Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or just feeding off of me?

It's hard to remember when you are having a bad day at work or just hating life in general that your children feed off of you. You set the tone for them also. I am sure some of Taylor's behavior issues were that I was in a bad mood and crabby and missing Mike and even though I didn't come right out and say it or act harshly towards them, I'm sure you could feel the misery seeping from my pores.

Yesterday I woke up and said, "Today is going to be a good day!" Turns out it was. The girls were wonderful in the morning, very little whining and complaining and when I went to pick them up from daycare I sat in my car for a few extra minutes and asked God to give me the strength to shake off work and focus on them. When I went in to get them they whined as usual about everything, but instead of getting irritated, I explained to them that I didn't need them to complain and when we got home we could discuss anything they wanted, good or bad, but to focus on happy things on the way home. We chatted about everything good that happened to them that day and when we got home they couldn't remember anything bad worth whining over.

After we ate dinner they went upstairs to their playroom to run off some energy while I brought everything in from the car. When I came in they came downstairs and requested some cartoons so we all 3 sat together and watched 30 minutes of TV and then got ready for bed. This is a huge thing for us because if you go to pick Taylor up, Callee runs over and pushes her out of the way and wants picked up. She is a very jealous child and so we have been working on telling her she can sit with us too or we let her throw her fit and ignore her, Taylor needs love and snuggles too. Last night Taylor was sitting next to me and leaning on me and instead of Callee hitting her or being mean she put her hands out to be picked up and said, "Mama, I up too?" It was a big step in the right direction and I couldn't have been prouder of her at that moment.

Either my kids are Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or they are feeding off of me. I am making a conscience decision to keep thinking positively because it is going to be about 2 weeks until I can get into my doctor. Thanks for all your well wishes and I will let you know what I decide after I go to the doctor. In the meantime, I am hoping to keep the positive thoughts coming and hopefully that will keep the good behavior coming.

One last thing, Callee gets a sticker on the sticker chart every time she gives us her pacifier. She only has it at nap time at daycare and in the car (she screams if she doesn't have it.) We would like to break her of it right around her 2nd birthday. Last night when coming in the house she took it out of her mouth, handed it to me and said, "No baba mama." She loves getting those stickers!