There’s no pre-school this week for Rachel and we’re on our third day of vacation week. Yesterday started off a little rough with Hannah in a grumpy, tired mood and Rachel having some sharing issues. When Rachel was younger she was never much of a hitter or biter. Instead she was a toy grabber and hoarder. When she walked into a room with toys she’d scope out a stroller, put all the toys she liked in it and scream if anyone tried to touch it. Well, we’ve gotten past that, but sometimes that impulse comes out. Yesterday morning she had all the small chairs, strollers, toy cribs, dolls, etc. set up in a giant airplane scene and she expected Hannah not to touch any of it. Needless to say there was a lot of whining, crying and at times some screaming going on. At one point we all lost it when Rachel wouldn’t let Hannah play with the shopping cart and I told her that she had to let Hannah play with something. Rachel tearfully explained that the shopping cart was the baggage cart. In the end, Hannah got the shopping cart, but I couldn’t help feeling a little sorry for Rachel. The shopping cart does make a great baggage cart. By 8:45 am things were looking pretty grim. Soon after that I told Rachel that she either include Hannah in her game or set it up in a another room. She thought about it a litle while, and then started calling Hannah “Husband.” (See post from a few days ago “Husband and Sister.”) Things settled down and Hannah went down for a nap. After the nap we went to a park and got some of that pent-up energy out. There was sun and it sunk right into our skin and pulled us out of our rut.
By this morning, something had turned. Rachel’s mood was light and easy. Even though she asked me to put Hannah down for a nap before 9:00, she made it through. When Hannah finally did nap she had a good hour and more to set up all our little people toys, arranging imaginatively and creating dialogue between them. After Hannah’s nap we walked to the grocery store and Rachel chose to walk, rather than ride in the stroller. She walked the whole way without complaining. Some great funk has lifted from our little world. Rachel had been in this new defiant phase for about 4 or 5 days. That has lifted, too.
This isn’t the most interesting post, but I’m dragging a little, worn out from the change in routine and from staying up too late watching reality television. (Can’t they put SuperNanny on a little earlier? and what a lame episode this week anyway!) It’s been good to be challenged again and forced to find a different rhythm. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.
Two sweet images I have from today are walking in on Hannah talking to her stuffed dog in the crib and showering it with big smacking kisses, and seeing Rachel and Hannah playing together and then stop and stand, arms around each other’s waist and shoulder, enjoying each other completely.
I snuck away tonight to see Million Dollar Baby–a very good movie, but different than I expected. Before kids, I used to try to see all movies nominated for the academy awards. This year I’m cramming. This is my first! I’m hoping to catch Aviator and Ray before Sunday.
