Today my daughters and I did some things together that they enjoy doing and things they would rather not do. First we had to clean. There was just no way getting around the mess in their bedroom. I’m also not quite sure how many Dora dolls we have in various shapes, sizes, and makes but there were many of them and they had all seemed to migrate overnight from their spaces in the baskets under the girls bed and in the closet and into our living room even all the way into the front walk area by the front door. There were dress up clothes strewn about and even regular clothing that had been “borrowed” for dressing up. Then there were all the nit-picky things like Lego's and other small things that if not picked up they will really hurt your feet when you aren’t paying attention and walking. Have you ever noticed that they are always precariously balanced so that the sharpest edge is in the perfect position so that as your natural stepping procedure happens, this type of toy not only manages to prick your foot but also roll with your foot if you do not manage to pick it up right away? And most often than not, you find yourself stumbling instead and indeed rolling the sharp sides of the dreaded Lego along the softest and weakest parts of your foot. So these things had to be picked up immediately. So it took hours, needlessly to say, to get my girls to clean a room with a floor space the size of a small twin mattress. My oldest in all honesty reminds me of myself. Every time she says “My bones are hurting!” or “My muscles just need a rest” after only a couple minutes of minimal effort, I find it very hard not to blame my mother. You see she always said that one day I would have a child and she would act just like me. So on days like today it’s very hard not to pick up the phone, call my mother, and give her a good talking to for speaking bad things into existence! My youngest daughter, well I haven’t quite figured her out yet. Just this week she scared me so bad, that once I figured out she was fine, I wanted to spank her and teach her a lesson but instead chose to talk to her. What happened was she and her sister had been fighting the entire day. After several hours and more separating them than I can remember I finally gave them a good spanking. I then sent them to separate corners of the living room so that I could keep an eye on them. Well my youngest, being the hard headed child that she is, told me with complete defiance, “Don’t you dare spank my bottom. And I will not go sit over there!” And then she crossed her arms across her chest and looked at me and then slowly cut her eyes away from me to the other side of the room in a way I thought only juvee-bound teenagers were supposed to know! Since she is only just turned 2, and still wearing a diaper, I thought maybe these light swattings on her diapered bottom aren’t getting through to her, so I pulled her diaper down and spanked her bare bottom 2 swats. This finally brought a few tears and a pouting lip and when I told her to have a seat on the couch she complied. Any time I have to discipline my children, after they have had time to soak it all in I call them too me and we have a talk and I ask them if they know why they got their time out, games taken away, or spanking… whatever it may be that time. I want to be sure they understand why it is I do what I do. So I called my oldest who is 5 1/2 now. We had our talk, where she explains to me what she did wrong, why it was wrong, and she apologizes. We hug and cuddle for a bit, because I want her to understand that even though I discipline her I still love her and that’s why I discipline… to teach her things that will make her a better person as she grows up. So it’s my youngest daughter’s turn. Now don’t let her age fool you. She’s just turned 2 but had a vocabulary of 75+ words and 15 complete sentences since before the age of 15 months. She understands and comprehends more than kids her age should. I’m not claiming a genius by no means, I’m just saying she’s a smart kid and you’ll see how she uses that in a minute! She’s still laying on the couch with her face turned away from me as I say her name. Come to mama, I say. Over and over I tell her to come here, yet she doesn’t budge. Not a muscle moves letting me know she hears me. Nothing moves making me think she’s faking it. I start to worry! I start to think, what if all this time she’s had a hearing problem but we’ve never noticed because she’s always facing us or something? She seriously never once budged even when I offered a surprise. I called my oldest over to me, whispered to her to walk away from where I was and to tell my youngest to go with her and play. She was to her back as I was. She said come on let’s go play or something to that effect and the child jumped up all smiles and said ok!!!! She had been laying there pretending not to hear a word I said! For more than 10 minutes she lay there! I finally figured it out… She didn’t want another of those spankings! So she was just going to lay there instead. So I explained to her that after a time out or spanking like that I would always call her back to me for a talk and cuddle time, and asked if she like this part and she said yes. :) She was able to tell me what she had done wrong and that she was sorry for fighting on her sissy, but not able to say she wouldn’t do it again because “Sissy might hit me first”. So I’ve not quite gotten who my 2 year old is most like, but my 5 1/2 year old is definitely me made over. So it took us a long time to get their room clean. And late late late tonight, way later than I should have allowed it, we painted 2 new Christmas decorations for our tree that is going up this week. Hopefully today if I can wake up. It’s 10 till 4am and I'm still laying here awake, same as I have for the last 11 days. If you want to read about why that is, you’ll have to check out my other blog! :D We also made some really cute picture frames that that I bought for them almost a year ago and we haven’t made the chance to make them. So I think today was a great day. Two crafts together, got some cleaning done, and really only had to do some disciplining during the room cleaning and that wasn’t too bad. Serena even folded towels and put those up for me after she finished! I’ll post pictures tomorrow of the cute little projects we worked on together. And if we get any Christmas deco done I’ll post some pictures of that too! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! The Powell's :D
