Medals, Magic, and Night Cream

First of all, I want to say thank you.  Thank you for your blog comments, Facebook messages, emails, and phone calls.  Between the three year-old fears and the three year-old fits and the regular ol' toddler shenanigans, we've had a doozy of a time around here lately.  Your kind words of sympathy, commiseration, and encouragement have kept me chugging along.  It's really nice to have a place where I can pour my heart out and have little bits of it mended up and handed back to me.  Thank you!

My cousin suggested bestowing a bravery medal upon Little Guy, and it seemed like just the thing to fit his personality and temperament.  The Mister selected a commemorative medallion from his father, the Air Force Colonel, complete with the outline of an airplane, and gave him an awesome father-son speech about being brave in the face of his fears, like his Grandpa and the pilots of the Air Force.  And I added in a part about being brave like his Daddy!  He's held it close a couple times as the fire alarms in our building were tested, and it seems to have given him the little confidence boost he needed to begin conquering many of his fears.  Yesterday, there was a brief wail from the fire alarms {I have no idea why those things must be tested so often!} and he didn't cry and he didn't run.  As he said, he "just shook my head and be brave."  Now, as long as he can hear me singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" from a distance, he'll even venture into another room alone for a quick errand.  And for several nights, he has slept in his own bed until 4:30 or 5.  Things are looking up.

A friend who teaches kindergarten recommended the book 1-2-3, Magic for our behavior issues.  I'll admit I was a little reluctant to buy into it, because it advises using a counting system.  I've always shied away from counting, because I want to set a standard of first-time obedience.  Well, as it stood before, we certainly weren't getting first-time obedience.  Or second or third or even, fifteenth.  The behavior was way out of control, the Mister and I were boiling underneath, and all the while, another set of very admiring little eyes was seeing extreme defiance and aggression modeled several times a day.  This past week, I grounded us in order to engage in discipline bootcamp.  We were not fit for playdates.  I read 1-2-3, Magic, and immediately put its counting method to work, following all its guidelines, and y'all, there is peace in this house today.  There has been no spanking since we began, the number of time-outs earned has decreased each day {not a single one today!}, Little Guy is generally stopping bad behaviors on the count of one {Hello, first-time obedience!}, and my blood pressure stays even all day long.  We're having so much more fun with one another!  Now, it's only been four days.  I may be back next week, pouring out my heart again, but I am hopeful.  I am so, so hopeful.

In other news, I will be turning thirty next month.  THIRTY!  In honor of this momentous event, I have purchased night cream.  It's supposed to be ageless-ifying or something.  It does smooth on real nicely.

The only problem is my new night cream habit interferes with my longstanding Breathe Right strip habit.  I've mentioned before that my first and most persistent pregnancy symptom is nighttime congestion.  As a result, I heavy breathe all night.  {Note: heavy breathing is not to be confused with snoring.}  Breathe Right strips help us all sleep better.  BUT an application of the ageless-ifying goop makes the corners of a freshly applied Breathe Right strip pop loose.  And once the corners pop loose, the length of the strip slowly begins peeling away from the sides of my nose until, in just a matter of minutes, the only adhesive connection remaining is at the very bridge of my nose, with the wings of the strip splayed out to either side, ready for flight.  So, I go to bed looking as if my nose is set to alight from my face at any moment.  And I heavy breathe.  But at least I'm ageless-ified.

Maybe I'll figure out a solution to this dilemma by the time I turn thirty.  That's very old.  Very wise.