The Sunday after New Year started with a detox for Sweet-Pea. A week of cakes, late nights and too much television finally took their toll. We let her stay up late on New Year’s Eve and we paid for it the following day. She was miserable. She wouldn’t sleep and she wouldn’t co-operate. On Saturday night after two hours of screaming and tantrums during the early hours of evening – we finally told her that there was no television the next day.
Well needless to say – that did not go down very well. She woke up the next morning in the same frame of mind. Much to her surprise, she was swiftly removed to her bedroom where she was told she had to stay until she calmed down. After about half an hour, I looked in and she was sleeping soundly.
I let her down an hour and a half later by which time Smiler (my son) and I were getting ready to go to church. When she asked if she was going to church, I gently explained that she would be staying with Daddy and indignation set in. “But I won’t get a biscuit!” she wailed. I told her that people who threw tantrums didn’t get biscuits. Period.
So I went to church and when I came back, Daddy had given her a lovely bath and she was in a better frame of mind. The rest of the day passed mostly without incident and the next day when she started up over something minor – the threat of no TV was again brought up and she immediately stopped making a fuss.
We really don’t let her watch much TV but she has it on first thing in the morning until breakfast and then it’s off for the day until 5:00 PM when she can watch it while I make supper. She only watches baby channels like cBeebies and Tiny Pop and if she doesn’t like a show, we just turn it off. We try not to use it as a baby sitter but like most parents, if we need to do something – it can be turned on as a special treat.
Everyone was in a brighter mood by Tuesday – the first day at nursery after the New Year. Saw my friend Lesley dropping off her daughter at the same time as I was dropping off Sweet-Pea. We were both absolutely beaming at the thought of only having one child to cope with that day!
On Thursday, my cousin Dave’s wife Sharon and daughter Sarah came to visit us from Canada. Sarah is studying in France and they stopped in England to see us on the way there. We don’t get too many family visits so it was lovely to see them. Sweet-Pea loves it when we have company and she was especially taken with Sarah. So much so that when it was bedtime she told my husband and I that she wanted “someone else” to read her a story. “Someone” very happily read her “The Gruffalo” and all was well.
Here are a few pictures we took of the rellies. This one is me with Sharon (holding Smiler) and Sarah (holding Sweet-Pea) then there are a few of Sarah with them on her own.
Anyhow - I have my work cut out for me this week. Loads of paperwork to sort and loads of stuff to do. Most of my resolutions are going okay except the one about my desk. Ah well - Rome wasn't built in a day!
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