When Toddlers Talk Back

When Toddlers "Talk Back"

One morning 4 year old, grandson Jace, disagreed with something I had told him to do. He had his reasons for not wanting to do as I asked. He and I talked back and forth about it for a minute. I stated my POV, Jace stated his POV. I listen to him without consequence.

My mama sat watching and listening to the whole thing with this totally disapproving look on her face. When Jace and I finished discussing the situation and I hadn’t “beat him to a pulp”, Mama asked, “Is he talking back to you?”

I answered her, “Yes, he is”. And, I left it at that. I knew her mind was churning a mile a minute about what SHE would have done or possibly what I should have done differently.

What I didn’t even try to explain to her is this. Jace is an exceptionally bright and strong-willed child. He has a mind of his own, already. He is adamant about what he does want and more so about what he does not want. For now, I give him the opportunity to “talk back”. I want him to let me know what’s on his mind.

I always discuss “talking back” and what is acceptable and what is not with Jace immediately following one of these circumstances. I plan to continue these discussions until he is old enough and his understanding has developed to the point where he knows what is acceptable and what is not.

My personal opinion, for me and mine, is this. I want Jace to have a voice and not be afraid to speak-up when he needs to. A spanking/butt whooping is not the answer. It would serve no good purpose to spank a child and have them fear talking to you or with you.

I further believe that I can better help Jace by helping him understand the difference between speaking up for himself, stating his opinions or frustrations, and simply being disrespectful.

Do you think kids should have a voice? Do you believe in the old, “Do What I Tell You to do Without Question”? What are your thoughts on this?

Grandparents: Not Just for Women

What Do You Call Your Grandmother?  

    

 

Raise your hand if you know my grandson, Jace. There you go, I knew it. Jace calls me ‘MiMi’.  I called my grandmother,  “Mama Leona”. My children call my mama, “Grandmom”. They call their daddy’s mama, “Mom”.

I have a first cousin who lives around the corner. Her two grand-daughters call her ‘Mee-Moah’ (I probably didn’t spell that correctly). But, that’s okay, I think you get it.

My oldest sister-in-law’s grandchildren call her ‘Momeee’. All of my cousins on my Mama’s side of the family call my Mama, “Nanny”. She is not their grandmother, but they call her Nanny anyway. All of their children and their children’s children call her Nanny too. She is Nanny to many.

With the introductions out of the way, let’s get down to business. What do or did you call your grandmother? Are you a grandmother yourself? What do your grandchildren call you?

                  

This Is Not Just for Women: Are you a grandfather? What do your grandchildren call you?

Click Image #3 to view Source

Grandparents Day At School

Thursday morning started out okay. I woke up feeling pretty good, nothing to brag about, but okay. I showered and took my time getting dressed. I had an 11:45 appointment to go to Jace’s school for Grandparents Day. Today, Grandparents get to eat lunch with their grands. Yaaaa!

I arrived at the school about 11:30, wanting to be early for our lunch. Jace was happily excited as he spotted me walking into the cafeteria. He ran up and gave me a great big hug, laughing and grinning from ear-to-ear. I was grinning from ear-to-ear myself! We were as happy as a couple of monkeys in a banana factory!

Image Source

We made our way to his table and took our seats. He was more than half way through with his lunch already. Boy, seems like somebody gave me the wrong time fro Jace’s lunch. Oh well…

MY Photo ~ © dellgirl

Anyway, he munched on the rest of his lunch and chatted with his friends sitting on the opposite side of the table. He and I chatted intermittently between his and his friends’ goofy shenanigans.

I was happy and excited to be there enjoying this special moment with him. He was happy I was able to come. I enjoyed watching him interact with his classmates. They were a comedic little bunch of characters!

Not my photo. 

Just a likeness of what it looked like across the table.

Image Source

What a wonderful treat that was, lunch with “My Boy…My Sunshine”!

Overcome Adversity

Quote:"What you can become depends on what you overcome." 

~ Anthony Douglas Williams ~

"Just do it, grow through it." Quote ~ dellgirl

Grandson: Born premature and "against-the-odds".  Doctors said he had a 

1 in 3,000 chance of survival.  

Three years later...he's growing through the challenges.

7 Years later...

Growing through the adversity.

Getting better every day!

AGG ~ "Ain't GOD Good"!

Throw Yourself into Your Work

You must throw yourself into your work in order to be the best at what you do. If you are not fully passionate about what you are doing, your work will be drab and lackluster. If you want your work to stand out and be a cut above everyone else in your particular field, throw yourself into your work.

When you are fully engaged in your project, no matter what it is, your passion will shine through. Dive deep into your soul and find your inner child, let that inner child be the drive behind your desire. Throw yourself into your work and watch the difference in the work you produce.

You will be known all over the world as the pioneer of a new movement to throw yourself into yourself into your work.

My grandson, Jace, has paved the way for us. Trailblazer that he is, he shows us rather than try to tell us, exactly HOW to throw yourself into your work.

Here, he shares his technique for anyone who needs help learning how to throw yourself into your work.    

Do you know anyone who throws him/her self into their work? Have you ever thrown yourself into a project you were working on?

What do you think of Jace’s innovative idea of throwing himself into his ART work?

Thank God It's FRIDAY!

It’s hard to believe that another whole school year has come and gone already. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were preparing to start the school year. Grandson’s last day of school was Wednesday May 25^th.

He had another GREAT school year! Not as many absences for sickness as his Pre-K year. Every day when I picked him up I would ask what kind of day he had. His answer was always “AWESOME”! A few times he answered that his day was GREAT, FANTASTIC, or TERRIFIC!

Thank God for that! That was way more than I prayed for for my little trooper.   

Wait, there’s more. Summer Camp started at church on Monday. Grandson was so excited to go to summer camp again. He talked about it on and off throughout the school year.

Well, they have their first field trip today. He was doubly excited about that since he’s going on this one ALONE. He’s never gone on a field trip before without his mommy or daddy going along as a chaperone because of his allergies. Yaaaa, Thank God for that!

I can hardly wait to hear all about his first field trip alone! With that said, thank God, it's FRIDAY.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of what I hope is a quiet and relaxing weekend. I am especially looking forward to catching up on some much needed rest and enjoying the weekend.

What about you? What do you have planned for the weekend, anything fun? Whatever you do, I hope you enjoy your weekend!

Do you have a good laugh to share? We’d love to hear all about it.

Happy weekend friends!

Trying To Make Life Easier

I’ve been away caregiving and such again. So I have not been able to get on the computer to do anything for a really long time. There is always something...Grandson is home from school today sick.

I got a text from his mommy at 2:00 am this morning saying he had a fever of 103 degrees along with the shivers. And, he would not be going to school come morning. They got here about 7:15 am. It is almost 4:00 pm now. He’s eating again, so I’m stealing time to post a quick note to you.

While I was away I spent a lot of time wondering how in the world I could Blog more often. Ideas are constantly running through my head as I work. But, I never seem to have the time to put my thoughts into writing. That started me thinking about how I could remedy the situation. I need a way to make blogging easier.

I thought about my “Dragon”.

Remember?  I bought the Dragon Naturally Speaking Voice Recognition System a few years ago. I did not use it often though. When I did use it, I found it relatively easy to use. It was a lot of fun watching my spoken words pop onto the page like popcorn popping in a microwave oven.

Then, I got busy with life. I put my Dragon aside while I maneuvered through the potholes and obstacles of daily life. In the process, I did not use the Dragon to my advantage.  

Now I find myself STILL overwhelmed with a multitude of everyday routines and other caregiving things to do. So I started searching for voice recognition systems in order to make my life a little easier. Blogging was at the top of my list of reasons for wanting a voice to text system.

As soon as I started my search, I realized I already had a system so I clicked on my Dragon icon on my laptop. It didn't work. I kept getting error messages. I tried everything my "non- tekky”  self could think of, but nothing worked.

My Dragon was dead!

Oh well, what else is new? That’s the way it goes around here. I just wanted to say hi to you and to let you know what’s happening with me. I hope you are having a nice week so far. 

News From “MiMi” – Grandmother to a Highly Allergic Grandson

EVENT:  Parent Orientation Meeting 

WHEN: Friday August 15, 2014 @ 5:30 pm

Jace, my severely allergic grandson is entering Pre-K for 4-year olds next week. We’re here for parent orientation to learn what the school expects from us and what we can expect from them.  

There were quite a few people already seated when we made it to the meeting. We chose a seat on the front row and made ourselves comfortable as we waited for the meeting to begin.

The first order of business was a presentation of the history of the school and statistics concerning its outstanding reputation for educating kids. The speaker provided us with everything we needed to know about getting our little darlings ready and delivered to them each day.  

I listened intently, as any first-time grandmother does, with ONE thought in mind. All this information is great and I thank you for it. BUT, this is not my main concern.

I need/want to talk to someone about my grandbaby’s medical issues, namely his “Nut Allergy”. I want to know who will be in charge of managing his needs, his medicines, his food consumption, and how they plan to do that.

The final speaker was the school nurse. BOY was I glad to see her!

Now, this is more like what I came here to find out. The nurse spoke, I listened. Like a child with a one-track mind, I could hardly wait until the meeting was over so, I/we could talk to her alone. I have questions and concerns that only she can address at this time. So, I wait anxiously for the general meeting to end.

At the end of the general meeting, we found the nurse.

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Coming NEXT: Our visit with the school nurse and the outcome of our meeting.