Spirited Shiloh?

So, today, I was reading Always and Forever Family, and I came across this excerpt from the book Raising Your Spirited Child. I read over the broad characteristics of a "spirited child," and went to amazon.com and bought the book immediately. (note that in the above picture, i caught her jumping around on the furniture, so she's in mid-air, signing 'i love you' at me).

1. 
   

1. Intensity:
   The loud, dramatic spirited children are the easiest to spot. The don't cry, they shriek. They're noisy when they play.
   But quiet, intently observant children may also be spirited. They assess each situation before entering it as though developing a strategy for every move; their intensity is focused inward rather than outward.
2. Persistence:
   If an idea or an activity is important to them, spirited children can "lock" right in. Getting them to change their minds is a major undertaking. They love to debate and are not afraid to assert themselves.
3. Sensitivity:
   Quickly respond to the slightest noises, smells, lights, textures, or changes in mood. They are easily overwhelmed in crowds by the barrage of sensations.
   Every sensation and emotion is absorbed by them, including your feelings. They'll tell you that you are having a rotten day before you realize it yourself and even scream and sulk for you.
4. Perceptiveness:
   Send them to their room to get dressed and they'll never make it. Something along the way will catch their attention as they walk by and they'll forget about getting dressed. They notice everything - the latest oil spill, the white feather in the bird's nest, and the dew in the spiderweb. They're often accused of not listening.
5. Adaptability:
   Spirited children are uncomfortable with change. They hate surprises and do not shift easily from one activity or idea to another.

These are the common characteristics of spirited children but there are another 4 characteristics that are "bonus" characteristics.

1. Regularity:
   Figuring out when they will sleep or eat is a daily puzzle for parents of spirited kids who are irregular. It seems impossible to get them on to any kind of schedule. An eight-hour night of undisturbed sleep is a mere memory lingering in your mind from the days before their birth.
2. Energy:
   Not all spirited kids are climbers and leapers. But they do tend to be busy - taking things apart, exploring, and creating projects - from the time they wake up until they finally fall asleep.
3. First Reaction:
   A quick withdrawal from anything new is typical of many spirited kids. Any unfamiliar idea, thing, place, or person may be met with a vehement no. They need time to warm up before they're ready to participate.
4. Mood:
   The world is a serious place for some spirited kids. They're analytical, picking apart experiences, finding the flaws, and making suggestions for change. Their smiles are few and far between and they may be prone to whining.

The "Bonus" characteristics are not common to all spirited kids, but if your child possesses any of them you will need to be even more enterprising. You're not only living with a child who is more, but you're also faced with the exhaustion of life with a kid who is energetic, needs little sleep, expresses a strong resistance to new situations and things, and shares fewer rewarding smiles.

Really, Shiloh is an incredibly happy child and smiles a lot. I get a LOT of rewarding smiles, so I don't think that really applies. But every other characteristic, though, describes my little girl. I know that I, myself, was a spirited child and that Shiloh has my exact personality with her dad's spazoid-ness thrown in. And while it certainly doesn't make me love her any differently or less, for goodness sake, I truly believe that spirited children are more difficult to parent that their counterparts.

I'm excited to read this book.

In other news, Rick is en route to Nashville, TN right now for another week of training. He'll be gone til Saturday afternoon, be home that night and leave Sunday afternoon for CA for yet another week of training. I'm so glad that he's learning more about what he loves, but i'm also looking forward to when he's done and we can finally settle in for the school year.

Anyhoo, here's another look at my spirited child:


love.her. and those smiles really are the best. :o)

Doesn't she look cute?

so innocent, so sweet....?

yeah right!!! while she can definitely be all of those things, and while i love her beyond words, this child has gotten into an absolute trouble-making streak lately!! it feels like i'm pushing against a brick wall to get her to do any thing. i know that she's just testing her boundaries, exerting her independence, etc. i know. i know that she's a certifiably strong-willed child, just like her mother was, and that every day i feel more and more remorse for my own mother having raised me.

it's like her brain has been wiped clean of every rule and expectation that we've ever set. in the past two days, she has:

• repeatedly ignored my requests to stop coming/going through the back door while playing outside, eventually catching the baby's fingers in the door.
  
• is screaming "NO" at me constantly.
• has come under the mistaken assumption that everything that is asked of her is up for negotiation, which she will argue ENDLESSLY
• jumped from the windowsills
• stood ON TOP OF the dog's automatic watering contraption, spilling water everywhere
• taken the popcorn seasoning and sprinkled/spread it out all over her bedspread. now her bed smells like parmesan and garlic.
• completely ignored time-outs and "breaks"
  
• locked me out of the house ON PURPOSE just so she can go to her room and poop in her pants, ignoring my banging on the door and threatening her with her life.

this is just a few of the things i've been experiencing lately. there are many, many more, but i don't have time. i didn't write this to showcase my daughter's faults, but none of them seem to make sense. i can NOT figure out how to get through to this child. i'm meeting her every challenge, but it seems like i'm in a power struggle with her every second of every day!! it's just been in the last week or so that's it's gotten SO bad, but it's constant.

i mean, not a day goes by that shiloh doesn't make me laugh, say a sweet prayer, or touch my heart with a helping and thoughtful gesture. i know she's going to be a great kid. i know this is just a season, a phase. i know this is going to pass. but that doesn't mean that i'll have any hair left by the time it does!!!

This is what happens....

...when i try to leave the kids alone for a few minutes. and i was only trying to go to the bathroom!!!




i came out of the bathroom, and this baby came crawling down the hallway.... with white hair!!! i was only gone for a few minutes!! and she was just as happy as could be!

so, i asked shiloh, "what on earth has gone on here????" thinking that maybe rae got into something that spilled on her head, or... i really don't know what else i was thinking at that point. then, shiloh started giggling her "i-did-something-i-know-i'm-not-supposed-to-and-now-you-found-out-and-i'm-nervous-about-it" giggle. so, i asked her, "did YOU do this?" i couldn't help but laugh, so she started laughing, and said that yes, she did. "what IS it??" i asked. she told me it was formula. okay, now i was mad. formula?!?! that stuff ain't cheap!! then, she showed me where it was, and it wasn't formula. it was.....

baking soda!!!!! HAH! the other night, rae had gotten up in the night throwing up and in the process of changing her, she had thrown up in our bedroom floor. we steam-cleaned it and had sprinkled baking soda over it to make sure it didn't get too stinky and also to soak up some of the remainding water from the steam cleaner. APPARENTLY, in our middle-of-the-night-pukefest stupor, we left the baking soda sitting out within shiloh-reach and she covered rae's head in it, i mean, really rubbed it in. i couldn't shake it out, trying to use a wet washcloth to wipe it off did no good b/c it just clumped up. i had to give her a full shower and use the handheld shower head to get it all out.

i mean, why on earth would shiloh be walking down the hallway and think "that's a cute baby, but what she REALLY needs is white hair!!" and then i can't believe that rae just sat there and let her do it!!

so random. so. random.

I'm Sick Of Pee

it's everywhere. everywhere i turn, there's a bodily function in progress.

penny lane has hurt her back leg somehow and refused to even TRY to move. we're taking her to the vet on friday, but until then, it's difficult. this morning, she got tired of trudging down the hallway to go outside, so she just squatted and peed in the floor.

shiloh has regressed SERIOUSLY with the potty training and pees in the house ALL the time!! i've ignored it, i've yelled, i've set timers, i've taken things away, i've given candy, other incentives.... ARG!!! this potty training thing was near done about a week ago, but all of a sudden, she just doesn't care if she pees or poops in her panties. blah. i know we'll just have to ride it out, but this is so aggravating!

and then, mamaw mayme feels the need to tell us everytime she goes to the bathroom, what she has to do in there and whether or not it was a difficult experience. and it never fails -- she's ALWAYS constipated when we're in public. and she lets you know. loudly. loudly and continually until the issue is resolved.

seriously. i am so tired of dealing with pee. i haven't heard from shiloh in a few minutes. she's probably up there right now peeing.

what's that verse? "this too shall pass"...? *sigh*.....

Pictures!

We've had a lot going on the past few weeks. Rick's grandmother died and so we traveled to Michigan, MY great-grandmother moved in with us for at least six months (possibly more, depending), we did our very first homeschooling lesson and corresponding field trip with other homeschooling families, and today we went to the zoo. That last one wasn't a huge deal, it was just fun. :)

I should also mention something else now, for those new to our family blog. Rick and I are foster parents, and since the children that come into our home are technically in state custody, we aren't allowed to post pictures of them on the internet. So, we have to blur out their faces. Totally understandable, but a pain nonetheless. We have a 5-year old girl with us right now, Lara, who's been with us for 7 months. She's in a ton of these pictures, but I've had to blur out her sweet face, and I hate that you guys can't see how cute she is!! But, anyhoo, I just thought that needed explaining. :)

So now, on to the pictures!


These first few are of our trip to Michigan for Grandma Meese's funeral. The girls took it pretty well, I think. It was the first time I think either one of them had really encountered death in this way, so we tried to explain it to them the best we could. We told them that God had taken Grandma's spirit to heaven because He thought that it was time for her to be with Him there, but that her body had to stay here on earth. Heavy things for young minds to grasp, but they tried. On a different note, though, we were there with the whole Petersen family for four days and didn't get any family pictures! The only ones I got were of them at the hotel. blah. But, they enjoyed the hotel, I think -- especially the pool. :)

Rick looks oddly ecstatic in this one:
And the girls on the way home... We had to leave right after the funeral, and they fell asleep almost as soon. So cute!


And, after we got home, a day or so later, I found this little gremlin in my kitchen:
That's lipstick. A lot of it. When I caught her doing it, she had her baby doll sat up in front of her and said that she was trying to be a Mommy. I couldn't bring myself to get her in trouble for it, so I just cleaned her up, let her go, and hid the lipstick... better.


My great-grandmother Mayme has come to live with us. She's here for at least six months and possibly more if it goes well. She is in an intermediate stage of Alzheimer's Disease and can't live on her own anymore. My mom and aunt are back home packing up her house and cleaning it out to sell so they can get her into a nursing home, so she's staying with us in the meantime. She really is a BLAST to be around, she is SO funny! She does the typical Alzheimer's things, but we're blessed in that she isn't the volatile lashing-out type. At least not yet. She's gone more the route of reverting into childish behaviors, which is obviously much easier for us to handle. It's been nice having her around, though. She practically raised me as a child and is probably my biggest childhood influence. I'm so glad that we can be here for her now. :)

In this next picture, we're having our Saturday movie night. Every Saturday, we let the girls take turns renting a movie and we eat pizza rolls on the floor.

Coloring with the girls. She was super intense about it. Very serious coloring.
Reading to Shiloh. I'm so glad that the girls have taken to her so well and let her do things like this. I know that she misses being able to be a "mamaw" to her grandkids.

Folding clothes. She hates just sitting around and gets incredibly fidgety, so you have to give her things to do. And there's certainly no shortage of that at my house! She likes to fold the clothes and do the dishes and clean my house. I'm fine with that! ;)

Sitting with Lara on the couch:

And more cleaning of my kitchen... ;)


Next, we did our first homeschooling lesson! It was about horses. We did a lapbook about basic horse anatomy, different types of horses, what they eat, etc. Aftewards, we met up with some other homeschooling families at a horse farm. They gave us a mini-lecture about horses and let us feed and pet them. The girls (and Mamaw Mayme!) had a great time!

Mrs. Robin giving the mini-lecture:

This was Ringo. He was really boisterous and knew that we had food to give him. He was pretty cute, though, and all the kids liked to hear him make his noises. :)

Lara getting to pet Ringo:

Shiloh had no interest in Ringo. Oddly enough, though, she saw a black and white horse out in the pasture named Clyde and wanted to "save" her petting for Clyde. He finally came in and Shiloh got to pet him. She was a little timid at first, but was fine after she finally went up there:

In fact, she liked it so much that when they brought out Di, a 24 yr-old therapeutic horse, Shiloh just stood next to her and pet her...

...and pet her....

...and pet her...

...and even after all of the other kids had gone, she was still standing there petting her. That was all she wanted to do.

Then we got to feed Lucy. Di is Lucy's mom and Lucy is only a year old, i think. She was very sweet. Shiloh absolutely did not want to feed her, but she let me. It was neat. :)

Then Shiloh was done with all of that and found a door at which to sit and look out. She put rocks in her pockets and watched the cars go by. Too funny.

They had some leftover apples from feeding the horses that they were DYING to eat when they got in the van, as you can tell. :)

A family picture before church on Sunday:

Lara had a visit with her mom at Suson Park in south county and Shiloh really wanted to stay. For obvious reasons, she couldn't, but when we went back, we got out and looked around. They had Clydesdale horses and all sorts of farm animals. It was raining, though, so she had to get her cow umbrella, which she was very proud of. She had also wanted to wear this dress, which I had just made for her that morning.

Not sure about this one. Sort of looks like she's about to chuck the umbrella at the horses...

The rest of these pictures are from today's trip to the zoo. We had been cooped up in the house WAY too long and the girls were seriously going stir-crazy. I had tried all of my usual tricks to keep them entertained, but we had to get out. So, to the zoo we went. I made Lara this blue dress this morning and of course, Shiloh wanted to wear hers again, too, so they're both wearing dresses I made. :)

Shiloh and Lara looking at the map, being very serious...

Mamaw Mayme, fussing at me for taking her picture. :)

This was too cute! A family of turtles, all lined up!

And Shiloh and Lara, watching them. They made up an entire story about how the Daddy turtle had come home from work and and the Mommy and Sweetie (their word for "Baby") turtles were going with the Daddy turtle to get some ice cream because the Sweetie turtle had been so good while he was away. hah!

I know this seems odd to post a picture of only Lara and blur her face out, but I had to tell this story. She's standing in front of the prairie dogs. She asked me what they were, and I told her they were prairie dogs. She gasped excitedly, clasped her hands together, and, with wide eyes, turned to Shiloh and said "Shiloh! Look! These are FAIRY DOGS!!!" Shiloh was also very excited, as you can imagine. One doesn't often see fairy dogs just flitting about. After a minute, though, their excitement turned to confusion and they slowly turned to me and Lara said "um, Shaina...? I don't see their wings and they actually don't look anything like a dog..." It was SO funny!! So, here's Lara standing in front of the "fairy dogs." :)

At the bird house...

Mamaw Mayme trudging up a hill. The woman is 87 years old in December, and was very adamant that she could walk just as fast and as far as we could, and she pretty much did. I only stopped twice, and we were there for almost two hours!

In front of the Herpetarium (Shiloh's choice) -- Mamaw Mayme, Shiloh and Lara:

This was pretty enthralling and kinda gross at the same time. This was a frog that had JUST had its babies. And I mean, like, just hours before. There were about twelve of these itty bitty babies in this dish, and a few of them had crawled out and were around the dish. One, though, had very obviously died and was bleeding from the head. A lot. I couldn't stop myself from taking a picture, and then I couldn't stop myself from posting it. Sorry!! I blurred out the one that was dead, though.... Blech.

Lara and Shiloh in front of the giant tortoises. These are their favorites to see and they ALWAYS want to go here. Mamaw kept saying how unbelievable it was that they even existed. hah!

Then, as we were leaving, we found this awesome tree along the pathway. First, the girls decided that they wanted to pretend that they were going to move it...

Then, they were going to hug it...

Then, Lara decided to climb it. In her new dress. That I had just made for her that morning. *sigh* ah, well. At least I'll see how good of a job I did making it!

Then Shiloh wanted to try, but was sort of afraid as long as I was holding on. When I let her go, though, she liked it. I LOVE these series of pictures. I took more of Lara, too, but didn't see a point in posting them if I was going to have to blur out the entire picture. So, these are just of Shiloh.


This is probably my new favorite picture of her. She is SO BEAUTIFUL!

For people in my family, they know that Mamaw has a thing about animals. She LOVES animals, but in recent years, obviously hasn't been able to care for any herself. So, she resorted to stuffed animals, keeping all kinds in her house. She doesn't have any here at our house, so as we were leaving the zoo, I got the girls each a small stuffed animal... including Mamaw. ;) She held it like this almost the whole way home. She is too cute!


So, that's it for pictures for now. If you'd like to see the originals of the ones that have Lara in them, let me know and I'll add you to the list. I email the originals to a list of people who'd like to see them, and I'll send them to you, too.

Otherwise, here's hoping I post more often!