Fruit Inspection

Am I the only one who thinks my kids keep getting better and better? I mean, really, when they were infants I just wasn’t crazy about that stage. All crying and slumped over. There is no fun in that. But then they could sit up and I’d say, “Oh, I love that she can sit up and enjoy her toys!” Then they could crawl or walk and I’d think, “Oh, this is so cool, this is my favorite stage so far”. But then came talking! And sure, while some of the constant chatter makes me want to shove my fingers in my ears on certain days and scream “La la la la…I can’t HEAR you!”, for the most part, I TOTALLY enjoy hearing what my kids are talking about. Especially Savannah.

In the past 2 or 3 months I can see such a maturity in her speech. We’ve been having good conversations for quite some time, but I mean now, we really communicate. About feelings and questions. She pulls all kinds of information together and reasons things out. It’s so cool! I like being around her so much more every day. She’s fun to go shopping with. Watch a movie with. And we even had a good time sitting in my doctors waiting room for over an hour last week. I find her quite delightful!

All that being said, the past 2 days she has been driving me crazy. I am practicing the skills I learned from “ScreamFree Parenting” (which is so awesome and I want to write about that but have no idea where to start because it is the best gosh darn parenting information I have ever received…EVER), and I am very proud of myself for not raising my voice to get the desired results for the better part of the new year. However, I think she is on to me. She has discovered that Mommy isn’t going to yell if she doesn’t do what I asked, when I asked it. Obviously there are other consequences, but she has decided that she wants to discuss and negotiate these conseqences with me.

The days of constant whining seems to have given way to these l-o-n-g discussions. Which have led to explanations of the word “arguing” and “back-talk”. I am still keeping my cool, but good Lord, it is hard to keep from just screaming “BE QUIET!!! Just do what I told you to do and for the love of God stop talking!!!” I’m hoping she is just testing me, trying to get me to loose it, and that as I continue on, steadfast in my calm demeanor, she will eventually realize her efforts of negotiating consequences of HER choice are not an option. Wish me luck and until then, here is a snippet of a conversation after Sunday night’s bath:

Me: Savannah, go get the comb and give it to Daddy so he can comb your hair.
Her: Um, no thank you Mommy. My hair is just fine.
Me: I didn’t ask you if your hair was fine, I asked you to get the comb so Daddy could comb your hair.
Her: Well, I don’t think I have time.
Me: You don’t have time?
Her: No, I am too busy back-talking you.