More of "Mine"

The other day, Alice and Dada were hugging, so I walked up to them to join in. I looked at Alice and said, "My Dada" and she got the best gleam in her eye and replied "No, MY Dada." I love it when she gets the joke!

She also has a whole range of no's now, my favorite being: MmmmmmmmmNO!

Also, because we reacted so much to her saying "My Dada" she has taken to calling all sorts of things "Mydada." A sock. A cracker. I don't think it is quite the same for Tom, now that he thinks he is on the same level as a cracker.

We had a great weekend of park time and playdates, thanks to the good weather, and of househunting. Sadly though, Alice is again sick, this time with a cousin to HandFootMouth Disease. Our poor baby! So she has been home from daycare all week.

We had a playdate with Ally and her moms on Sunday, and I had to then call them to say hope we didn't get Ally sick. They sent us this email:

I take it Alice is not back at daycare, since Becky
was walking past a group of day care kids today,
pushing Ally in her stroller, and they pointed at Ally
and said "hey she looks like Alice!" We figured it had
to be your Alice they were talking about, and I
thought it was just too cute not to share.

This is what I love about being back in Boston! Both Becky and Ally running into Alice's friends at daycare and us having new friends like Julie and Becky to share these stories with.

I have video to post, but Blogger has been running slow on uploading the video, so hopefully tomorrow night. We have been super busy with house hunting, and it looks like we might be making an offer. I don't want to jinx anything, so no details yet. We aren't head over heels in love with the house, but we also saw it back in January and haven't been able to forget about it. So we'll see where this goes!

In the meantime, we have been trying to see people. We got to visit with Eric and Sarah who FINALLY got their referral for their son from Vietnam. I so remember those days, of being so excited but at the same time terrified that something would happen to halt the adoption. They are such a loving couple, I am so glad they have each other through this time. I remember vividly a walk Tom and I took one night in California when Tom helped calm all my anxieties. I want Sarah and Eric to have a toddler who tells them MmmmmmmmmmmNO! Soon! I feel so impatient on their behalf, even though it doesn't do any good. So just like I organized Alice's clothes while waiting for her to come home, I spent an afternoon sorting through to find all her gender neutral clothes she'd grown out of to make a bag for her new friend. Everyday, even when she is throwing things, or resisting sleep, even then I am so incredibly grateful to have her here, my family around me.

Speaking of tantrums though, Miss Alice did get her first time-out. She had a habit of throwing things when mad, so if we weren't getting her out of her highchair fast enough, she would fling her cup or bowl down, making a huge mess. This normally happened in the morning because we would all be trying to eat and get out the door. So one weekend, having the time to implement, I started the training. Every time she threw something, she got taken out of her highchair and had to clean up whatever it was (obviously, mostly me doing this with her picking up a grape here and there and putting it in the bowl otherwise we would have been there all day!!!). Then, the kicker was she had to go back into her highchair. That part was not fun. Many tears and struggles, but finally she realized I wasn't going to let her get down, or hold her. Then we worked on having her place what she was finished with on the table or counter when done (whichever I had her chair pushed closest to), or handing something to me. This training took place at every meal and snack, all weekend. And I cannot even remember the sequence now, but at one point, her tray got removed and her highchair turned to the corner while I set the timer for 1 minute. I explained to her what was going on, but she did not like it one bit. Of course, I feel like a horrible parent the entire time. But then the timer went off, and I hugged her for dear life and we went on with our day.

This was the weekend Tom was in California making Gumbo (where are the pictures???). When he got home, we continued to work with Alice on handing us things or setting them aside when she was done with them, as opposed to flinging them. One night, we really felt we had a made a breakthrough because her behavior was consistent. We had read a NYT article a while back about speaking about your child to each other, observing bevavior you want to reinforce. It is hard not to sound dorky or stagey as we say,

"Mama, did you see how Alice handed me her cup."
"Yes, Dada, I did see how Alice handed you her cup. Alice also put her bowl on the table. That was a good choice that Alice made to put her bowl on the table."

We were so proud to have made progress. We went to sleep that night, woke up the next morning . . . flinging ensued. On the way to work, Tom asked me what had happened to all the progress made the night before?!?! I tried to explain toddlers' testing behaviors etc etc etc . . . Tom summed it up, replying, "Oh, so you mean because she is a toddler, we are essentially living with an amnesiac. I get it." I thought that was a hilarious comparison!!! Whatever works!

I'll leave you with a picture of our own Little Edie, who found my box of scarves: