The "No" Monster and the Bad Mom Moment that Turned Good

Dear Hailey, 

You are getting REALLY good at letting us know what you want and don't want. You are pretty much an expert at saying "no" which is so like typical toddler behavior. Nathan and Hannah, didn't quite say it as much as you do. You know exactly what you want and you have no problem telling us "no" until we figure out what you want. 

This morning you climbed up to the second step of the stairs (where I usually set you down to put on shoes) and you point at your feet while saying, "sssss." Ok, shoes. So I put the shoes on you. Then you climb down and you head towards the door  to the garage and you point to the door. 

"You want to see daddy?" 

"No."

"You want to go outside?" [nods] "Ok, I have to put my shoes on." So I grab my shoes and I sit down to put them on. As I'm putting them on my right foot, you grab the other shoe and you are trying to put it on my other foot. I get both of my shoes on and then you grab my hand and lead me to the door. We left the house 30 minutes before we had to leave.  

Dearr Hannah,

You are getting to be quite the artist. I'm so proud of your drawings. Below  you have drawn a bunch of ballerinas. 

 And then you did a great job painting a horse in a bluebonnet field. And then for you "M" bag, you free handedly cut out a mushroom and a muffin. You are definitely very artistic and creative.

I also love your sense of style. Here we have superhero princess on our way to pick up Nathan from school. 

 You are still a bottomless pit when it comes to food. Lately, you seem to be constantly hungry for food, especially fruit.

During our freetime you like to read and paint with me, play barbies and snuggle. You are also happy to play alongside of me while I work in the yard. I've been cleaning up about 3 years worth of neglect.

This past weekend we went to home depot for their monthly builds right after martial arts. You two have been working very hard to prepare for you tournament this weekend. (However, it looks like you two are getting sick, so we may have to miss out on the tournament.)

On Wednesday, we met up with some friends at the Thinkery. Hannah has "El Tigre" this week and has been taking him on all sorts of adventures. Your favorite room is the light room. Hailey loved going into the shadow-strobe light room. I had to keep a hawk eye on her. Every time I turned away, she would start to dash towards the dark room.

Hailey loves to push all the buttons. Credit card machines at the stores, the microwave, keyboards, anything that elicits a response is cool in her book.

Hailey is also really into balls. "Baaw" is how she refers to balls and she had a blast watching the balls roll down a ramp. 

 Afterwards we had lunch at Bao'ed up where we got to try an assortment of buns.

Nathan (and Hannah),
You lost your 6th or 7th tooth today. I feel so bad because you are missing a whole row of 4 upper front teeth. Eating is now a challenge for you. Hopefully these new teeth will come in soon. It's taking a long time! I thought having 2 front teeth missing was bad. You have 4!

You seem to have found a good core group of friends who you play with and you hardly ever complain about kids being mean now. You are doing an amazing job at reading. In fact, you have completed all the sight word list words and you are working on spelling those same lists now. The spelling is coming along slowly, but I'm not even pushing you because I don't think you are developmentally ready for spelling this incredibly weird language.

We are focusing on how to be kind and empathetic towards others. We had a moment of truth the other night. You and Hannah have been "practicing" your martial arts moves on each other all day. We have asked you two several times to stop "practicing" at home because someone will get hurt. Of course, you guys still end up fighting and someone always gets hurt, so most of the time, I just kind of ignore it. That day, at some point, you hurt Hannah and cause her to start crying. At this point, I'm annoyed and frustrated, so I walk up to you and I tell you both, "Ok, you guys are now allowed to fight each other and use your martial arts moves on each other. Go! Fight!" From your eyes, I see this spark and in your head, you must be thinking, "Really? I get to fight her? This is going to be awesome!" Hannah, you did the opposite and you refused. So when Nathan struck you (relatively lightly), you started to cry. I encouraged you to hit him back and you just cried, "No!"  I looked over at you Nathan to see your reaction and I could tell the remorse in your eyes as you tried to rectify the situation by purposely tripping over something to fall and hurt yourself. 

Quickly, I thanked God in my head and then immediately praised Hannah for "turning the other cheek." This was a perfect teachable moment as I asked you Nathan how you felt when Hannah wouldn't hit you back.  I then asked you how you would've felt if she did hit you back. Remorse vs. anger. I think this was the moment when you finally understood what turning the other cheek meant.

Life is too short to be angry. Let's forgive and lift up each other so that they can be the best version of themselves.

Both of you guys came home from school coughing and I don't think it is allergies. We will probably be missing out on the tournament as well as a birthday party. We sent you two to bed early today, so we'll see how everyone is feeling tomorrow. Prayers that you both heal quickly because with all the sickness that our family has been through this winter, I feel like your immune systems should be pretty strong. 

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy