Middle Child Time

Today was a bit of a rough day for Jocelyn. She got sick first thing this morning - threw up for absolutely no reason that I could figure out. She was eating up a storm, then all of a sudden it all came back up. I think that threw Jocie off her game a little. She kept bouncing back and forth between extremes of lethargic and manic behaviors. By the afternoon, her attention had turned to her sisters, and she was constantly trying to hug them to death, take their toys away, or bully her way into negative attention. Several times I steered her toward a path that would avoid time outs by asking her to help me do some chores. She helped me load the washing machine with a load of clothes; later she helped transfer those clothes to the dryer. She helped make our pizzas for dinner. She got plates out and put them on the table. Each of these times we got to spend a few moments just the two of us. Even though it was never much more than five minutes, she was getting my undivided attention. In turn, I was keeping her from making choices that would only end in punishment. An overall win for everyone.