Falling Behind

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in a while. I'm in one of those periods in my life where I feel like life is going on ahead of me and I just can't seem to keep up. I'm not sure why. I really can't imagine how my friends can do it that work full-time and raise their families and keep a home...it baffles me. There are phone calls I need to be making, birth stories to write up for clients, post- partum visits, trim to crochet for skating carnivals, I just seem to keep falling behind.

On a happy note, Lyric actually PEED on the toilet yesterday, ON PURPOSE!! Although it really surprised her. I used my friends advice and went for the bribery angle. I bought her a tube of M&M's yesterday and she tried and tried to pee all day so she could earn those. Finally last night she did it!! It's just a baby step...we've had lots of wet pull-ups, but it's a start! With my other two, they trained right when they turned three. They were old enough to understand it all, and basically did a lot of it on their own. With Lyric I have to constantly ask her to sit on the potty and try. It's a lot of work. Of course it's worth it, I can't wait until the Sieberts are done with diapers!! It will be a very happy day.

I also had a breakthrough in parenting with Izzy the other morning. She was having a tantrum over the fact that she had to get dressed before going downstairs, but Obi didn't (he didn't have to get to school that day so I wasn't in a rush to get him ready). She lost it. Screaming, stomping, crying, you name it. I was completely CALM. I told her she could stay upstairs until she was finished and that when she decided that she was done she was welcome to come down for breakfast (I wasn't sarcastic, I said it kindly). She went on and on screaming that now I wouldn't even let her EAT. I explained that it was her decision, not mine. She continued for a bit until I said "Izzy, I know that you are angry, and that you don't think I'm being fair, but please stop and come downstairs for breakfast" (can you hear how calm I was...I was impressing myself on this one). Her answer shocked me even more "Okay" she said in a normal (not screaming) voice, and down she trundled fully dressed and ready for breakfast. "You made a good choice" I told her as she passed me in the kitchen. She proceeded to pick out her cereal and told me her choice in a cheery- sunshine voice. Well, who could have ever imagined that those parenting strategies I"ve read about actually work...so WELL. Usually I get frustrated when she has her tantrums and I go into the whole "I can't believe you're having a baby tantrum at the age of 6" lecture, but this time I simply empathized with her frustration, and it stopped the tantrum. Incredible.

Parenting is a rough job. Rewarding...but rough. We're always learning something new aren't we??

Well, I should get to some of those phone calls. I'll try to blog tomorrow. Sorry about falling behind in my writing, I know I have a lot of faithful readers. I wish I knew who you all were too, it's cool to see people from all over North America reading my blog. I feel honoured.

Mel