It's a hair thang

Hair Pulling. It's a problem. Now, if you are imagining little girls fighting and pulling each other's hair, you would be wrong. Caíthlyn pulls out her own hair.
Our beautiful Goldie Locks has pretty much always had the habit of twisting her hair around her fingers as soon as she had her dodi in her mouth.
I seriously doubt that she even realized she did this. She used to to twist and twirl it, then pull it tight and kind of pluck at the strand. What we never realized was that when she did this, she actually broke her hair. What was once a beautifull, full head of hair is now a rather raggety mop of different lengths of hair. There would be tuffs of hair laying about wherever she had been relaxing. On the sofa, in her carseat....... I could make a wig of all the hair we have found in her bed! It was quite upsetting watching her hair deminish like that. Finally, something had to be done, this could not continue.
Dr. Google provided us with some rather not fun information about a condition that is called trichotillomania. People have been diagnosed with that as early as two years of age. Darren and I both thought it sounded a bit severe and decided that we would first see if there was anything we could do before "diagnosing" her with trichotillomania.
As the dodi and the hair pulling seemed to be in direct link with each other, Daddy, Nannie and myself decided that the dodi needed to be fazed out.
Let me just say again how lucky we are to have Nannie. She loves her grandchildren to distraction and is SO on the ball that she will "catch" or predict almost anything involving them.
Whereas Darren and I are her parents and are obviously the ones that ultimately call the shots where Caíthlyn is concerned, we would be absolutely lost without Nannie. If something needs to be done for the grandkids, she will make darn sure that it gets done.
And with the hairpulling, something needed to be done.
As Nannie minds Little Miss three days a week, her help with this issue was invaluable. The dodi had to go. At least during the day. The first week it was kind of tough, she would ask for her dodi as soon as she got tired. Or Bored. She would see her cousin E. with her dodi and ask for her own. But we persisted, none of us caved, and it worked! The hairpulling is almost non-existant now! She still does it sometimes when she falls asleep as she gets her dodi in her bed. We tell her "Dodi's are for bedtime Honey." and she's fine with that.
I have never made any secret of my hatred for the dodi. When she was a baby, I was gratefull for the peace and comfort it provided. As she got older though, and started walking, I started to HATE the thing. The thought of her going to school and still walking around with this thing in her mouth annoyed the heck out of me. So when Darren sent me this following e-mail this morning, I was SO delighted:

"She stood up in the bed for me to lift her out and took her doddy out her mouth and kind of looked at it as if to say, ok, well what do I do with this now...no use for it now..and she looked at me and I said throw it on your pillow for later and she did without even batting an eyelid...it was great.."

When I had been getting her up on the days that I was off, she would let me take her dodi and put it away. No fuss. But now she is giving it up voluntarily? Leaving it, without prompting? Happy Freaking Days!!

Because, really:

This:



Is so much better than this:



Right? (Still pretty darn cute in the second one too though!)

Now, our hope is that the hair gets to recover. Auntie N. (Well, S. for the rest of us, but Little Miss calls her Auntie N.) is a hair stylist and will give Caíthlyn her first haircut when she is about three years old. Hopefully that will give it the chance to get well again.

Fingers crossed!

Thunderbolts and lightning

Last Friday, a thunderstorm was making it's way over to us. Caíthlyn and I were cleaning upstairs. She always "helps" me when I am doing the upstairs. She will have her own little J-Cloth and wipe over any surface that I have just cleaned. Here's hoping she keeps this love of cleaning!
I had all the windows open as it was a lovely warm day and I wanted to give the place a good airing out.
Mid-hoover, I felt the temperature drop and knew we were in for a bit o' thunda!
Darren and I love a good thunderstorm. He loves it to the point of almost getting struck by lightning when he was admiring nature at work. I enjoy sitting at the open window, or in the open doorway and looking out.
This would be Little Miss' first conscious thunderstorm and I felt strongly that I should do all I could to make the experience fun for her!
"Listen Caíthlyn, thunderrrrrrr" I said in my "Let's go to the playground!" voice. We raced to the bedroom window, where I saw that I had left the sun-roof of my car open! Doh! So after we bolted (heeeeee, bolted, thunderstorm, geddit?) down the stairs, and I closed the sunroof. We went to the sliding doors out the back. I opened them a little and put Little Miss in the chair at the window facing out. I snuggled in behind her and we were all ready to enjoy the storm. Or so I thought.... At the first thunderclap, she told me in a very small voice that she wanted to get away from the window.
I sat down on the sofa, with her in my arms, when the second clap came. She darted off my lap, into her Dora Tent that we had set up in the living room. "I no like thunder" she told me. She peered out from between the little flaps of the tent and waited until she felt it safe to come out.
When more thunder came, she crawled on to my lap again, and under my t-shirt. She maneuvered herself completely inside my t-shirt and at the end of it, it looked like I had two heads. (She peeked out of the top, to check the status on the thunder)
She also seemed to think that the kitchen was a safer place to be. When Daddy came home, and the thunder came back, she told him to come in to the kitchen with her.

I guess Queen was right: Thunderbolts and lightning.... very very frightning...

Brad

Watching E! entertainment channel there the other week. They were covering the "cleverly" dubbed "Brangelina" story. A picture of Brad, looking rather yummy with a beard of a few days graces the screen.
Little Miss: "Look Mammie! My Daddy on the television!!" :-))) Gotta Love it!

Still in the middle of the terrible two's.... Literally and figuratively. Literally as in, she is almost 2.5 years old and figuratively as in: I am just going to disagree, argue and fight with you until bedtime.
Now, the three of us are sick..... again.....
I can completely appreciate that this could have an adverse effect on Little Miss. But I fear that there is more to this then just the effects of a cold/flue sore throat.

Since she no longer sleeps it out in the morning, we have found that its beneficial to all concerned that she has a nap again in the early afternoon. The ideal situation has her kip from 12.30 to 14.00. hrs. Sadly, this does not always happen. She is almost cliché in her actions sometimes.
She is so adamant to say the opposite of what you are saying that even when you say she's the best girl, she will tell you that no, she is in fact, NOT the best girl! Or: "Nooooooooo, I NOT best girl Mammieieieieieieieieieieieieie!!!"

Last weekend, we knew we were in trouble when she started giving out to Eyore in the dolly buggy. She was telling him to sit up straight. When Eyore did not "listen" she threw herself on the floor in a hissy fit. I hate seeing her that way. She seems to get in her own way so badly. I can't imagine that this is the way she wants to feel.
We know that we have to stick to our guns so to speak. We know she needs the boundaries. Therefore we do not offer her 4 different choices in regards to which cup she wants to use for instance. It's tough to stick to this sometimes though. Sometimes, you just want to make it stop. For both her and you. We are just going to have to continue doing the very best we can. There are much worse things and we are very blessed to have her.
Hopefully, this too, shall pass.

Knock, Knock

Caíthlyn loves the Backyardigans. I have to admit to even singing allong to some of the songs. (shuddup, their catchy!)
In one adventure, they go on a "quest" to make the perfect cup of tea (pip, pip, cheerioooooo) One of the tasks in this quest, is to make the emperor laugh.
To this end, Uniqua (a pink character) tells the following joke:

"Knock, Knock"
Q: "Who's there"
A:"Banana"
Q:"Banana who?"

"Knock, Knock"
Q: "Who's there"
A:"Banana"
Q:"Banana who?"

"Knock, Knock"
Q: "Who's there"
A:"Banana"
Q:"Banana who?"

"Knock, Knock"
Q: "Who's there"
A:"Orange"
Q:"Orange who?"
A: "Oranged you glad I did't say Banana?!!"

Caíthlyn has taken to telling us this joke. It will go something like this:

"Knock, Knock"
Q: "Who's there"
A:"Nanna"
Q:"Banana who?"

"Knock, Knock"
Q: "Who's there"
A:"Orange"
Q:"Ncha glad I Banana?!"

And then she will fall all over herself laughing, thus not being able to probably finish the last sentence.
I am telling you, it's hilarious! She's gonna be a stand-up comic. Mark my words!

Here's a pic of our beauty at Easter:




More pics here.