Today was . . .

Fun.

Today went well.

We had fun . . . picking up toys.  I know crazy, right.  My spur of the moment idea seemed to work well with JJ (not so much Sarah).  The idea was that we were pretending to be squirrels collecting nuts for the winter. I don't know if squirrels do that and I don't care because the blocks were the biggest mess and it worked perfectly.  We gave squirrel high fives as we went, made noises with our mouths, and when it was almost all cleaned up we stopped for dessert, Turtle Tracks ice cream, which has nuts in it.  Added fun!

At one point during the day JJ started spitting in my mom's car.  I reminded her that it wasn't a very kind choice and asked her to please stop, which, as usual, didn't matter to her.  At that point I just started asking her about the color of things and redirected her attention away from spitting.

During dinner preparation JJ kept going in the back room while Sarah was playing there which is not allowed ever since the incident, that I just call the incident.  I did the 1, 2, 3, Magic counting after quickly chasing her out each time.  Since time-out is usually in the girls' bedroom were Sarah was peacefully playing with her dolly, I chose to have JJ do time-out in a chair in front of the pantry near the entry of the kitchen.  This was about 3 feet from where I was peeling potatoes so I just talked to her the whole time (while she wailed).  I narrated my potato peeling process.  I talked about how a friend had just called me from Alabama and started listing all the names of states I could think of and any connection we had with that state.  I talked the whole time with a smile on my face (not giant Joker style but at least an upturned mouth) as though she really cared.  She didn't get off time-out once.  A few times she stopped crying confused at why I was still talking.  It was quite entertaining for me to keep my mind engaged in something other than frustration that could have built up.


She did start the day with a time-out that she refused to do until the last available few minutes before preschool. JJ was making a bridge with her body between the couch and the coffee table (which I allowed and chose not to battle over that).  Sarah tried to copy but her body didn't seem long enough at first.  After a few attempts and repositioning, Sarah was able to do it and was so proud!  JJ pushed her stomach down making her fall and ruining the tandem fun.  (Dude, random connection, Tandem Ice Cream bars were good.  Are they still around?)  You hit, you sit.      

I ended her day tickling her arm while she watched a numbers video before bed.  She really likes that.

There are other things that happened (obviously).  It was a good day.