Seriously, Stop!!

Travis and I have spent the weekend wondering what it will take to get Emily to actually stop doing something with verbal instruction alone.  She cannot STOP if we tell her to.  There were several instances this weekend where I told her to stop and she wouldn't; everything from getting something out of the pantry that she thought would be helpful, to dragging Audrey across the floor because she didn't want her to be where she was.  If she's in the middle of an activity, it takes actual physical interaction to get her to stop, not just the threat of physical interaction, she must be forcibly stopped.  No kind of verbal communication will do - I can use any language at any decibel level and any tone of voice, and she only hears that she should stop when she's done.  It's infuriating, it's annoying, it's actually dangerous, and it's driving me NUTS, almost more than the constant Why's!!  What do I do?!  She's almost 3 1/2 now; is that really too much to expect of her??  Tomorrow we're going to try some Simon Says kinds of things, just for practice following directions like hop on one foot, STOP, spin in circles, STOP, things like that.  I figure that'll be fun, or at least harmless if it doesn't help.

I managed to catch some kind of nasty bug this weekend.  Friday, I was knocked on my back by it; my throat hurt so much I could hardly swallow, but not because it was red or raw, but rather because the glands in my neck were so swollen.  I had such a bad fever that I was ridiculously bundled up all weekend, multiple layers of pants and socks, and wearing a blanket around the house like an invalid.  This morning, though, I felt human again.  The seemingly insurmountable list of things to do that I had realized the night before was actually quite do-able, and I had most of it done by 10:30.  (I guess I never did get the fridge cleaned out, but hey, who really wants to do that anyway? :) )  Things really do fall apart around here when I'm out of service, which actually was probably part of the behavior issues we had this weekend.  If I'm not bringing my A game, Emily knows it.  I swept up probably 2 Cups of crumbs and food off the dining room floor this morning - yuck!!  And I really didn't feel like eating, so supper last night was particularly awful; Trav said it was in the bottom five meals I've ever made (though I don't know if that counts things like tuna casserole that he abhorrs.  it might; it was pretty awful.).  It probably would've been better if I could have stood up, but I was really incapable of anything except staggering from the couch to wherever Emily happened to be assaulting Audrey.  Therefore, dinner was total crap, and Emily pitched a fit because she didn't want to eat it.  Trav was a good sport and told her there was nothing else, so she should just suck it up and eat it (like he was doing, but didn't say!).  Today, I'm feeling good enough that I can look back at that and laugh. :)

Audrey is busy these days proving that 1 really is wonderful.  She's got the understanding to be cooperative, but not the self-will to make things difficult.  Putting her to bed tonight was the kind of thing that most parents dream about, where she happily participatee in or initiated each step for bedtime, then gave me a super-sweet hug and indicated she was ready for her crib so I laid her down, kissed her, and left, and that was it.  Amazing!  Never will happen again, but I figured I'd document it so I don't wonder later it was a dream.  She toddles around so adorably, and reading her a book is a hilarious passtime.  The Spot books with the creatures hidden behind flaps are her favorite.  She lifts the flap, points and shrieks, "DEH DAAAA!!!"  Dinnertime is a complete disaster, but that's just that she's messy, not difficult about eating.  And of course, she's gorgeous, even with her Justin Bieber hair in her eyes.  She had my sister really laughing the other day, playing a game making faces at each other, sticking out tongues.  Seriously, how could you not love this kid?!

Emily and I did several pages of her preschool workbook today.  It's a hand-me-down from Megan, so maybe 1/3 of the pages are already done, and I didn't know if Emily would be ready to do any of it yet.  We did several pages, and she was really getting the hang of circling the right answer, or drawing lines to connect like items.  It's funny how that's a test-taking skill that a person has to learn.  It took her 5 minutes to master, though, so, and in theory this book is supposed to cover everything to prepare a kid for Kindergarten, so I think I'll take my time stretching out its content for the next 18 months (ha!).  Then again, she fell out of her chair at supper tonight while trying to reach something for Audrey.  She fell really hard onto the floor, and it was one of those moments where you think, "What?? How did such a bright kid do something so dumb?"  Happens a lot here.  She'll go from singing beautiful songs with lovely pitch, to climbing the walls.  Sometimes I look at her and realize she's kind of in an ugly duckling phase, with all this potential and beauty just waiting to break through the struggles that are a part of being 3.  I love her so much!