I had to get the kids out of the house today, and thankfully got an invitation to join a couple other moms at the mall play area, then we would go to the food court for lunch and have time to get Jenna to school. I thought I was doing good on time in the morning but still ended up getting to the mall 20 minutes passed meeting time. The kids did pretty good, except that Jenna was running around on the cushioned seat that borders the inside of the play area, showing the toddlers what NOT to do; made a little girl cry; and somehow Ava managed to scratch her eyeball! More on that later.
Jenna is the most sociable kid I know. She LOVES to make new "friends" to play with, but lately she's also been ditching playmates for others and not understanding that everyone can play together. She'll just tell them she doesn't want to play with them anymore, and she's playing with someone else. On one hand it's good that she speaks her mind (she was a late talker and bit of a pushover as a young toddler), but on the other hand these are sensitive 4 year olds we're talking about. So how do you teach a 4 year old to empathize without making them just play with everyone to avoid hurt feelings? Today at the mall Jenna approached a little girl and asked if she wanted to be her friend and play. The girls decided to hold hands running around and sliding down this mountain climbing thing, then Jenna pulls the little girl down! The only thing worse than your kid doing something wrong is the glare you get from the other parent if they aren't satisfied with your response. Well, sorry I have two other babies that need to be monitored, and Jenna generally knows how to play without getting hurt. Just a note, I did correct the behavior right away by calling her over, but somehow I got the feeling the other mother disapproved that I was not sitting right in front of the girls playing (like she was) to quickly correct my naughty daughter's behavior. Either way, I told Jenna that they could hold hands but she cannot pull her because the girl could get hurt. So the girls continued to play. Again it was going well, they're running around laughing, then Jenna decides that she's playing with the babies now and doesn't want to play with the girl anymore. The result, the girl running to her mother's lap crying because they're "supposed to be friends!" Strike 2 for me with the other mother. I felt so bad for the girl, though, and encouraged Jenna to play with her and see that her feelings were hurt, but all Jenna was thinking was she wanted to climb on the truck with the babies. I couldn't really do anything else. The left shortly after that.
While all this was going down, Ava would occassionally come up to me whining to get up or something. With her it's almost a crying-wolf situation. She whines so much I have to really discern when something is wrong or if she's just being her whiny self. I didn't notice any physical ailments, but it was near her usual nap time. The girls got up late today, so I thought she'd be ok pushing nap time until we took Jenna to school. No such luck with this whiny girl. Around 11 we went down to the food court, got some Subway, the girls did great sitting at lunch, Jared fell asleep. It was such a nice leisurely time. But then I noticed that Ava's eye was a lilittle pink and she had a little scratch on her neck. The thoughts running through my head, did she just come down with pink eye, how did she do get scratched, who the heck hurt my kid, and how aweful I was to not notice if she was whining in the play area because she was hurt or at what point she got hurt. I didn't notice anything unusual at the time. Great.
Well, we took Jenna to school (she was super-excited coming out of their winter break), then we went home, and Ava took almost a 2 1/2 hour nap! Lance came home a little early and went to pick Jenna up, get some dessert from the bakery, run some errands. When Ava woke up I noticed she had a red scratch on her eyeball! She didn't really complain about it, wasn't rubbing it, so I gave it a little time before I called the dr. I did though around 4 and made a 6 p.m. appointment. Thankfully there was no scratch on the cornia, no sign of infection at the time, but we got antiobiotic drops just in case to avoid infection for a couple days. She did so great playing quietly in the dr.'s office, sitting on my lap cuddling in the waiting room and she did pretty well for the dr. to look in her eye, even she commented on how good she is :) I let her hold her "mecine" box on the drive home.
It was so nice taking Ava to the dr. by herself, and she loved my undivided attention. It reminded me of the days that it was just Jenna, and we could just have fun together. Just in that hour and a half I felt closer to Ava. On the way home she was singing, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" while the radio was on and then pretended her eye drop box was a phone. I looked back for a second to see it up to her ear, then I heard "Hello, hat, oh, bye bye." Once we got home I gave her a snack at the table before bed, and she asked, "Pray?" before she would eat. Usually Lance and I tag-team on the baths, so he was finishing up with Jenna's bath, and I gave Ava hers and put her to bed. I'll have to make mommy and Ava play dates a priority. I so don't want her to have that typical middle-child feeling of being left out. I'm so glad that she is independent, inquisitive and smart, and she is fully capable of playing by herself (she actually prefers it sometimes). But it will be really nice when Jenna goes to kindergarten every day, where I can return back to the time it was just me and Jenna and have quality Ava/mommy time.
Some days I literally have to remind myself of how much I love them. You'd think it would just always be on the forefront, but it's a challenge sometimes to take that step back and act in love...when Jenna is working my last nerve with not listening and I'm repeating things 5 times, or when Ava gives me that sneaky "I'm going to do what I want because I can and you think I'm so cute" smile and runs off with my sunglasses. They are really such sweeties. I love talkin' 'bout my girls.
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