In other news

I must be setting a record tonight for the most posts done in one evening. But there's been so much going on with Roan lately, now that I got a few minutes I want to finally get caught up.

In tonight's headlines: Three Children Bitten at Local Daycare Center. Yes that's right; I went to pick Roan up from daycare one day last week and the center's operator had to sit me down and tell me she bit three kids that day! Older kids! Bigger kids! One because she was riding the rocking zebra and Roan apparently felt it was her turn. Another because the kid had the audacity to want to slide down the slide while Roan wanted to scramble up it. And a third was completely unprovoked, seemingly just for fun!

Isn't that every parent's nightmare? To find out your kid did something not just rude but brutal to other innocent children? As Aunt Bunny said, "There's a crack in the halo!"

Fortunately there haven't been any other "incidents" since. We borrowed a friend's book called "Teeth are not for Biting," and have been reading it regularly. I've also been putting a little more thought into her episodes of acting out, which have been growing in frequency lately. We've been trying a couple of new things. Some advice I read at some point said to try to take the "now" out of it and see if that reduces the conflict. In other words instead of "It's time to put your shoes on now," I let her know we will be putting shoes on soon. If she is resistant, I say firmly "We don't have to do it now, but we will have to put shoes on soon." Sure enough, next thing you know she is bringing me her shoes to put them on. It's really been helping. It seems to provide a balance between requiring certain standards of behavior from her while at the same time giving her a shade of autonomy on when those things have to happen. Who knows. These little tricks seem to work for oh too short a time, but they're good while they last.

In other news, Roan has been freaking us out a little with all she's been learning at school. Her vocabulary is beyond my ability to count it (over 300 words). She is even beginning to grasp the concepts of you/me/I. She tries to count to 10. Normally that goes something like this: one, three, five, six, seven, eight, seven, five! with great enthusiasm. Occasionally she throws nine and ten in there. The other day she brought me a triangle puzzle piece and said "triangle!" She constantly identifies circles she sees as we're strolling or driving down the street. And she's been working on her colors. It's funny, sometimes she will get 5 or 6 colors right in a row. Other times, every time you ask "What color is this?" her first reply is "piiiink" and then when you say, "What color is it really?" she says "wewow" [yellow].

Ok, I'm finally fading tonight, but before I go here are three, count 'em three, videos for you. Enjoy!

Riding the big bike


Ride 'em cowboy


Counting