Monday, September 17, 2007

A Little White Lie...

So, we've finally hit the moment when Ingrid is not appreciating her little brother being Mama's center of attention. We decided for Rowan's first bath at home, we'd let Ingrid be in her "big girl tub" and Rowan would be in his "little baby tub" side by side...
Yeah, not such a great idea, I guess.
First, Ingrid decided she wanted to climb out of her tub and get into Rowan's tub, scaring me to death when she slipped a little bit. Besides the water splashed all over the floor, I could just see her hitting her head and bleeding all over... which made my tone of voice go from calm and reasonable to high pitched and panicky... which set it all off.
I was trying to wash Rowan and keep his face from going into the water while trying to be calm in telling Ingrid that she wasn't allowed to splash the water so hard that it covered the floor in water. (When she gets mad, she throws things and then flings herself against something and says, "Ow!!" or "Uh-oh..." so that I will feel sorry for her and come and give her kisses... This is not so pretty in the tub.)
Thank goodness I decided to do this when Andrew was sitting with me. He's gotta go back to work next week, so I thought I should try to remedy the situation with Ingrid tonight while I had his back-up with Rowan.
I tried to explain to Ingrid that Baby Rowan couldn't play with toys in the bathtub, but she could! Baby Rowan doesn't get to help Mama put on his lotion, but Ingrid could! She was such a big girl, not a tiny little baby...To which she said, "Get out!" (she was trying to get out of the bathtub...she wasn't saying that to me, however, I don't doubt it was subtext...)
Well, I thought, yeah, she should probably get out of the bathtub if I was going to stay calm. After telling her to say please (what?), I handed Rowan to Andrew for a new diaper and pajamas, and helped her out of the tub.
Things were going well once Rowan was out of the room until I asked her to brush her teeth. We had had several nights of knock-'em-out, drag-'em-out actual fights over this a few weeks ago, but Andrew had taken over her good night routine when I got so uncomfortably pregnant and then after I had Rowan, so it's been a couple of weeks since I put her to bed. This fight, however, she remembered. She ran into Andrew, who unfortunately had the baby on his lap. This set her off again. She screamed, "No Way!" and threw herself on the floor and threw the toothbrush under the baby's swing, all the while crying big crocodile tears and pushing at me if I came near. No amount of bargaining or setting of consequences made her change her tune. She's so much like me that we could have fought about it all night and never made any progress... Finally, I carried her into the bathroom and sat her down on my lap to brush her teeth like Andrew said he had been doing. Still a no-go.
Finally, I asked her why we brush our teeth. She didn't know. I said, "Look in the mirror. Say 'eeee.' What color are your teeth? Nice and white, huh?" She nodded. I sat back on the toilet with her.
"Guess what happens to our teeth if we don't brush them?" She looked at me with red, watery eyes. "They turn black and yucky and fall out."
Geesh.
"Do you want your teeth to turn all black and fall out?"
"No."
"Then, let's brush our teeth."
And we did.
A little white lie won't hurt anyone, right?

3 comments:

Lynn from MN said...

Congratulations! It is so exciting to see all of these pictures and read all of the happenings in your lives. I have been trying to get your blog address from Steve for weeks and I finally stood over him in his office until he gave it to me.
It is fun to see how much Ingrid has grown. She is a little lady. Keep an eye on her with Rowan!!! When Mitchell was just 6 weeks old, I caught Chad carrying him across the living room while I went to the bathroom!! That was a scary moment!
I can't begin to tell you all how much I miss all of you.
It still pains me everytime I erase an Elizabeth on the #1 music sheets as well as the A on the guitar music :(
And the Worship Director office is way too empty without Ingrid's items in there!!!
I look forward to the day we can see you all again, in the mean time, the blogs are good!!
Hugs, love and prayers to all of you.

Grama Camra said...

My precious granddaughter?!?!?These are moments you will remind her about when she understands and gets to laugh about them. In the meantime I can only imagine the stress or distress you must have felt. I am so grateful for your blog - just hearing about your evening made me feel just like I were close. Love you all and can't wait for Thanksgiving! Love, G C

Gina said...

HAH!!! I guess there's a reason why we ease ourselves into parenting. I can't imagine trying to figure Will out AND and older child right now. I just don't know enough. It's so great to see how you handle all this. Thanks for this glimpse of your family life...and for the laugh. Love you guys...