You never control your own life, you only want to control mine

Ah, the irony.  This was part of a long series of crabby remarks this morning. I’ve established on the blog that Andrew is first contact in the morning – “Good morning, Blitzen. Good morning, guineas.”  I come in a little later to move it all along and help with dressing, if Blitzen so desires and she [...]

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Independent Mornings

During my absence, Blitzen was much more independent in the morning.  It has been tricky for me to reinsert myself into the routine without backtracking to the morning struggles that we had before I left.  She is capable of managing much of her self-care (bathing, dressing, etc) by herself.  But it is quite clear that she [...]

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I’m dramatic, right?

Blitzen recently said this to me as she was thrashing about in bed claiming to be itchy  and to have a sore throat and probably a fever too.  I mentioned that if she could try to relax her body and rest, she might feel a lot better.  And she says ‘Cause I’m dramatic, right?’  I just smiled and [...]

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Please don’t go

‘I want you to stay with me’, Blitzen said.  And I was really pushing her to communicate with me.  ‘I am here but stay with you when?  Now, when you are getting dressed? When?’ I ask.  I know the answer but she has to learn to articulate these things instead of yelling at me to get out [...]

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bedtime playtime

After a long day of playing with our friends in NJ and a drowsy drive home later than our usually scheduled bedtime, we carried Blitzen into the house, slipped on her pjs and patted her back as she lay practically comatose in her bed.  Suddenly, she sat up and asked with alarm ‘did i get bedtime playtime?’. [...]

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Hair

Have I written about hair yet? Blitzen has lovely hair, curly and full, but different from mine.  So it took me a couple of weeks to figure it out.  Sometimes she wears it out, sometimes in a ponytail or barrettes.  I am a terrible braider, so we haven’t gone there much. Blitzen wants her hair to [...]

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I am not an early bird

She says this every morning, so indignantly, like I haven’t noticed that she hates to get out of bed on school days.  She is cranky and crabby and has to be coaxed with great effort and care.  What she really means, I think, is that she hates to be woken.  We’ve written about the morning [...]

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Building Routines, part 2

As mentioned, we’ve been working on this.  I made Blitzen a chart using lots of words and fun pictures to map out our morning routine.  Mornings are actually pretty good — see Andrew’s post re being thankful for such wonderful mornings — and I thought that if we started with what we were already pretty good [...]

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Mornings

The a.m. generally continues to be a fairly relaxed and happy time for Blitzen. We have begun to encounter a little bit of resistance on school mornings.  When she wakes on her own, no problem. When we wake her, she really does not want to get up.  And it is a tricky thing.  Once we [...]

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