arm and said "It's ok, Mummy". I don't believe in smacking (although I have done it several times in the midst of losing my temper) and my back is a bit dodgy which prevents me picking her up or dragging her to her room or a "thinking chair". I've tried getting down on my knees and trying to get her to look at me while I explain in a firm voice what she needs to do (eg stop hitting her sister) but nothing seems to work. I've tried counting to three and then threatening to remove privileges eg TV but she couldn't care less about such things. Occasionally, I can bribe her with a Yakult or something but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do. Is there something I am forgetting? Any suggestions are very very welcome. I love her so much but she is truly driving me to distraction at the moment.
PS I have tried reward charts before but right now, she seems to be having too much fun misbehaving in the moment to think about future rewards.
Here she is again - my cheeky pixie!!! 