Raising Our Spirited Child

My mom's friend recently told her about a book that helped her significantly in raising her own son (who is now in college). It's called "Raising Your Spirited Child" by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. Just the sub-title had me sold: "A Guide for Parents Whose Child is More Intense, Sensitive, Perceptive, Persistent, and Energetic".

Yep, that is Katelynn - in a nutshell. We have always called her "difficult" but now I know she is spirited! That's such a more positive way to frame-up her big personality. My mom is currently reading the book and reporting lots of helpful tips, then I will get the book next. Based on her reports and reading reviews, I know it is going to at least help me better parent my sweet but challenging girl...and perhaps to not blame myself for every off-the-charts temper tantrum or disobedient action...

Here is one part of the editorial review I found particularly interesting:
"The spirited child—often called "difficult" or "strong-willed"—possesses traits we value in adults yet find challenging in children. Research shows that spirited kids are wired to be "more"—by temperament, they are more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent, and uncomfortable with change than the average child. In this revised edition of the award-winning classic, voted one of the top twenty books for parents, Kurcinka provides vivid examples and a refreshingly positive viewpoint. "

Yes, I am looking forward to my turn with this book!

Princess Tent

To deal with KK's regression issues of pretending to be a baby - primarily the problem of this very tall 3 1/2 year old sleeping in a pack-n-play - my good long-time friend Sarah, who kids are several stages ahead of Katelynn, had a brilliant idea. Her daughter had outgrown any desire for her princess castle bed tent and it was sitting in the closet. Sarah suggested passing it along to me for Katelynn to use. Of course, KK would only get to sleep in this big-girl princess tent if the pack-n-play was put away.

This worked like a charm. The pack-n-play was gone in minutes and Katelynn has been sleeping in her castle tent every night since! She loves to show it to all her little friends that come over and they play in it for hours too.

Thank goodness for long-time (and brilliant) friends!

Proverbs 22:6 And... Aggieland?!

So, Gene and I are just trying to be good God-fearing parents and follow Proverbs 22:6:

"Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it."

To what do I refer? Training her to become an Aggie of course! Katelynn has been properly taught to exclaim "Gig 'Em Aggies" and do the thumbs-up sign to go with it. She also knows the entire "Aggie Spirit Song" by heart and even sings it often for her Sunday School teacher!

But there are some bad influences out there trying to derail our teachings... some crazy family members that think she ought to have choices in life or something ridiculous like that...

She somehow mysteriously learned to "hook 'em horns" like a t-sip, put her Red Raider "guns up", and even made a TCU horned frogs symbol for me the other day. What is a mommy to do? I can't really punish her for these offenses (though some might argue I should)... I try to brush them off and say things like "those are the bad guys Katelynn" even though my poor little Aggie heart is crushed. Somewhere along the way she got the idea that it was ok to do hook 'em horns if mommy wasn't around and even reported this to Nanna. What is this horrible propaganda being shared with my firstborn!?!?!?!?!

All this sad momma can do is continue to "train up" my child and hope the Aggies prevail someday...

Camp NNPP Continued...

As reported previously , I am a very lucky mommy to have Camp NNPP available to me. Katelynn recently spent a few nights there while I worked, plus Gene and I got more than one precious date night together!

I love my mom's emails while KK is there. They can often be blog posts all by themselves! Here are snippets from this particular stay-over.

• "Your daughter is measuring things and writing down the measurements. She tells me it is "an opportunity". She is making experiments to get ready for Bunny Scout Leader.
  
• Earlier she told me that she likes "hook 'em horns" and it's ok to do it as long as mommy doesn't see it. (OK - *throat clearing* - there must be a separate blog post about this particular issue...coming soon)


• "KK played for a long time in a giant cardboard box. We made a window and doors in it, and she pretended to sell us food through the window. She only had sandwiches and broccoli for sale. Then I let her punch it full of golf tees. She spent a good half hour doing that. "

Nail Biter

Somewhere in the past few months, my kiddo turned into a nail biter (of both the finger and toe variety) unbeknownst to me. I discovered it one day recently when she asked me to paint her nails, which she does periodically. The first step to our toddler manicure/pedicure is to trim all her nails with the clippers. Suddenly there was not a single nail to trim! Not even her baby toe nail...how does she get that in her mouth?!

She may have picked up these habits from observing her daddy, unfortunately...well at least the nail biting part. I find it funny that such a little girl can already have a habit like this. It seems pointless to make a big deal about it at this stage of life, although I certainly don't praise her for it. I have told her "no more pretty nail polish" until I can see that her nails have grown. But 3 year olds don't have too much long term focus, so I'm sure I'll be living with two nail biters for awhile now.

Camp Nanna & PopPop ("NNPP")

Earlier in May, Gene and I escaped for a fabulous babymoon and KK stayed at Camp NNPP for a whopping 11 nights. It was hard to leave her for that long, but I am so lucky to have parents I can trust so completely with my kiddo... and while they create many special memories with her they really don't spoil her rotten. Of course she does get a lot more adult attention than she does on a day-to-day basis here at home, but she also has to follow rules and a schedule, behave properly, and eat her broccoli. In fact she eats much more than broccoli since my parents eat a remarkably healthy diet. Her palette expands with every trip to Camp NNPP.

Nanna created the pictured chart for her, which really helped give her a visual picture of when mommy and daddy were coming home and to allay any fears she might develop during the trip. It must have worked because she didn't have any meltdowns over missing mommy and daddy. Every night at bedtime they put a sticker on it at bedtime. This also seemed to have the added positive side effect of causing her to think she couldn't get out of bed at night which was helpful for her Nanna!

So I must publicly thank my parents for allowing our little bundle of energy to interrupt their lives for a week and a half. Our babymoon wouldn't have been possible without you!

First Swim Lesson

Today was Katelynn's first official swim lesson.

Yesterday Gene and I took her to the community pool to help her re-acclimate to the swimming pool before embarking upon lessons today. We were very glad that we did. She was quite apprehensive at first, but within an hour was splashing around like a maniac and having a grand old time.

I found, through a friend, a lady that teaches lessons at peoples' pools. People actually allow strangers to come to their home and take group lessons from this lady. This surprised me, what with our litigious society, but I was just glad to find a good solution. There are only 3 other children in the class which is much better than the community programs in our area which may have as many as 8 kiddos.

So I made the drive to an adjoining suburb and all in all it took nearly 30 minutes to get there due to lights, lack of highways, etc. I was questioning my decision to enroll in 8 lessons and thinking that perhaps I should cancel next week's lessons.

Then we got there and little KK blossomed. She couldn't wait for the lesson to start and she marched over to the teacher and asked if it was time to get into the pool yet. She did every single thing that Mrs. Davis asked her to do. She was the youngest in the class and the only kid that didn't cry at some point. She asked me when she gets to go back for another lesson and was thrilled to learn it is tomorrow. It made my heart swell to watch her so interested in something. She was very serious about it all, but very proud of herself and eager to learn more.

It's funny... I find that my "difficult child" struggles with many of the basics like getting dropped at preschool, choosing a TV show, getting hurt feelings, throwing fits about things that should be no big deal, etc. Yet I take her to a strange house, send her into a pool with 3 other kids and a teacher she has never met, and she thrives.

So I guess I can handle that 30 minute drive for a couple of weeks....