You're Always Taking My Stuff

Even though I wrote in the past that Alyce and Luke are nice to each other and can even be friends there are times when yeah, not so much.  A while ago while we were still in our old house Alyce was playing with something while sitting on the blue chair in the living room.  Luke had been pestering her off and on all day by taking something she had and running off with it.  After a while Alyce had had enough and blurted out "Luke, you're always taking my stuff!".  Of course Luke didn't care what she had to say and proceeded to try and take what she had in her hands.

I don't remember at the time whether or not she pushed him to keep him away but sometimes she does do that.  And that usually leads to some naughty corner time for Alyce.  The one exception to the naughty corner is that a few times she has pushed Luke while we weren't around and Luke's cries bring us into the room.  We ask Alyce if she pushed him and she tells us the truth that she had.  To encourage telling the truth we have her tell Luke she is sorry and give him a hug.  I'm hoping that the truthfulness will last, but who am I kidding?  I was a kid once.

Not Really Helping Daddy Out

Over the past few weeks Alyce has been helping me with my project.  She has helped me hammer, dig, shovel rock, and put blocks into place for a retaining wall.  With all of that she has stayed pretty much out of the way while I've been working on things.  Her winning streak sadly has come to an end.  Alyce did something that cost time and money.

On Wednesday I took a half day off from work to get some blocks placed on my wall.  While out there Alyce was doing her own thing, staying out of trouble, and playing with a pink bat and ball on the patio.  As I was placing my ninth block and really started to hit a rhythm my concentration was broken with Alyce saying "oh no, my ball".  I asked her where her ball went and she pointed to a piece of black corrugated pipe which was attached to the main drain line that ran from the back of the house, under ground, and to the front of the house.  I was instantly sick to my stomach.  I pulled the lengths of pipe out, reached into the line and the ball was no where to be seen or felt.  At this point I was rather frustrated with my little girl, but I knew it wasn't her fault, and didn't direct any anger towards her.  I asked Mom to come out back and bring Alyce inside so that I could cool down a bit and figure out a way to get this ball out of the pipes.

To skip over a lot of details I was unsuccessful in getting out the ball and had to rely on a plumber a few days later to blast the line with water or use a camera to find the ball for $200.  Even the plumber was unsuccessful at getting out the ball.  I didn't know where the ball was, but I was pretty sure it wasn't in the drain.  While picking up some pipes today to get ready for a big day of work tomorrow I looked down into the pipe and staring back at me is the missing pink ball.

A lot of things could have happened.  Perhaps Alyce put the ball into this tube but pointed to the other tube when I asked her where her ball was.  Maybe I jumped to conclusions on what I thought happened and didn't bother to eliminate the possibilities.  I think both Alyce and I need to learn some lessons from this experience.  I should look before I leap.  I should learn to close open holes when children are around.  Alyce could learn to not play around daddy's projects but I think that might be asking too much from a 2 year old.  I regret that I had to spend $200 to learn these lessons, but if I don't learn anything from this experience then the money and time would be wasted.

Sometimes They Don't Listen

Alyce like all kids has her bad days. Yesterday was one of those days. Mom, Alyce, and I went over to our neighbor's (Jeff and Liz) house for dinner last night. Jeff and Liz prepared a great dinner consisting of pork chops, corn, mashed potatoes, and strawberries. Alyce was in a great mood the entire time bordering ecstatic. She was running around the house, playing with toys, and trying to pet their kitty Pumpkin.

When it was time to eat is where the bad stuff started to happen. Alyce, bless her heart just couldn't stay seated. She would eat a few bites and then want to get out of her chair to explore the house again. We don't really mind if she eats a lot. She isn't losing weight and doesn't ask for food later in the night, but we want to keep her in her chair until we are done eating. Last night she was just all over the place. I put her in the naughty corner after a warning and that seemed to adjust her attitude for a few minutes. Her naughty behaviour returned and I threatened to and eventually took away her baby doll. The loss of baby doll resulted in some tears and her return to her seat. However, even after a few minutes even the loss of baby doll didn't seem to have an affect. By that time dinner was over and the point became moot.

This was one of those situations where you wonder what you can do when your child really starts to disobey. We could of removed her from the situation by taking her back home or possibly a longer time in the naughty corner. I guess I need to read a few books on how to discipline a child. Throwing up our hands and letting her have her way is not the way we want to start things.