I know this is going to come as quite a surprise to all of you grandmas and grandpas out there, but Finley has been going through quite the mean streak at home. She has been testing her limits and playing the helpless game to the extreme. The other night, she woke up in the night, as usual, and started to whine that she couldn't find her binky or her blankie and that she was cold. I told her to look for her binky and cover up. She kept crying and kept saying, "I want you to find it! I want you to cover me up!" For some reason, I decided that this would be the night to pick my battle and I refused to help her, knowing full well that she could help herself. Finley continued to cry and whine for 30 minutes. It went so far that I put the binky in her hand and brought her hand to her mouth with her resisting the whole time. When she finally got the binky in her mouth and I let go, she chucked it across the room! Cam and I miraculously stuck to our guns and she finally stopped crying and fell asleep. A couple of hours later, she started making these whining grunt sounds. I ignored her for about 5 minutes until she said, "Mommy!" When I exasperatedly said, "What, Finley?!" she said, "I put my binky in and covered myself up by myself."
Then, the next night Finley came home from school and said she had to go to the bathroom. Well, we all know the child has been potty-trained for awhile now and they certainly don't help her go to the bathroom at school, so we all told her to go by herself. She whined and cried and jumped around like she was going to pee her pants until she finally gave in and went to the bathroom. She wasn't ready to lose the battle yet, though, so she started crying that she couldn't pull her pants up. Again, we all know the child has been dressing and undressing herself for quite some time, so we refused. She waddled out of the bathroom with her pants and underwear at her ankles with tears streaming down her face. She proceeded to cry with her pants down for at least 30 more minutes until I told her Cam was leaving without her to go to Target. Miraculously, she easily pulled her pants up and was ready to go get a treat!
Also, the other day Finley was playing with some beads of Sadie's that had obviously been picked up off the floor and put back into their container because there were fuzzballs and hair mixed in with them. Finley found a hair and said, "Damnit hair!" Naturally, the more we told her not to say it, the more she said it.
Tonight, Finley came home from school in rare form, too. After snuggling with me on the couch for awhile, she accidentally kicked my tummy. I told her to be careful of the baby and she kicked my stomach on purpose! Then, when I told her she was going in a time-out, she smacked me again. Megan and I had to double-team her to keep her in the time-out. Megan, who is my Super Nanny, sternly got her to sit there and say she was sorry to the baby and me. Then, after Megan went to take a nap, Finley sat at the table and told me, "Mommy, you're stupid!" Then, she started singing, "Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? Look for me to do now. Crab on your face! Rarrrrrr!" After I put her in a time-out without the help of my Super Nanny, she decided she was a good girl and said, "We don't say naughty words. We don't say stupid and we don't say damnit."
Am I really having another one?!
Finley had her tonsils and adenoids out on Tuesday at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. Mommy, Daddy, and Grandma Brenda brought her in the morning and waited patiently for her surgery time to come. When it did, Finley was not so sure about the doctors in their hats and masks. The doctors all agreed they wouldn't wear their masks but it didn't help Finley too much. Mommy took her into surgery and held her while they gave her the gas. It was not much fun, but Finley did much better than expected. The surgery was quick and when she came out, she was swollen and tired. She only wanted her Daddy to hold her, which he did until his butt fell asleep, then Mommy got to hold her until she couldn't hold her pee anymore, then Grandma held her until she woke up a few hours later! We got to go home mid-afternoon and Finley slept very hard all night long. So far, she's doing pretty well. She doesn't like the taste of her Tylenol with codeine, so we've been trying to get her to take regular Tylenol instead, with mixed results. She's drinking like normal although she hasn't been eating too much (but that's not abnormal for her). She's very tired and has been sleeping lots. Now, we just wait and see if this sleeping continues past recovery...
