Victory is mine! A minor victory, and just for the past 2 days, but still, it feels good. Some background here - my son Kenny is generally a very good boy, but when I brush his teeth, he's incredibly squirmy. Actually, he's always squirmy, and on the move, but that's what being three is all about. It only bothers me when I'm trying to brush his teeth. I'm always having to admonish, reprimand, etc. It's almost the worst part of my day.
So the past few days I've been using the following techniques:
1. He needs to hold his elbows. This has the result of quieting his hands, which quiets his whole body.
2. If he stays still, we get to read two books for bedtime. If he doesn't, he only gets one book.
3. Instead of having him stand on the stool right in front of the sink (and also in front of the mirror, where he gets distracted making faces at himself), I sit on the tub, and have him stand in front of me. No more getting distracted in front of the mirror.
All in all, we've had a few good days now, and the evening tooth-brushing routine is no longer so daunting. Plus, I'm more thorough. I started begin more thorough just recently, when the daughter of a friend of mine (same age as Kenny) had six cavities, 4 of which need to be filled. Yikes!
Monday, May 28, 2007
Sunday, May 13, 2007
I'm a sucker for self-improvement
I'm a huge consumer of self-improvement books, and websites and blogs. I don't buy a lot of self-improvement books, but I do get lots and lots from the library. My thoughts about this are two-fold:
1. It's great that I'm interested in self-improvement, making changes, making things better. And honestly, I'm not a slacker in that regard - I'm pretty good at the basics.
2. Seriously - enough of the reading already! Making one substantive change in habits, discipline, etc., would be much better than to read 5 books on how to be more efficient.
I'm a really fast reader, and it doesn't take me long at all to zip through some of these self-improvement books. But I should focus more on actually doing things rather than reading about them.
1. It's great that I'm interested in self-improvement, making changes, making things better. And honestly, I'm not a slacker in that regard - I'm pretty good at the basics.
2. Seriously - enough of the reading already! Making one substantive change in habits, discipline, etc., would be much better than to read 5 books on how to be more efficient.
I'm a really fast reader, and it doesn't take me long at all to zip through some of these self-improvement books. But I should focus more on actually doing things rather than reading about them.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Limiting TV viewing...
Now that I'm in my last 2 months of pregnancy (and very eager to have it over with, too), I've been watching lots and lots of TV. My energy level is so low that watching TV is about the best I can manage.
I have high hopes and grand plans, though, of all that I'm going to accomplish in the evenings, starting a few months after baby #2 is born. And to do this, my TV watching habits will need to change drastically. Put simply - I have very little free time at all. Soon, with baby #2, I'll have even less. I can't afford to spend large chunks of that time watching TV, if I want to get anything done.
Last night, Eric and I watched the show Rough Science. Great show, very interesting. But the thought I was left with was this - that watching other people do neat things on TV rates about a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being things that make you a loser couch-potato, and 10 being things that make you a well-rounded, interesting, accomplished person). Actually DOING neat things yourself - that ranks far, far higher - in the 8 to 1o range.
The problem is that a normal brain, when faced with a choice between watching something interesting and/or entertaining on TV, or not watching TV, and having to come up with other plans, will most often just make the easy choice - just watch TV. It takes a lot of effort to do something else - especially if you've been in the habit, like I have, of watching TV as a default activity.
About 12 years ago I moved out of a house that I rented with a lot of other people, where TV watching was the default activity every evening. I moved to an apartment, and made the choice to not have a TV. The first few weeks were rough. I remember looking longingly at the cable plug on the wall. But it got better, and soon I didn't think of it at all, except that I had more time for things, and felt somewhat smug about not having a TV.
So, it can be done. And soon I'll be thinking more about specifics. Like, can we just get rid of the TV? My husband might have a problem with that, being that he bought this monster flat screen TV for himself. What other solutions are there? Our son Kenny frequently watches a kiddie show a day, such as Dora the Explorer and Franklin. Should we limit that?
Stay tuned till next time...
I have high hopes and grand plans, though, of all that I'm going to accomplish in the evenings, starting a few months after baby #2 is born. And to do this, my TV watching habits will need to change drastically. Put simply - I have very little free time at all. Soon, with baby #2, I'll have even less. I can't afford to spend large chunks of that time watching TV, if I want to get anything done.
Last night, Eric and I watched the show Rough Science. Great show, very interesting. But the thought I was left with was this - that watching other people do neat things on TV rates about a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being things that make you a loser couch-potato, and 10 being things that make you a well-rounded, interesting, accomplished person). Actually DOING neat things yourself - that ranks far, far higher - in the 8 to 1o range.
The problem is that a normal brain, when faced with a choice between watching something interesting and/or entertaining on TV, or not watching TV, and having to come up with other plans, will most often just make the easy choice - just watch TV. It takes a lot of effort to do something else - especially if you've been in the habit, like I have, of watching TV as a default activity.
About 12 years ago I moved out of a house that I rented with a lot of other people, where TV watching was the default activity every evening. I moved to an apartment, and made the choice to not have a TV. The first few weeks were rough. I remember looking longingly at the cable plug on the wall. But it got better, and soon I didn't think of it at all, except that I had more time for things, and felt somewhat smug about not having a TV.
So, it can be done. And soon I'll be thinking more about specifics. Like, can we just get rid of the TV? My husband might have a problem with that, being that he bought this monster flat screen TV for himself. What other solutions are there? Our son Kenny frequently watches a kiddie show a day, such as Dora the Explorer and Franklin. Should we limit that?
Stay tuned till next time...
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