Backwoods Wife

A Revelation

On our trip I discovered why Riley goes from this...

to this...

 

for certain family group photos.  Normally, Riley loves to have her photo taken and to perform.  Try and do a family photo with extended family or while away from home and you will often see a very unhappy child in the photo.  We always thought Riley was just tired or overwhelmed by all the excitement as most photos tended to happen in the evenings.  This trip Riley enlightened us.  After much protesting about not wanting to be in the photo and fussing while the photo was being taken I heard her say (while playing behind the couch), "I don't like getting my picture taken.  I don't like saying goodbye."  It suddenly became crystal clear.  This pattern has been going on for years, since before she could say more than a handful of words.  Riley is our extrovert and loves intensely, so it is hard for her to part with people.  Apparently, the timing of the requisite family photo is generally right before the people involved are leaving to go home or we are leaving to go home.  If it's a birthday party, backyard playdate, or family event with people she sees regularly then all is well.  Poor kid!  We should have picked up on it sooner.  Time to move the family photos to the start of the visit instead of the end!

 

"Quiet" Time

Today I had had enough of sibbling squabbles and children who were tired but wouldn't admit it themselves.  I instituted "quiet time".  I haven't used that one in a LONG time.  However, desperate times called for desperate measures.  I have had a lack of down time lately due to the whole water and power situation and much of my days have been spent heating water on the stove to do something or other.  I needed to sit on my backside for a few minutes in relative peace.  I marched everyone upstairs with two out of three of the 5 and under set complaining bitterly along the way.  I read everyone some stories.  Actually, at times I yelled (this implies volume not tone in this case) the stories over the bellyaching.  After 45 minutes of them being upstairs making noise and me being downstairs mostly ignoring said noise, it was quiet.  For 2 whole minutes.  At which point I hear, "Mommy?  Come over Mommy.  I need my Ariel shoes."  Earlier comments in the quiet time were along the lines of, "I don't want to have a quiet time, I want a loud time."  In the end, 2 children napped, one rested for a bit, and we are all slightly saner than we would have been otherwise.  I plan on doing the same thing tomorrow.  I definitely wouldn't call it "quiet" time just yet though...