Saturday, January 28, 2012

Six days and counting

On Sweet One's calendar she has six days in a row with stickers on them. When she doesn't bite, she gets a sticker. This is the longest she's made it in awhile! A few weeks ago we were up to 5 and then having two other kids over to visit ended up with a bite. She gets a cookie after supper as another reward (because she loves them and is very upset when she can't have one),  and then when she covers up 7 dots in a row on her calendar she gets a bigger prize. The first is a little toy Abby Cadabby or Big Bird to add to her Sesame Street Scene.

Every day when I am preparing lunch my anxiety levels skyrocket. This is usually the time of day when Sweet One will bite Little Man because she's not getting enough attention from me. It is very difficult to run between my kitchen and living because in the 40's an open concept kitchen didn't exist. So I prepare a bit, do my best to keep her talking and knowing that I'm right there, then I run into the living to make sure things are ok. Over the past few days I'll often find Sweet One sitting on Little Man's ride on train while he is standing behind it, trying to figure out how to push and then catch up to it! So cute. Such a relief to see them playing like this!

Yesterday I got a phone call from one of the women (I'll call her J) in the mom's group. J is also my stylist and her child was one of Sweet One's first victims! I had a hair appointment the next day so we talked about it a lot. Another role she plays is the co-organizer of the kids program that happens simultaneously to the one for mom's. Up until this point I wanted to leave Sweet One in the 2 year old for a few reasons - I felt comfortable with the women who were in charge of it and how they were supporting us in this biting fiasco, and I didn't want Sweet One to get scared/nervous being moved to a new class with new faces. (I think my fear of being in a room with people I don't know, where I don't feel like I belong, makes me afraid Sweet One feels the same way.) While J has heard my reasons for wanting to leave Sweet One with the 2 year olds (her daughter has also just turned 3 but she's leaving her in with the 2 year olds as well), J and her partner, as well as the woman running the entire shebang, have talked about it and think I should put Sweet One in the 3 year old room for February and see how it goes. The idea is that with a little more structure and less free range playing with toys, it might help Sweet One to not get so overstimulated. The thought did cross my mind a few days before I got the phone call but it still didn't take the sting away. My kid is the problem kid!

I felt sick about it all for about an hour. Nervous about her being scared in a new class, frustrated that I haven't been able to 'fix' this, exhausted from worrying about whether or not she is going to bite someone 24/7, and embarrassed that our problem was big enough that others had to address it/talk about it. Breathe woman! I feel like I haven't been able to fully breathe properly in days because of all of this! All I can do is keep hoping that six days will become 7, and it will keep going until Thursday comes around and I can say that we made it to 11. I want so much for my daughter to make this accomplishment. Please God, send her guardian angel to help her through that time so we can celebrate her accomplishment and I can breathe a little more again. I'm planning on getting her a special prize to help motivate her to make it through those 2.5 hours. And if she does, we will dance and celebrate all. day. long! I will let her eat a dozen cookies and cover her whole wall in stickers!

No comments:

Post a Comment

I would love, love, LOVE to hear from you!