Stop the Screaming!!!

This has been the week of yelling and screaming and saying "NO!" and crankiness from our little darling baby girl.  I think the root of it is a lack of sleep.  Since converting her crib to a toddler bed, she has gone to bed fairly well (fairly), but then she doesn't stay asleep.  She will wake up and come visit us anywhere from midnight to 3 a.m. or 5 a.m.  She doesn't pretend to rest in our bed anymore either.  She comes right out with "Cheerios?" or "drink?" and "TV?"  We have had a week of lots of crankiness all day long.  That, in addition to saying "NO!" to anything and everything we dare ask her.  By Saturday night, I had had about all I could bear of the not sleeping well and the saying "NO!" to everything.  She didn't want to go to bed, she didn't want to stay in her bed, so I gave her one warning which she did not heed.  And then I turned her bed around.  With her toddler rail portion up against the wall, she was confined to her crib again.  We all slept very well that night.  All. Night. Long.  :)

Caroline also likes to just yell and scream.  Some of it is out of anger, some joy, some excitement.  When we go to the library now and she sees a book or video that she recognizes, she will scream its name at the top of her lungs.  "PEEEEEEEP!!!!!!!"  or "KITTTTTTTYYYYYY!!!!!!" (when Henry found a Hello Kitty book) or "CHOO CHOO! CHOO CHOO!! CHOO CHOO!!!!" when she sees a Thomas the train video.  She all of a sudden has no volume control.  At home she often yells, "BUG!!!"  Although when I go to investigate, my typical response is, "No, Caroline, that's just dirt."  I always thought we'd have a clean house....

She loves her babies and her stroller

We ventured to Costco this weekend with all 3 kids.  We will not do that venture again for some time.  Henry and Caroline were just loud.  I finally took them both back to the car.  So this is Henry being punished.  He looks like he's really sad to be in the car.  I think it was more punishment for me because I had to answer 100 questions about what all the dials and buttons on the dashboard do.  "What does this one do?  Can I push it?"

Caroline did crack me up a few days ago.  I was working on a letter and she was sitting quietly next to me taking apart a stack of post-it notes.  Since I was actually accomplishing something, I let her continue with the destruction.  After taking apart the entire stack, she stands in her chair, throws her hands up in the air, and excitedly exclaims, "I did it!"  Yes, dear, you did it.

She also now requests a "tail."  I put her hair in a pony tail the other day just to see what it would look like and she thought it was the greatest thing.  So, now when I ask her to come to the bathroom to do her hair, she will actually excitedly go to the bathroom and say, "Tail!"  :)

Josiah had a very good week.  When he went to Awana on Wednesday, they took his book to see what all he was owed in terms of patches and jewels.  Then at the end of the night, he got an envelope with all his patches, jewels, and hang glider wings.  He was ecstatic.  He started putting the jewels in his hang glider wings the second he got in the car.  Then when we got home, he wanted me to iron on his patch immediately.  I did iron it on and he was beaming.  He thrives on awards like these.

Then on Friday, our last day of CC for the semester, he was awarded with a History Memory Master certificate.  I had no idea they were going to give him that, and he was thrilled.  The students who were total Memory Masters (all subjects) got certificates AND medals.  He thought it was a big deal to get a medal so now he has something to work towards next year.

The boys decided to play pretend a game of "house" this week.  Josiah was "Daddy."  Henry went out on a limb and played the "4-year old son."  Caroline was "Mommy."  And I was cast as the "Maid."  It was all going well until they boys thought "maid" meant total servant.  When I would not cook for them (as maids only clean), the game quickly ended.  Next time, Todd needs to come home from work so he can play the role of "Chef."

We had a good end to our week.  At church today, it was "County Fair Day."  They had a very condensed version of a county fair.  Caroline spotted the Batman bounce house quickly and kept yelling, "Do do do do do do do do Ba-Ba" (her version of the Batman tune).  After eating, she got to go in it and she totally enjoyed herself, but then when asked to come out (by the operator, no less), she smiled sweetly and said, "NO!" and kept playing.  I had to get Josiah go pull her out.

The boys loved the tractor-train ride.  It was driven by our music minister and he didn't mess around.  This was no slow kiddie tractor-train ride.  He would start off slowly until he got to the area of the parking lot with no people and then he would go fast and turn quickly.  The kids were loving it.  Caroline threw a fit when we wouldn't let her take a turn.  She did like her balloon flower, but then she kept banging it on everything on the walk back to the car and by the time we got to the car she had popped two petals and the stem.  She was not a happy camper.

The ropes they are holding were totally useless - in no way a restraint.

So, our goals for next week are to sleep all night, every night.  To say "yes" a little more often than "no."  And to not complain so much (this from a little unnamed boy).