Smoochie

Earlier this week when she was feeling so crappy, I made Lucia a smoothie with coconut milk, bananas, blackberries and raspberries. She ate two or three spoonfuls and then declared her time with her "smoochie" done.

Cant seem to catch a break

Went to our first visit to our doctor Dan today. Yes his name really is Dan, so naturally Lucia was over the moon excited to show him her Doctor Dan book that she loves. He gave her a new bandaid.
Apparently she has virus infection, but her breathing is good so all we can do is wait it out and drink lots of fluids.

Bragging Moment

Ok, so you know we've been trying our hardest to use the Positive Discipline principles when dealing with Lucia's latest uh, Lucia-ness, we'll call it. Today, for instance, she deliberately punched me in the eye when I told her she had to eat some chicken sausage before she had any more strawberries. Awesome. And there was the time she drew blood after biting Pete (twice). After all of these instances, we have stressed over and over that being physical is not the way to work things out when you're angry or frustrated. That we can always talk about our feelings and work things out. 

So at preschool today apparently two boys got into a bit of a scuffle that turned physical. The teachers broke them apart, then sat everyone in a circle to talk about what happened. They asked, does anyone know what is one way to deal with problems besides fighting and getting physical? No one answered. Except a little blonde girl we all know and love, who raised her hand (!) and said, "we can talk about it." 

I don't brag often, but that's our girl. That's our little girl. We done right. 

She's Better

We finally figured out that going back and forth between her new school and daycare (alternating days) was stressing Little Missy right out. So we switched days to make our week consist of Mon, Tues at daycare and the rest of the week at her new school. It seems like it's really helping. She's done with her daycare at the end of the month, and while we've liked them, we're happy she'll be going to one place, especially because she loves her school so much. Kids help you see things through their eyes: it all makes sense now; having too much change was scary for her; it's scary for all of us. 

Berry season

So soon, kid. Soooooon! Until then she has absolutely no qualms hogging them.

Down for the Count

Mimi is here! 500 exclamation points! Lucia has been thrilled to spend time with her Mimi, until they both got sick on Friday and spent the weekend down for the count. Lucia is back in action (and back at school today) but Pete and Mimi are still sidelined with it. I made chicken soup for the group (myself included) yesterday and we laid low to get some extra rest. She's scheduled to go home tomorrow, but I'm trying my best to convince her to stay until she's better. Raise your hand if you've flown with a cold and can testify it's a zillion times worse when you get off the plane. We hope they're both better soon. 

The Prius

Remember how the car got dinged back in '08? The picture above shows how it got hit on the rear three quarter panel and bumper, however the door was not damaged and this is where reality diverge from logic. Ever since we got the car repaired (back in '08) there has been this annoying hissing wind sound when we drive above 100kph (60mph). Really annoying when you learn to notice it. 

The body shop has been amazing to deal with. Really stellar service apart from the fact that it took three visits to figure out. They stood by their work and was super helpful each time we went back to try figure out the problem regardless of how long it was since the initial repair. Finally last week, riding in the back seat with the body shop tech driving/speeding I nailed down the problem area: rear end of the rear window where theres a small black triangular plastic cover. You can see it the picture below:. Covering it with my hand the noise went away.

The body shop removed it and found a gasket missing which brings me back to where the logic ends. As the photo shows the door was not dinged, so why was the gasket missing after being repaired? We will never know but we are happy to once again ride in a quieter car.

Acting Out

Well, we figured out what Lucia's deal was. It dribbled out slowly last weekend, but eventually she told us that another girl at school was hitting her. It was a really emotional week overall but those first few days were particularly nail-biting, as we wondered what would happen. Would the school deny it? Would they act immediately? We went in Monday to discuss with the teachers and they said they knew this little girl often went after girls her age, especially if they were new. They have named this little girl the teacher's helper, so that she learns empathy and also is under supervision at all times. But still, one teacher told us she had seen this girl hit Lucia twice and had talked with her about consequences. The other teacher told us that she was going to make it her mission to buddy up with Lucia so she felt like she had an ally to talk to in school if anything was wrong. That night as we picked her up, the founder lifted up the other little girl and had her blow kisses to Lucia. When we got home we did a few role playing exercises where the three of us got a turn to be the aggressor, Lucia and the teacher. I think it was helpful for her. I'm happy to report that both Lucia's and this other girl's behavior has improved quite a bit.

But it hasn't been without some hard work on our part. We agreed at the start of last weekend that structure was key and we delved into our new Positive Discipline book to give us tips on specific situations and how to approach them. We also gave her tons of choices in the hopes the books were right and it would make her feel empowered. 48 hours later, she was able to tell us what was going on at school, so I feel like it was worth it. We got the general sense that she wasn't feeling safe, so I'm comforted that she was able to talk to us once we buckled down the structure. Sometimes I feel like we actually know what we're doing.

Aside from the two times she bit Pete this week and drew blood, we've seen an improvement in her behavior. We had a long talk about the biting and associated hitting we've seen and how all emotions are normal and healthy and that hitting and biting are not OK. MAN it's hard to not get mad when stuff like that happens. But we agree it's really important to be consistent in our approach, so here we are.

I have to say I was also really impressed and appreciated the effort the school made to reach out to the other girl, and give her the tools to express herself in a non-violent way. She's a sweet girl otherwise, but apparently had a rough start. I sat with her at the party the school had on Wednesday to celebrate the newly potty trained kids and clapped for her and congratulated her when they called her name. And yesterday Lucia brought home a card from her with stickers on it that she had made just for Lucia. So sweet.

We also gave notice at our daycare this week, so that Lucia can better assimilate into the new school. We think going back and forth (school MWF, daycare T-Th) has been confusing for her. April 3 she'll start full time at her new school. We're excited/relieved/hopeful.