Sunday, April 26, 2009

Dealing with Frustration

Julia has dealt with frustration from her first moment breathing air. She was pissed. "Put me back!" seemed to be what she was saying, but it was coming out through intense screaming, the chin wiggle, and vigorous hand shaking. I was so excited when we moved past screaming as her sole way to let out frustration. At about 4 months she started trilling when she was frustrated - moving her tongue against the roof of her mouth. Hey, at least it wasn't screaming! She still screamed, but there was trilling as well. After the trilling lost its luster, she started blowing raspberries when life threw her lemons. Then her frustration reliever evolved into moving her arms up and down. Our blessed ears loved the break. And now we have moved onto a new frustration reliever: clapping.

This one is kind of comical. You set her down to change her diaper, which she hates. She does not like being put down on her back. She gives you her outraged expression, and you start to change her. Soon you are greeted by clapping. What? Yes, you get an ovation and a varied amount of irritated facial expressions, grunts, and occasional screams. Apparently she hasn't realized that clapping is generally a positive gesture. We will take the clapping as a reward for a job well done.

I want to do another college blog all about Valentine's Day, but it could offend and is somewhat randy. Well, I'll have to think about it. And of course I'd have to change names to protect the innocent.

2 comments:

Leigh Ann said...

So, she's mad, but she claps at a diaper change! LOL How funny!!!

I just read your last college blog. Loved it! Do another...

Scrapping in Circles said...

I love the clapping too. Little Boy claps all the time now-a-days and we love it. He claps to the music in the car, when he is happy, when he is angry, when he wants attention, and when he is bored. Love it!