Well, from the title, I thought it was about food.

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What a productively lame weekend.

I pretty much ran errands, shopped as much as I could for the next two weeks (I hate shopping with the girls, unless I'm just futzing around. Shopping with a goal in mind sucks.) and cleaned the heck out of the house. I had hoped to get around to making a shload of meatballs, but I didn't finish cleaning until close to 10 and wanted a bath more than I wanted a stockpile of meatballs for meals this week.

I screwed up and forgot to order the girls' hot lunches for school this week, so after tomorrow, I have to pack everything. That puts pressure on me to make good dinners .. Bean will be thrilled with the packed lunch, as she begs all the time for "lunches from home" instead of the hot lunches. We each persist in getting her to eat the hot lunches because we hope it will get her to eat a bigger variety of foods and eat some damn veggies already.

I'm so looking forward to getting my big girl back tomorrow. I just want to hold her and make everything right in her world .. not that I can, but holding her and telling her I love her will make *me* feel better. I'm looking forward to Miss O, as well, except she's apparently sick, so I am not *at all* looking forward to her cooties. I'll be taking like 900 vitamins tomorrow. And wearing a mask.

Thanks for the responses, here and via email, about Bean's behavior. I did put in a call to the therapist I used post-divorce; she's seen Bean once before and she knows the backstory, so I think it'll just be easier to use her than to start fresh. She told me that about 50% of her practice is kids of all ages, so she should be able to work with Bean. I don't know how much, if any, of the behavior is divorce-related, and how much is just four-year-old behavior. Bean's always been more physical than her friends, so maybe the physical part of this is just her being her, as the freakout part seems to be pretty common among 4-year-olds.

But I don't want to assume anything. So she's off to get her head shrunk. Whatever it is, Dave and I each need to understand it and get some insight into ways to deal with it ourselves, since parenting this kind of stuff doesn't exactly lead to stellar parenting moments ... le sigh.

I'm glad she's getting it out, whatever it is, rather than keeping it in. I just want to find a better way for her to do it ... and don't think I haven't seriously considered a punching bag or taking mother-daughter boxing lessons. I even wondered this weekend if I could find a vet who would let Bean watch some surgeries, with the thought that giving her more to think and talk about would help.

Maybe I can get insurace to cover horseback riding lessons and a field trip to Texas A&M?
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4 comments:

Lisa Beth said...

I feel your pain.... My son had such a speech delay that he was acting out at other kids (and us) hitting, kicking, etc. We had him to a child psychologist and a couple of counselors before he even turned three. He was actually diagnosed ADD ODD (attention deficit disorder, oppositional defiant disorder). So, maybe different circumstances, but I totally get how you feel... in two words ... it sucks.
Just see the light at the end of the tunnel - it's there. I promise. I have had such a hard road with my son, I totally know where you are coming from. Love reading your blog - thanks for visiting my chaos.
Lisa
www.hustads.com

Libby said...

could you get hippatherapy covered for her legs? there are several places around that offer it now.

Julia said...

What about something like martial arts? My neighbors older daughter (now 2nd grade) in temperament is quite similar to Bean, and she has her girls in TKD. We were talking about it recently, and she said that the positive, structured outlet to let our her physical frustrations seems to be helping her kid.

Theta Mom said...

Bean's tempermant doesn't sound too much different than my son's. He's turning 4 next month and begins pre-school, so we'll see how it goes.

BTW, my kids don't eat their vegetables, either. I try my creative magic, but that's the operative word, "try!" :)

 
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