New Kid - Day 4

Apparently we won't see any overall behavior changes for at least 21 days. Say what? Gotta stick to those guns.

Today was not fun. We started out optimistic because today was the Mother's Day Tea at Hayden's preschool. I left Livee home with Dave so that I could go and spend time with Hayden by myself, which I never get to do and should make more of a point of doing. The Tea was really cute and Hayden had made lots of special gifts for me that I will cherish forever. But after it was over we were all standing around and one kid had brought a toy. So, of course, the rest of them wanted to play with it. Well, Hayden wanted to be a toy hog. I took it away from him a couple of times, and even asked the little boy who brought it to take it somewhere else. But then the boy's mother gave it back to Hayden and told him to share it with another little girl when he was done. I told her that he had already seen it and that we needed to go. Well, she didn't get the hint. So I had to WRANGLE it from my child's hand, ended up accidentally elbowing him in the eye, and drug him hastily out the door as he was screaming and pitching a fit. I totally ignored him. When we got in the van, he stopped because he no longer had a sympathetic audience. When we got home I told him that his behavior was unacceptable and then I started crying and told him he had ruined my special day at his school. Well, that got his attention. I really was hurt and embarassed by the way he acted. He sincerely apologized and we got over it. But then we went to lunch to celebrate an early Mother's Day and he started all over again disobeying us! I finally had to take him to the van and sit him in his seat. When he asked what he was doing I told him that he needed to sit on his bottom in his chair at the table or we would leave. After that conversation he was much better behaved. At home he has been fine this afternoon. We even had guests over and he didn't make too much of a spectacle.

A lot of these things are little mistakes that we made along the way that we are now having to correct. For example, the not sitting still in a restaurant is our fault. We started getting up with him from the table when we were eating out when he was little, and then it just became the norm. I know we were just trying to pacify him in many things that we did, but we probably shouldn't have. No child should think the world revolves around him. It's been a big change with Livee being here, and now he is battling for attention all of the time. I think it's good for him to realize that there are others in the family and he wouldn't have if he were an only child.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!