Focusing on the positive (Anna)

We've had a terrible few days. No major lifechanging catastrophes, but the kind of weekend where most things that could have gone wrong, have, and we've hit Sunday evening feeling wrung out and needing a weekend to recover. Actually, it would be hard to imagine having a worst few days in so many different ways.

So, in an attempt to focus on the positive:

Emma has learnt to string together sentences beginning with "I want to". But she's missing a few verbs. So, for example, she wanted to look at a baby photo of herself that was hanging on the wall, and asked "I want to picture off wall". She wanted to go for a walk, so she asked, "I want to shoes on, pliz."

Our car almost got towed from right in front of our house. (When Caroline went racing out as the truck was backing towards our car, the tow truck guy literally ran back to his truck so he could speed up the process of connecting the lever-thing to our car, so he could then charge us the towing and release fee. Grrr.). That's not the positive. This is: Emma stood at the window crying, "Emma's car! Emma's car!" It was incredibly sweet. (I almost wanted to take her outside so the tow truck guy would have to wrestle with his conscience over being such a bully that he made a toddler cry :)) I guess from her point-of-view, Caroline was out there in the role of protective Mummy, making sure that Emma's car was safe.

Emma was having a hard time going to bed tonight. Usually, after bath time, story time, teeth time, etc, we cuddle her on our lap, sing to her and rock her, then put her into bed and stroke her head for a moment or two before she goes to sleep. Tonight, she didn't want to lie down and was crying, so I told her that I would keep singing to her if she lay down and let me tuck her in. As soon as I said that, she happily lay down. I knelt beside her bed for quite a while singing Mumma songs (a.k.a. completely made up on the spot, never-to-be-repeated chants). I thought she was asleep, so after a while I stopped singing and got up to go to the door. She looked up bleerily and said, in a very sleepy voice, "More, Mumma?" and so I sang a little longer. It was a beautiful moment. I can't imagine an audience I would rather sing to; I love that I can help my baby feel peaceful and loved when she goes to sleep.

A few months ago, Emma was having a really hard time with doctors' appointments, getting inconsolably upset when a doctor tried to examine her (to the point where doctors couldn't hear her heart beat because she was crying too hard). So we brought her a play doctor's kit and have been "practising" at home a lot, letting her check our chest, look in our ears, take our blood pressure etc, and then "examining" her. And it seems to have paid off - she has had several doctor's appointments in the last week, and has been calm in every one of them, even when they have been looking in her ears (something that used to make her scream). It helps that she also now has the comprehension skills that we can tell her that it's just like her medical kit at home and that seems to resonate. We're really proud of her!!