"Talk to My Belly"

Ok, this is one I need to record for posterity...

My dad's out of town, and my mom came over for dinner. We ordered in Chinese. Jordyn ate the egg drop soup, and some lo mein, but not much else. I tried several times to get her to eat more, but she refused. I told her that this was dinner time, this was the time to eat, and that we weren't having snacks after dinner. She still said she was finished.

She played with my mom for a little while after dinner, while I did the dishes and folded laundry <sigh>. She put a couple of stickers on her belly, not on her shirt, but on her actual belly. Later, when we were in the bathroom to brush her teeth, I forget exactly what I said, but I somehow mentioned either food, or dinner, or something, and she immediately said she was hungry. I reminded her that I'd told her several times she needed to eat more for dinner, and that I'd told her she wasn't going to have snacks after dinner. She cried, but I was firm, and it didn't last too long. (Just to clarify so no one reports me to Child Protective Services - she'd had enough to eat so that she wouldn't starve. It hadn't been too long since dinner, so I don't think there was any way she could've really been THAT hungry.)

Somewhere in the conversation, I think I said something to the effect of, "your belly needed you to eat more food at dinner time", and all of a sudden she remembered the stickers on her belly. Except she lifted her shirt and discovered that said stickers were no longer there. I think they fell off either while she was playing or when I took off her shirt to put on her pajamas. She got all upset about the stickers not being on her belly, and wanted to find them, or get more stickers, or something. I couldn't quite tell through all the crying and whining. She was SO upset about the lack of stickers on her belly,  that I just all of a sudden found it really funny. I should back up and mention that it was later than usual and she was very tired, which is why I think she got so upset. But anyway, it was really funny that she was melting down over missing belly stickers! 

So I laughed. Really laughed. I leaned over and put my head down on my arm on the edge of the sink, and laughed. It felt a little mean to be laughing at her, but I honestly couldn't help it, and then she started to laugh, too. And then I laughed harder because she was vacillating between laughing and crying, and she was looking at me like I was totally nuts. All of this because of missing belly stickers. What a scene!

So then I was in a silly mood (thankfully, because I'd been really cranky earlier - I blame it on PMS), and I started talking to her belly. As in, I lifted up her shirt and addressed her belly directly and had a one-sided conversation with it - "Belly, listen. It's late, and it's time to go to sleep, so we're going to have to get you more stickers in the morning, ok? <pause> What's that? Oh, you'd like to have three stickers? Ok, no problem. When we wake up and go downstairs in the morning, we'll get you three new stickers." 

Jordyn looked at me again like I was totally nuts. But she was smiling. I think this actually falls into the category of "silly parenting" or whatever it's called when you're supposed to be silly to turn a yucky situation around instead of instilling punishments or whatever. But I wasn't even thinking about that at the time - I was simply being silly, and it worked. She totally bought into the silliness, and loved me talking to her belly, and then kept saying "talk to my belly" and "talk to my belly again". I really had nothing more to say to her belly, so I reiterated the stickers-in-the-morning routine, and then started saying things like, "Belly, tell Jordyn to open her mouth so I can brush her teeth" and "Belly, go with Jordyn to pick out two books to read". I figured I might as well continue using it to my advantage!

I even got to give Belly a kiss goodnight. 

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Oh, and one more quickie:

Yesterday, Jordyn was reading in her room while I was getting ready in the morning. She has a tent in there, with a beanbag chair in it, and she was sitting in there reading aloud. I heard her, and peeked in at one point, but I guess she caught a glimpse of me, because she said, "Are you peeking in, Mom? I'm not reading if you peek in". I laughed inwardly, and told her I wouldn't peek in anymore. 

What's kind of funny is that she reads books aloud ALL the time in my presence, so I'm not sure why it was a big deal that I was peeking in.