Freeze!
I had a really, really rough day a few days ago. Way too many "bad mama" moments. One of them happened when my sweet, angelic daughter cast a devilish glance over her shoulder and *ran* away from me towards the street. I wanted to spank her so, so badly. The entire time I was getting her under control, I had a little rant going in my head: "You will not hit your daughter, do not hit your child, do not hit your child."
I don't believe in spanking. But I'm haunted by a lot of spanking demons.
Spanking is not at all how I want to raise my daughter. And quite frankly, I don't think it would work anyways. If anything it would make it even more of a power struggle, and if there is anything Bella loves and looks forward to, it is a power struggle!
So I'm pondering other ways to handle this particular problem, and one of them is to teach Bella the "Freeze," game, but really make it a game. I'm also thinking I could tell her to "Jump!" Or "Spin," or ANYTHING except "stop," or "come back here," or "don't go in the street/jump in that huge puddle/eat that questionable object in your hand."
Being creative is so much harder than spanking though. I can get why someone would just go there, not knowing what else to do.
I love the concept of the "Freeze" game though, and honestly I wish she would FREEZE! Just for a minute. I need to catch up.
Lately she is just growing so fast, my head is spinning. Suddenly my little girl is climbing up on our kitchen chairs. I turn around and see that she has climbed up into my chair and is sitting in front of my computer, right hand poised on the mouse, clicking away, beaming, as if to say: "Look Mama, I'm hacking!" She is insistent upon climbing up on the chair to "help" me cook or wash dishes. She wants to be outside every. single. second. She runs around giving kisses and hugs and she answers questions with a thoughtful nod or an emphatic shake of her head. She plays in the bathtub, by herself. (While I sit on the closed toilet reading a book.)
She can touch her head, shoulders, knees AND toes. Not to mention her nose. The other day she whimpered as she was waking up, so I went and lay down beside her. She nursed for a while, then suddenly opened her eyes and looked at me, smile so big she was glowing in the dark room. "Nose," she proclaimed clearly. Tonight she was eating pears and she said "paarrreee."
And, of course, she is now officially running! Like, airborne! So if you have any creative ideas for making her want to run *towards* me instead of towards the street, I sure would be grateful!
Who is this child and what has she done with my baby? I'll catch up with her eventually, right?