When we run together (not when I push her in the stroller while *I* run -- she wants to run *with* me) she almost always takes a spill or two along the way, usually because she gets distracted or starts laughing so hard over who-knows-what that she just kind of forgets to think about her feet. Do you know what she does after she falls?
She stands up, brushes off her hands, and starts running again.
This started when I (playfully!) modeled the hand-brushing for her and tried telling her to "walk it off, baby!" as a way to distract her from the instant exaggerated tears any time any sort of tumble happened (like on soft carpet.) But it worked. (Telling an injured baby to walk it off? Whoa, publishers, don't all come knocking at my door at once trying to sign me for that book on parenting you'd love to have me write.) And now, 95% of the time, even when she falls full-force from a run onto cold asphalt, she really does it. She brushes her hands and (runs) it off.
She's had a broken bone. She survived an assassination attempt via peanut butter. (That's when we found out the fun way that she's allergic. Sorry, K!) She spent her first year of life with
Last night was our first official night in what is hopefully going to be her last address for quite a while. (Unless we win the lottery. Then I might be willing to put her through one more move . . . ) She'd been helping me move a little at a time for a few weeks now, and she understood, as well as a toddler can, what was going on. (She could differentiate between/discuss "our house," "Bob's house," and "new house" a single conversation.) When we got done dropping off a load of boxes and pulled out of the driveway, lately she'd been waving and saying, "Bye new house!"
Yesterday Bob's sister took K off our hands so that we could move the Big Stuff. (And by "we," I mean a team of strong friends ;-) By the time we got K back, the house was looking more like an actual home, complete with furniture! I didn't know what she'd think, but -- she just kind of looked around a little, settled in on the couch with me and Bob and a bag of popcorn, and watched How to Train Your Dragon. After that? She went to bed in her own room, in her own bed. She stayed asleep for the entire night. No bed crashing. No crying. No 4am parties. It was glorious. I climbed (quietly!) up the stairs around 9:30 this morning to peek in her bedroom, to make sure she was still, you know, breathing.
Tomorrow I might be tempted to put her out in the barn, but for now? I'm just a little in awe of her resilience and all around awesomeness. She really is a trooper.
must have been the lecture I gave her about being nice to her mommy!
ReplyDeleteThat is so nice! Moving is stressful enough, must have tired her out too!
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that my 17 month old watches for my wife's and my reaction when she falls a lot of the time and our reaction tends to dictate hers in those circumstances. When she falls and starts crying immediately we tend to react right away. But when I notice her looking at me after a fall, I calmly tell her, "You're okay." or "It's okay." and she tends to get right up with little or no fuss. Sometimes she'll come for a hug after getting up (which I don't mind of course-- especially knowing how scarce hugs will be to come by when she's older) but those hugs are usually without tears.
ReplyDeleteMy wife tends to react a bit faster than I do when it comes to this. I don't know if its my prior experience with my nieces (4) and nephews (10) growing up or what.
I like the "walk it off" thing. I don't want my daughter to be coddled.
Walk this way, K!
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