Thursday, August 14, 2008

pediatrician, lying, and the winds of change

Little Miss Charlotte had the fabulous experience of going to the pediatrician for her 12 month checkup on Monday. She's still in the 5th percentile for both weight and height, a little peanut. She also got jabbed by 3 needles. She's pretty resilient though, no real effects yet - although I guess its the 7-10 days post shot time frame that causes the fever. She didn't show off any of her tricks for the doctor, though. She was much too busy being absolutely furious with us for bringing her there.

If someone can explain to me why, when we have approximately 42,317 toys in the living room alone, both children need to play with the same exact toy, I'd be forever grateful. It is enough to drive me insane in half of a second. Even if we have two things exactly the same in every appreciable way - they have to both have the same one. I'm torn between refereeing it and letting them sort it out for themselves. On the one hand, Charlotte is much smaller than Elisabeth. But on the other hand is a big fat bite mark.

We've entered into the "lying phase" with Elisabeth. It is tough. "

Me: Did you just jump off of the couch like a Chinese gymnast? (she's about the same age...)
E: No.
Me: Elisabeth, are you lying to me?
E (with coy smile): no.....
Me: I have secret video cameras hidden all around and I can go review the tapes. Now did you jump off of the couch?
E: I don't want to tell you. (translated: yes)
Me: I don't like it when you lie to me. You'll get in less trouble for jumping off of the couch if you tell me the truth than if you lie to me about it. Because, like I said before, I'll find out.
E (head hanging low): I jumped off of the couch.
Me: did you at least stick the landing? Because if you're going to win us a gold medal, you need to start sticking the landings. You know, little children in China don't have enough to eat. Plus, they ship them off to state run training centers so they can win gold medals. Those children stick their landings...

In all seriousness, I have read lots of things on this lying phase. They all, strangely, say not to punish your preschoolers for lying to you at this age because it is natural and because they don't get it. So I've been trying to teach her that lying is bad. We don't like it. Explaining lying to a kid is tough, especially when you're parents who tend to joke around with your kid a lot. The difference between "just kidding" and "lying" is a fine one. But I also think she does understand it, so she loses movie privileges and sometimes dessert (depending on the egregiousness of the crime, I'm in the process of developing sentencing guidelines) for lying to me.

In other news, I start my new job on Monday. I can barely talk about it without getting weepy. But at the same time, I'm very ready for a change. I feel like I've lost my mojo as a stay at home mom, which is perhaps the fault of summer and a lack of a consistent routine. Routine, to me, is critical. So while I'm really looking forward to the job, I'm absolutely ripped up inside about not being home with my girls all the time. But, I think some Daddy time will be good for them. He has fresh legs and a different approach. They can experience something other than a dictatorship for awhile.

On that very happy note, we're off to the mall for my least favorite thing on Earth - panty hose. I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns, but apparently they are a part of formal business attire. Blech. Men should have to wear them.

1 comment:

Erin said...

I have decided to rewrite the business professional dress code and there are no pantyhose involved! Foruntately, my office is just so jazzed that I wear suits that no one has noticed the lack of hose! I feel for you on that, they are miserable.