Sunday, June 10, 2012

Adventures in Parenting (The things no one warned you about)

For the summer we had a goal for each child that we wanted to accomplish (or have them accomplish)by the end of the summer. By the end of summer we want..... Elizabeth to tie her shoes. Sarah to stop sucking her thumb. Cole to be potty trained. When we set these goals I don't think we imagined they would be so hard to accomplish. I'll start with Cole. He is doing a super job of going to the potty! I am pleasantly surprised with how well he is doing. We promised him that he could go to a baseball game with his daddy if he did really good, so this week they are going to a game (if it isn't rained out). Hopefully next week we will be confident enough in progress that we will be able to put him in undies. You may ask why this excites me like it does, well I will tell you. Elizabeth will be 7 in a few weeks. She was still in diapers when Sarah was born, and Sarah was still in diapers when Cole was born, so we've been doing diapers for 7 years! Elizabeth claims that she knows how to tie her shoes, but it never works out right. She says it's not her fault. I am not convinced. You see, she's the child that did not start walking until she knew her balance was just right (13 months). She's a perfectionist that makes straight A's and gets upset when she makes less than a 100. She says she doesn't want to play sports because she doesn't want to loose. It is my opinion that she does not want to try to tie her shoes because she doesn't want to get upset with herself when she doesn't do it exactly right. Anytime we practice tying shoes she gets upset and it doesn't matter who does it with her. This perfectionist thing does NOT come from me. I'm pretty sure it's not from her father either. It's one of those things that can be a stumbling block because she doesn't want to do anything she's afraid she won't be good at. Sarah is my stubborn, sweet, but sneaky middle child. We bought her a thumb guard because it was recommended by her dentist. The kit came with 2 guards and 60 bracelets in different colors. She was excited about it because like her sister if they do well they will get to go to the movies and that excites them. She wore it with pride and never fussed about it the first day. We put her to bed and she was worried she wouldn't be able to go to sleep. I went to check on her and she finally fell asleep sucking the other thumb. :( I was beginning to think we wouldn't be able to break this habit. The next night we used both thumb guards and she told her sister she couldn't sleep and slept in the bed with her (I will add that she also we her sister's bed. It was a LONG night). That night I had to pull her fingers out of her mouth! :( She's been doing better. Her sister helps watch her at night and one day we even forgot to take her thumb guard off her right hand (She only wears that one at night. She wears the other one all day.) She never fussed and once we notices (which wasn't until lunch) we cut them both off because they were wet inside. Here's the part no one ever told us about. No one tells you when you think about having children how hard it can be to potty train a child or how expensive it is to do diapers for 7 years! No one ever told me how hard it would be to teach my perfectionist how to tie her shoes. AND No one ever told me how hard it would be to get my Sarah to stop sucking her thumb (or thumbkin as she calls it), so I thought I would take the time to let those of you who don't have a almost 7 year old, a 4 year old and a 3 year old in so you would be informed. Now you know!