Monday, November 24, 2008

Weekend Report & Nicole Habits

This weekend made me excited about a 3-day workweek. Friday was pretty mellow – we finished up Amazing Grace (B) and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

When I woke up on Saturday, however, I was SICK. I think I had some sort of stomach virus because I went from freezing cold wrapped in an afghan to burning up and laying in a tank top on the linoleum sweating. My stomach rolled with so much pain it made me nauseous. I had to miss school as a result and I couldn't really get off of the couch until about noon. Of course, 24 hours later I'm just fine like nothing happened at all. BLEH.

I did muster the energy to go to Spencerville for the family Thanksgiving. It was a good time but overall relatively short since we had to leave promptly at 9:30 am so I could be home in time for The Wizard of Oz at the Aronoff Theatre. It was pretty disappointing in general though the kids in the audience seemed to dig it. During intermission Mom and I talked Christmas and I was frustrated to learn that my great idea for my grandmother (a digital picture frame) was already in her closet for her. Grrrrr! That does save me from getting up at 4am on Friday for the deal I spotted at Meijer for them.

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Curious Nicole habit: the child doesn’t sit, she prefers to squat. By squat I mean in a catcher’s position with her thighs touching her calves and her butt an inch from the ground. Why anyone would like to stay like that (especially when sitting is literally so close!) is beyond me, but she does it all the time. I think she might think she’s rebellious because I don’t tell her to “sit down” (ie in the bathtub) if she’s squatting versus I do if she’s full out standing.

The other thing Nicole has done lately is hit when she gets mad. If you tell her no to something she wants or take something away she can’t have she gets mad and swats at you. With anyone other than us our first reaction is to grab her arm and hold it firmly at her side while telling her “you are not allowed to hit”. I don’t release her arm for several seconds and normally that will stop the bad behavior. If she tries to hit Jim however one of us will ask her “are you hitting?” and she turns instantly sweet and looks at him all lovingly and says “hi dad” and pats his chest gently. Obviously she’s not fooling us but it’s funny to see her change her tone and try to cover up her negative actions.

6 comments:

Martha said...

Nicole sounds like she gets cuter every day!
I know lots of kids who seem to do that squatty thing (I don't know about exclusively). I think it's hilarious. I'd last about 30 seconds in that position and hurt when I stood up...But think about how efficient she is - she's down low as if sitting, but it's much quicker to stand and run when you're already at the squat...
:)

Martha said...

here's something to consider - 24 hour illnesses are really food-borne illness. And food-borne illnesses are almost always some level of fecal-oral contamination.
In summary: you ate poop.
Mmm, delicious. :)
At least it wasn't E. coli or Salmonella which would have knocked you out for 5-7 days or longer if there are additional complications. Speaking of salmonella, due to improper food handling Thanksgiving and the days immediately after are the highest occurances of salmonella illnesses (summer being the other time, but being a much broader time period it's not as concentrated).

Finlands finest said...

What a little stinker Nicole is--cracks me up though. I would probably laugh at her if she went from angry swatting to sweet little girl in seconds.

I agree with Martha--24 hour stomach bugs are food borne illnesses. At least it is over and done!

Anonymous said...

do you notice anything else about her while she's squatting? like, when does she do it? is it just in lieu of sitting or does she do it spontaneously after playing or eating?

Viki said...

Sorry to hear you were sick - I hope you really didn't eat poop.

Nicole sounds hysterical - good job on being consistent with her discipline. The going from doing something she's not supposed to to turning all sweet and cute upon being reminded sounds exactly like something my Siggy would do. :-)

LisaMarie said...

Hitting can be a big deal if you don't nip it in the bud. Anna is STILL going through that phase. She KNOWS not to hit Aunt Lisa and Uncle Kendall though. We've scared the crap out of her when she does it.