11/26/06 Cute Katrina

Cute baby today, but with a cold and fussy today. As I type at 11:30pm, she STILL isn't asleep, keeps waking up and crying. Dave's with her now, we've been taking turns for hours.

Dave took the boys to a train expo in Pleasanton today, and I looked forward to a nice time alone with baby, but she either slept or cried. I had to take her outside, and it was rainy today, so took her to a scrapbook store. What torture, all I see is yet more supplies and materials she'll never give me a chance to use!

Here's a non-fussy cute cooey baby moment from this afternoon.


What are we going to do about Gabriel's backtalk and rudeness?? It's absolutely chilling how he orders us around, or says nasty things in the midst of a conflict. "You get me my milk RIGHT NOW Mom!". That's an easy one, he doesn't get milk. But what about something he has to get? "You get me my shoes RIGHT NOW Mom!" He has to have shoes to go out when we want him to go out. It isn't practical to bail on those things every time he's rude, since he is so often, and many times I want to, or have to, go out. I can't ignore it and teach him it's OK to talk to me that way. I can't put him on timeout every time, because it disrupts whatever it is we were going to do. I can't take things away every time, because we run out of things to take away and sometimes aren't in a good place or time to do so. I can't smack him every time (though that is the most obvious and immediate consequence) because it doesn't stop him, nor prevent future episodes, and I'd be smacking him all day long. Occasionally laughing at him stops the rude behavior and turns it into something else, it never actually ends the conflict.

Sometimes I wonder what our lives would be like if Gabriel weren't Gabriel. Then again, then it wouldn't be our lives.

11/26/06