My daughter can stall like nobody's business. At bedtime, she decides she hungry, thirsty, has to potty, has had an epiphany regarding the Riemann Hypothesis, etc. All of these (well, except maybe the last), you can't really let go. If she's hungry or thirsty, she'll wake up in the night. And we're still working on the whole potty training at night thing. She'll throw huge fits, scream, run away. It's gotten better since we got a visual clock that shows red covering the clock, slowly going away (I highly recommend them, you can buy them here: http://www.timetimer.com/). But still, bedtime is an ordeal, to say the least.The other time she stalls is when it's time to go to school. She'll also decide she's hungry or thirsty now, even though she's already had breakfast and has declined any offers of more food for the last 20 minutes. And this is the part that gets me the most: she likes school. A lot. She loves her teachers and her friends. Sure, she's often happy when we come pick her up, but it's more of a secure-attachment happy than a thank-God-you've-finally- rescued-me happy. I'm taking this as a sign that we're doing something right, that she likes her home. Anyway, so the picture was her newest stall technique this morning. She put her underwear on her head and started laughing. Then, of course, she had to show Nonna. She wanted to show Daddy, too, but he'd already left for school So I had to appease her by taking a picture to show him later. So here you go, baby. Your lovely daughter, wearing her underwear on her head. I'm pretty sure she got that from you.
It actually makes a pretty good-looking hat.
ReplyDeleteSuzi also has learned to stall, but since I'm a shameless tyrant, it doesn't get her far, so I rarely suffer the trials of stalling.
ReplyDeleteI stipulate myself as a shameless tyrant in particular because I rarely hesitate to get cranky and quite stern with my bosiness about the stalling. I might be crazy, but I think that telling her that I could see she was just stalling really helped. She seemed to connect right away with the fact that I was on to her diversion, therefore it wouldn't be working. She can complain all she wants, but what needs done is still gonna get done when I say.
Does Aria KNOW you know she's stalling? Or better yet, do you mind it? I can easily see you and Joe finding her development of tactics to further amuse and divert you as entertaining and downright adorable. And let's face it; we're ALL susceptible to our kids' freakin cuteness sometimes, otherwise the concept of diversion through cuteness and cleverness would never even occur to them, right?