Ah, the joys of having a 6 year old toddler. In some ways Amelia is more advanced than Eli. For example, she can run, walk at a normal speed, help with certain things around the house. But in many areas Amelia is at about a toddler age. She's in a 5 point harness because she wouldn't keep her seat belt on or over her shoulder. She jumps on her bed, tears books, whines, plays with her light switch (and the pull string on the fan while standing on her bed), won't stay in bed at night, can't play by herself, ignores instruction, destroys anything she has if we don't watch her like a hawk, and puts everything, and I mean everything in her mouth - money, books, picture albums, small toys, big toys, and I even caught her in her bed with her foot in her mouth (ewwwwww!).
I need to be a better "natural consequences" parent, but I don't know how. I think this week we're going to focus all my time and energy reminding the kids how to respect each other's toys.
What do you do when your kids continually touch feet under the table, then whine about it when the other person does it? I'm thinking of making them stand if they can't keep their feet off the other chairs.
What do you do when the girl puts stuff in her mouth? I usually take it away from her, but I can't take her feet off! So on come the socks. That she takes off and puts under her pillow as soon as I walk away.
What do you do in the car when the two of them are playing in a very loud and rowdy way, pulling on each other's hair and arms? I mean, it's great that they get along so well, but they're too wild for the car!
But there have been improvements. Most nights, the girl is so exhausted she passes out as soon as her head hits the pillow, so she doesn't have an opportunity to get out of bed. And she and Eli are really getting along and love each other (she got sad today when we dropped him off at school). And there are signs that she's maturing (like getting dressed in the morning without having to be told, only pumping the soap once, using an appropriate amount of toilet paper). But there's such a long road ahead of us...
She's been home the last 3 days because of a morning fever (which is gone by 10am). If she hadn't been lethargic and not eating I would have sent her to school anyway. This morning was the first time she ate a good breakfast and seems "normal" so hopefully tomorrow will be the day she gets to go back to school.
We've established some routines that have helped our days. Every night we choose what the kids are going to wear. They wake up, potty, brush their teeth (I have to brush Amelia's still), and eat breakfast. Then they change and make their beds so they can play. Would you believe that they're ready in less than an hour?!
We're taking Amelia out of tutoring. It was just too much for us. Poor thing was getting burned out! So we're going to start a routine of coming home from school, playing/having a snack for 30mins, then sitting down to do 30mins of "homework". Some of this will be from school, but most of it will be from workbooks I'll get at the learning center.
All in all, things are settling down quite nicely...another 5-6 months and we'll be sitting pretty (HA! just kidding! But at least she'll be better able to communicate.)
