She's growing up!

This past weekend I realized that my sweet dear baby has not one, but TWO loose teeth! What the eff!
I noticed that her bottom tooth appeared irritated or something so I touched her tooth and it moved. So I tried the other and it moved too! Katy was so happy. She ran around the house yelling "I've been waiting my whole life for this!"

Your whole life Katy? Really? (Does anyone see the drama I have to deal with around here lol)

I ran the the bathroom and cried a little (not a lot, just like 2 tears only for real) and quickly composed myself because the husband was making fun of me and telling me to man up. But in my defense, those friggin' teeth caught me off guard. I was not expecting my girl to have loose teeth at 4. She is too young...she JUST grew those teeth!

Anyhow, I took her to the dentist and they took an x-ray. Amazingly, her adult teeth are in place and ready to sprout! My baby is growing up right before my eyes! Those teeth will fall out before the end of the week I am sure. Until then, I better hurry and go take family photos!

What would you like to change about your child?

I received an interesting email from Growing Child today about changing the behavior of your child. I found it to be interesting, so I copied it into my blog :0)  Please read it and let me know what you thin. It suggests there is a part two, so when I get it I will re-post it as well.

Quick! What's the one thing you would like to change about your child?

Okay. Now, why do you want to change it?

Chances are, it's because that behavior causes the worst side of you to come out, as you nag incessantly. When considering behaviors to change, there are several things to ask yourself first.

Is this behavior mostly a result of where your child is on the developmental ladder? That is, does your child behave in this annoying way mostly because of where he/she is in developmental ability or task?

An example of this would be the two-year-old who resists nearly every suggestion from a parent. Difficult as it may be to live with such defiance, a little knowledge will confirm that this is pretty typical behavior for a youngster who is forming a sense of autonomy.

Developmental limitations may frustrate your child and not permit more mature actions. So, refresh your developmental knowledge to learn whether or not this behavior is a product of development.

If you decide that the behavior falls into the developmental category, accept the fact that you will not be able to change the behavior, but that you can learn to adopt some responses that may preserve your sanity and allow your child to both work at the developmental level and not receive continual negative feedback.

An example of this would be to allow more choices for the two-year-old, such as choosing which shirt to wear or which cup to use. A little power shared often helps defuse a power struggle.

If you have concluded that it is not a developmental issue, ask yourself whether the behavior is part of your child's unique temperament. While children don't directly inherit personality, they are born with hard-wired temperaments that influence their characteristic patterns of behavior.

Some children are more naturally boisterous and outgoing, some much quieter, finding it easier to comply. Some children have a tendency to be quite inflexible and rigid, while others happily go with the flow.

Consider the behaviors that have been part of your child since birth. Any parent would do much better recognizing innate temperament and learning how to adapt to that, rather than trying to meet it headlong with often disastrous results.

Another thing to ask yourself before you launch into behavioral change is, just why you have a problem with it? What are your expectations for behavior, where do these expectations come from, and are they reasonable/appropriate?

Sometimes others have influenced our standards, by earlier experiences, or by personal preferences. Discovering why certain behaviors push our particular buttons may be important learning for parents, and we learn whose problem it really is.

When you have gone through this reflection process, you may discover one of several things:

1. Either the behavior is not so important or so permanent as to necessitate efforts to change it; or

2. Strategic responses have rendered the behavior more tolerable; or

3. This really is a behavior that needs some modification.

If this latter answer is the one you come up with, then it's time to consider effective ways of changing behavior. More about this in the next article.

Cindy Anthony: The story of a mother's love?

As some of you may know, I am a wannabe attorney. So, I often follow court cases. Recently I have been enthralled in the Casey Anthony case. The verdict, as most of the nation knows, was returned as Not Guilty which stunned, shocked, and enraged everyone on Planet Earth. Well almost everyone. I was not surprised at all. The burden of proof was on the prosecution not the defense, and no matter how much we may feel like Casey was guilty, the proof was not in the pudding. But I've digressed. This entry actually has nothing to do with my opinion about the case. It is about Cindy, Casey Anthony's mom, and her unconditional love.

You see, Cindy Anthony was the person who alerted the authorities of her granddaughter's disappearance. She was the one who suspected foul play. And in the end, she was the one who guaranteed her daughter's freedom with her testimony. Cindy Anthony ,at some point, lied during her testimony. What changed her mind? Did she decide not lose both her daughter and her granddaughter?

Cindy lied under oath. She said she searched for Chloroform on the internet. However she was signed in at work at the time making it impossible to do the search on her home computer. This testimony was enough to confuse the jury and make it impossible to prove premeditation (which is typically needed to find a person guilty of 1st degree murder) . Ultimately, only Cindy and Casey know the truth. The rest of us will probably never know (unless an OJ Simpson style "If I DID commit the crime This is How I would do it" book is released). What we do know, is that Cindy is very loyal to her child--no matter what.  She has publicly with one hand on the Bible proven the power of a mother's unconditional love for her child. I do not believe she is the only mother to do something like this, nor do I believe she will be the last.

What would you do to save your child from the gas chamber? If  your child was facing the death penalty, can you honestly say you wouldn't perjure yourself to save her life...

Rest in Peace Caylee