Wordless Wednesday #200 - Random

The stories she tells

The conversations in the car on our way back home:

(Where does she get it?)

 

She sees a car that's been in an accident, and tells me that her car is also broken, but that they can't fix it in "the other world." They do not have glue or tape to fix cars in her world. She is having trouble now to get back to her house in that world.

The pink house that's in the clouds, and that is too far away!

 

Her dad and I won't be able to come and visit her now!

"I am very sorry, okay Mom! Okay?"

 

I have to write this down, because by tomorrow I would have forgotten it. One day I would like to remember how she stuck to this story of her pink house in the clouds. And that she threatens us with not being able to visit her when we have done a transgression towards her!

 

Very precious!

 

What stories are you being told?

The phases of a Tantrum - as experienced by a parent

Melt-down about 3 missing chappies

(Which she ate herself)

I have read Melissa's blog post about The F-king fours, and was extremely relieved to know that it is not only us who struggle!

Yesterday morning we had a huge tantrum when she threw herself on the bathroom floor after I had brush her teeth. I did not brush her teeth in "circles", apparently!
Last night coming home she wanted the music turned louder in the car. I could not turn it up because we had a passenger.  She did not stop crying!

I am regularly writing or trying some new ways of handling The Tantrums, but I do not feel that we have solved it!

How long can it last?

I am now beginning to see a pattern in our handling of the tantrum.
It definitely plays itself out in phases.


Phases parents go through when dealing with a tantrum:

1. Trying to rectify the problem immediately by giving in to the demand. (It usually does not work!)

2. Reasoning with the child. (It does not work!)

3. Picking them up / sitting with them / trying to hold them. (Usually not possibly with a wriggling child)

4. Giving up by walking away or ignoring.

5. Waiting for them to calm down by themselves.


I realise no 4 is not a very good parenting technique, and I am open to more suggestions?

- The video (I hope it opens up) was at our recent camp where her dad bought her 7 chappies. She put it in his pocket after she had eaten three of them. When she wanted it back, she was extremely disgusted about the fact that there was only four left. Dad said he would buy three again, then he tried explaining that she had eaten it, then he let her cry, and then he gave up...

Hello and goodbye are not part of the vocabulary

At four and a half it should not be difficult to greet people? To say hello and goodbye should be normal behaviour without being prompted?

Not so to Little Missy!

She does not greet people, not even when threatened prompted!
She just stares at them.

I have spoken to her many times about it.
At first she said she was shy, and that she does not know the people. (But she also does not even greet people she knows.)
Then she said that I spoke too softly, and she did not hear when I told her to greet the people.

Her excuse yesterday was that she had forgotten. (I had reminded her just before the time she had to greet the person.)
"I am small, and small people forget!"
"You should not be worried! Okay!" (Her exact words.)

I have been greeting people on her behalf, and hoped that it would have made the difference.

She is able to talk to people she does not know very well, but refuses to greet them.

Some people feel offended when they greet her, and she does not respond! Asking me if there is something wrong. Like the cashiers in the shops, or the people at work....

Maybe it is a personality trait? Something to do with being shy?

How do you get a little one to greet other people?
We always greet people, and I make a point to greet people on her behalf.

Any ideas?


Photo: Patrick Pretorius

The things she says

Before I forget these...

The other day in the car:
I said I am still trying to wake up, because I said something nonsensical.
I said that I am not a morning person, but an evening person! I think that she, Little Missy, is also an evening person. She also struggles to wake up in the mornings.
Little Missy: "I am not an evening person, I am a party person!" (with a very disgusted tone!)

On the same drive:
She tells me that she does not always get to make a proper smile.
I look back in the rear view mirror, and she is busy pulling her mouth in a grimace!
I tell her that we can always try thinking of something good or funny...
Little Missy: "No, I can't make a smile the whole time!"

Last week when I went to fetch her at the pre-primary school, she told me to come and look at what they did in the sand pit.
They had dug up a whole corner of it.
Little Missy: "We were searching for Jesus!"

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Mid-year report

Little Missy is doing well at school!
I was totally surprised to learn that she can say all the months of the year! (We did not think to start teaching her ourselves, and here she is doing it.)

We still need to focus on concentration and listening skills!
So we got lists of stuff to do at home!

But she got a mention for her creative work!
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She has been approved for Grade R, and I felt like dancing! I don't know what we would have done if otherwise...
Happy holidays! For the lucky ones! (Not us! :-()
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Please hold thumbs for The Student who is writing 2 subjects tomorrow! Thinking if you!

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Not colour blind!

The first eye test went very well. I had made the appointment because I suspected our 4-year old is colour blind.

 

Little Missy told me she was afraid, and I had to promise I would hold her hand.

She was a star! The optometrist spoke only in English to her, and she even tried to give the answers back in English as well. She enjoyed all the machines, and different glasses, and could perfectly identify all the objects on the screen.

 

The optometrist gave her only 4 colour patterns to identify.

She had to coax her to identify a house in one of the colour patterns. (Which makes me feel a little bit uneasy...)

But, according to the optometrist: She is not colour blind, and we should not worry about it anymore. She says that she would not have been able to see any pattern in the 4 colour charts had she been colour blind.

She also carried on for quite a bit about girls and that it is very rare that they test positive for colour blind...

I will keep an eye (pun intended!) on the situation, but for now we will trust the judgement of the optometrist!

Yay!

I am relieved!

 

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