Grandparents' Love Therapy #12

I think I should appoint someone to remind me once in awhile of this quote 
" If you want the rainbow, you will have to be willing to put up with the rain." ~ Dolly Parton.

Things has not been really encouraging this weekend, over at my parents'. First, Joy still refused to sleep at night. This time, my parents changed their approach. My dad pretended to be angry, told her that he is angry because she did not want to sleep (it's around 10pm), and he did not want to accompany her that night. He went back to his own bedroom, leaving my daughter with mom. My mother also pretended she is angry, switched off the lights and pretended to be asleep, while keeping an eye on her. Her reaction? She sat on her mattress for awhile, as if contemplating what is going on and what she should do. Then she lay down and quietly cried herself to sleep. My poor baby. Why must this type of approach work on you? Why can't you go to sleep when it's time for bed? You have not slept the whole day, and you should have felt tired by 10pm????

The second incident is when she purposely pee while having her dinner. She just sat there on the chair and it rained (heavily) while her mouth is munching away! This has not happened for a long time, and certainly has not happened at all at my parents'. They were shocked! Joy is capable of getting off the chair to go potty any time and they never restrained her moving around while having meals. And worst of all? She laughed! She laughed when she 'rained' on them and when she looked at their reactions. What is wrong here?

As usual, I tried to get to the root of the problem. Mom said that, the only reason she could think of is that Joy is getting back at them, because both my parents had their dinner first, before asking her to have hers. (She just had a bottle of milk, so they thought that she would not be hungry). I really don't know. Is my daughter really capable of such tricks of getting back at people? :(

This week, she is refusing to clean up after making a mess with all her books. Usually, mom would tell me how obedient she is, to pick up all her books and toys after playing. When I arrived to fetch her, all her books are everywhere on the floor in the living room. I had to prompt her to pick them up one by one. (Like hubby used to say, I am the only one that can ask her to do anything. Even as her daddy, he can't get her to listen to him every time).

Anyway, here's a picture of an activity Joy did at my parents.

Mom pasted printing papers on a big board and taught her to write whatever that is of interest to her. Previously she is interested in caterpillar. She helped Joy to draw a caterpillar by holding her hands and at the same time tried to sneak in some number recognition activities. This picture was her latest work, when mom tried to get her to do some counting with drawing lines to the appropriate number. Mom lets her scribble whenever she wants. Even little brother loves to go to this board and wanted to draw or writes on it.

I am holding on the the quote. Hopefully Joy's behaviour last week is just temporary. I know there will be ups and downs in her developments. I am praying for strength to handle them properly.