Christmas Cookies

I know I am a week behind in blogging about Jocelyn, but it's been so hard to sit down and write anything.  I like to keep these blog posts positive overall, and things have been pretty negative around here.  We have been sick a whole lot, so nobody is feeling great.  And as a result, we have all been cranky.  Add to that the fact that Jocelyn is going through some major developmental changes, and you get a lot of unpleasantness.

Over Christmas, Jocelyn decided that she was above saying 'Thank You" for her gifts.  She absolutely refused.  It was like all of the manners lessons we taught her at home and they reinforced at daycare were out the window.  She wanted presents, she wanted to play with things, but she didn't want to say thank you for them.  So our rule was that if she didn't thank the giver, then she couldn't play with the toy.  It worked for a little bit, but not every time or for every gift.  Which really only hurts the giver, because they got Jocelyn a gift to enjoy and it sucks if she doesn't get to enjoy it.  We then made a rule that if she didn't say thank you then no Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episodes.  And then she went days without watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, rather than relenting her position on Thank You's.

Potty Training has also pretty much stopped.  Once in a great while I can convince her to sit on the potty, but in general she has lost interest 100%.  So I bought a book on-line today.  It's called Diaper Free by Age 3.  A friend of mine had success with that book, and got their not-quite-two-year-old potty trained.  So we will see.  Hopefully a good incentive / reward structure will be effective.

That is not the only place she is reverting.  She will often not use her words, and instead point and grunt.  I think that she sees Donovan doing that, and sees the attention that he gets, so she does it too.  She also makes a bee line for the nursing chair when I say I am going to nurse Donovan, and wants to be held by whoever is holding him.  So it has been hard. 

But beyond that, she still amazes me every day.  We went to the mall the other day, mostly to play at the playground.  But we did go to the toy store to get a birthday present for Donovan.  When we got to the bookcase, she exclaimed, "Oh my goodness, look at all these books!"  I nearly died!  It was full of cute!  She can do so much, too.  We went to a bounce house birthday party where there were big, bouncy obstacles.  She was scared to do anything alone, but she was able to do all of it. I didn't have to help her, but she wanted me by her side.  She was such a great climber, and had so much fun sliding down the bouncers.

And outside of the no thank yous at Christmas, she was very cute with everything about it.  She had a blast making and decorating cookies for Santa. The icing and the sprinkles were way overdone, it was so funny!  We did the place and bake cookies, so she was able to help out by putting the cookies onto the cookie sheet.  And then on Christmas Eve, she put a few cookies onto a plate and a cup of milk out by the tree for Santa.  She loved listening to Christmas songs, and having us sing them to her.  She also wanted to hear Santa and reindeer stories.  It was really sweet!  

Poor boo did have some drama over the holidays, though.  She got sick, spiked a very high fever, and actually wound up in the ER on Christmas night.  She was fine, they gave her mega doses of ibuprofen and acetaminophen, and declared it was just a virus.  But since her fever neared 104, I'm glad we brought her in.  Donovan started it a few days later, and we started treating the fever immediately rather than waiting until it got bad.  

She is quite the fashion plate, too.  She is very picky about what she wants to wear, and has a fun sense of style.  She likes to mix patterns and dress in layers - tank tops over long sleeved shirts, dresses over pants, etc.   It's adorable.  Unfortunately, brushing and washing her hair is still a chore.  But she always looks cute, even with messy hair :-P. 

So it's not all bad.  In fact, it's much more good than bad.  It's just hard to remember that when we all have the flu (again).