He's musical

Joshua is full of spontaneous song and dance.

Go Away Daddy

Joshua had a huge milestone tonight in conflict resolution. It is so difficult for him to face conflict (much like his dad). We've been trying to teach him what to say when people hurt him or do things to him that he doesn't like. Usually, he'll just shut down, and give a fake grin because he's not sure what to do. He's very nonconfrontational.

So tonite, when we were playing and he bit my face. I immediately told him to say sorry, and that got him really upset--I think because he felt hurt that I was admonishing him for something he didn't mean any harm in.

He was crying and started to say, "Go away daddy!" It was really heartbreaking to hear how anguished he felt. He's very sensitive and get's very ashamed/confused/crushed when someone tells him he did something wrong when he didn't mean to be disobedient/misbehaving.

But Annette was really great. She tried to coach him on what to say, explaining the misunderstanding and how we could make up with one another. And then he did it--he came out of his shell and talked to me. We both said sorry and made up. I was really proud of him.

Sleeping

has not been so fun for Joshua this past month. He has been besieged with fears--of the dark, of thunder/lightning, and many others which keep him hopping out of bed and screaming for us to lie with him, or the many other excuses: "Daddy, I need you to wipe by butt!" "I need to go poop" "Change my diaper!" "Sit on the red chair!" "Is anybody out there?" "Please, I need you daddy/mommy" Sometimes, because he finally sleeps so late (11pm-midnite) and awakens so much through the night, while still waking up at 6:30am--he acts out at school. Which is what we heard he did again today at school. So we are reattempting sleep training for him again.

Happy Birthday Mommy