Divide and Conquer

I'm sitting here right now with a kink in my neck because my kids have decided that is their motto. Of course, I decided to write this post and they are playing next to each other very happily. What? I think they just love to make me look crazy, but no matter what, their goal is to drive me crazy.

Kinwa has been gone for 3 days and he is on his way home. It has been a pretty easy single-mom week, but the kink in my neck has gotten more and more painful as the days go on. Gabriel has decided he needs to be my shadow and half the time I can't see him because he is actually under me! Aitana on the other hand is climbing on the table, trying to climb on the sink, standing on chairs and has recently decided that she should go upstairs by herself whenever she wants to play alone. That is never good.

On top of this ability to pull me in every direction and drive me to the point of pulling out my hair, we are having a sharing issue. I know it's normal and it's a natural part of learning and development, but seriously? If I hear "No, that's mine!" or crying from Gabriel because his sister decided to jump in front of him so he couldn't play with his toy one more time, I may just run and hide. I've been trying everything. From "your brother is your best friend" to "do you like it when other people are mean to you? No? Then we should really treat others, including brother, nicely" and even "Get brother another toy so you can switch." It works for a second until Aitana decides that she likes Gabriel's toy better. I try to point out every example of sharing I can and encourage her to repeat that behavior, whether we see it on TV or she does it herself. We'll soon be starting a behavior and responsibility chart for Aitana. It's a great age to start it and once Gabriel's birthday is out of the way, it'll happen.

But for now, I need to be satisfied with a stiff neck and lots of time outs for Aitana AND Me!