Better Listen to my MOM....!!

Last week I was talking to my mom, kind of complaining about Caity, not really asking for advice, but not saying that I didn't want advice!! She called me back about 15 minutes after our conversation, saying that she had a couple things to offer. The first was this: a lot of times both G and I will say things in front of Caity about how she's "bad" at home and around us, which she probably picks up on. If we keep on doing that, she might get to the point, or maybe she already has, that she thinks that she's the "bad" kid. That does make sense. so, the very next day, a teacher at day care came up to me and told me what nice kids I have. Normally I would say, "you should see Caity at home, though". Instead, I just said "Thank you". So, I'm trying really hard to watch what I say.

The other thing my mom said was to ignore Caity when she's yelling to us in the middle of the night. She'll wake up and just start yelling to me -- "MOM, MOM...." I was reminded of when she was a baby and we tried to get her out of needing a bottle in the middle of the night and we'd ignore the crying. After a few days, she wouldn't wake up anymore. So, one night last night, she yelled from about 4 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. She never cried or came downstairs, so obviously she didn't need anything important.

Normally when my mom gives me parenting advice, it kind of makes me mad, I'm not sure why this was different.....maybe because I'm kind of at my wit's end.

Then Saturday night, Caity came downstairs around 4 a.m. instead of yelling, she said her throat hurt, and of course she needed a million and one things. She felt a little warm. I swear she finally fell asleep around 6:30 again. We went to watch G's softball game and then I was talking to my mom again, telling her about Caity's sore throat and warmness -- my mom thought I should take her to the doctor. I thought that was a little premature, until I thought back and realized that Caity has been sniffling for 2 weeks! So, off to urgent care we went. Sore throats are hard, though, because Caity likes medicine, you never know if she really has a sore throat or just wants medicine! She ended up having Strep Throat!! Wow! I seriously would've never thought that! Another reason to listen to my mom!

One funny/disturbing story.....when we were up north, the kids peed in a bucket while we were on the boat. Caity now thinks that she can pee wherever. Friday night when I took her to bed, I asked her if she had to go to the bathroom....she said she already went. I didn't remember her announcing that she had to go, which is always a big production. I asked her when/where she went and she said she went downstairs in the bucket. My first thought is that she went in the cat's litter box. She said "remember the bucket from the boat? it's in the garage" Turns out, that bucket is in the garage, and she did go in that bucket. I tried to make it clear AGAIN, that she needs to pee in the toilet, NOWHERE else.