Positive Intent

The parenting class we took earlier this summer has really opened my eyes on ways to communicate and interact with our kids. While there is the ocassional hicuup they have started to play together better--more since I started threatening that g'parents Ohio wouldn't visit if they didn't behave. When I first looked at this picture Den took while I was sleeping in on a Sunday morning, I thought that Josie especially had a mischevious look, but Den said they were quite well behaved. Part of the point of the class was focusing on positive intent of the perpetrator, not the negative portion of the behavior.

Both kids have been sick much of the last 3 weeks. They were sick for about 2 weeks, feeling well for about 5 days and then last Wed/Thurs Eddie developed a cough. The cough has gotten progressively worse and the last 2 nights, he's been waking several times/night coughing and wanting to sleep with us. By 1/1:30 in the morning, when both Den and I are sleeping in a space the width of a balance beam, we get him back to his bed and I sleep on the floor next to him. Ultimately he climbs out of his bed to sleep on the floor next to me and I can't for the life of me figure out how it happens on the wide open floor, but I get pushed out of my space and end up on the bare carpet-over-hardwood floor with barely any blanket.

I don't know how Den is still standing, other than that he has not been the one 'sleeping' on the floor. Needless to say, if tonight finds Eddie waking up, we'll be making a trip to the doctor (he's already missed 2 days of preschool this week). He already seems to be doing better, as we don't hear him making a peep.