Family Life

So... last week I caught Eva's flu, and between everything else, just didn't have time to come and post. I will try to remember all my Eva stories from last week.

I like to watch Texas Hold'em tournaments on TV. I don't play poker, nor am I a gambler, but I admit that there is something about Texas Hold'em that intrigues me. I think it's the human element and the great players who can predict their opponents and read them. In addition, it is something that I can listen to and not have to watch while I am grading papers. In any case, I have the TIVO record them and then watch/listen to them while grading or doing something else. A couple of weeks ago, I had enough of "The Wiggles." (What is about them that turns my daughter into a groupie?... her eyes go half shut, her mouth slacks opens, her head lulls and she dances along with a look of complete adoration on her little face, the only thing missing is the lighter) I remember David coming downstairs, and commenting on the fact that I was watching poker. I told him that I was tired of the wiggles and so I turned something else on and it was the only thing recorded that I wanted to watch. Eva heard this exchange... I didn't think anything of it at the time. So, on the Friday before last, Granny was watching Eva. She still was recovering from being sick and stayed home from daycare. They had been watching the Wiggles over and over (yes, TIVO also records them) for hours. Finally, Eva came up to Granny and said, "Poker." Granny couldn't believe what she just heard. She asked Eva, "You want to watch poker?!" Eva just repeated "poker." So, Granny turned on a tournament and asked Eva, "This is what you want to watch?" Eva replied, "no." Granny asked her, "You want to watch the Wiggles?" Eva replied even more emphatically, "NO." Apparantly Eva had figured out that when you're tired of the Wiggles, you're suppose to turn on poker. Granny put on the Little Einsteins instead. Eva hears what we says and understands just enough to get it all wrong. In any case, my nearly 2 year old daughter thinks that she likes poker.

Last week, I was pretty much out of it, so I don't remember much. I can say that Eva has been talking more, she really does talk constantly. There is a significant change in her that I noticed last week and which has come about since she was sick. Eva has been spontaneously hugging and kissing and cuddling. All that week she was sick, I held her and it was the only thing that made her feel better. Somewhere along the way, she figured out that it is good and normal to hug mommy. This month will be 9 months that we've had her and finally she is responding fully and without inhibition to affection towards David and I. Every child is different and attaches at different rates and responds differently towards disruption and abandonment. Eva is one who takes her time to trust and she's had to learn to give and receive affection... and to think, it was the flu that helped her get there, plus a lot of time and patience that I've poured into her.

David and I have been struggling with Eva hitting us. Whenever she gets angry or frustrated or irrational (not enough sleep), she responds by hitting. I believe she got put on the "naughty spot" half a dozen times yesterday for hitting. And what's worse is that she understands she's not suppose to do it, and then gets angry and does it anyway. This morning she told me, "Hitting, No No, Time Out." I told her, "That's right, Hitting is a no no and if you hit you will have to go on time out." To which, she responded by raising her hand in preparation to hit me. I raised my eyebrow and she lowered her hand. I've been consistent and have punished her every single time she hits...Eva is very good at sitting in time out, she will sit there and proceed to repeatedly tell everyone and everything that she's in "time out." We ignore her, because it is suppose to be punishment. She always says she's sorry afterwards and needs reassurance, so I know the punishment was effective. Yet, the next time she gets angry she hits again. I am not used to being this plagued with doubts and worries that I'm handling a situation correctly, being a mother is really a lot more challenging emotionally than being a Chemistry Instructor. On the other hand, she has to learn to control her temper and I just keep telling myself it will be easier for her to learn it now than when hormones are raging through her body during her teenage years. I also have to believe I'm not the only mother in this world who has faced this challenge. I think I'm going to try adding a reward system for not hitting in addition to the punishment. In the meantime, I wonder how I'm suppose to get through the next year... she doesn't turn two until April.