This new blogger setup is bugging me. I guess I don't do well with change:)
My commenters, Jefferson and Wendy, hit the nail on the head with their comments. It does appear that with these boys, mostly with BoyTwo, we have to be very, very extreme to get his attention or to even make a dent in his emotions. It is a difficult thing to do when as a society we are generally more into talking things through and explaining and having basic natural consequences, etc.
When we were in Ukraine everyone (and I mean everyone!! bio parents and grandmother, teachers, director, translator, passersby, etc.) told us that we would need to physically punish BoyTwo. After trying to explain that we do use physical punishment several times and getting some looks from people that clearly said they thought I didn't know what I was talking about, I stopped explaining and just nodded my head, thanking them for their advice. I thought they were crazy. No, I thought they were TERRIBLE!! I mean, seriously, who could even dream of spanking this sweet little angel. Fast forward seven months and I feel like I owe them an apology note for judging them. Sweet little angel. hahaha. Joke's on me:) He is a sweet little angel... somewhere in there!
Crib nap went very well. He was soooooo upset by this that I plan on using it in the future (not frequently, I don't want it to lose its power).
During this time of reflection, BoyTwo discovered he had a loose tooth. He hollered out to me to come to him, which I did when it was convenient for me, and had me wiggle his tooth. I was barely able to get it to move, but congratulated him before tucking him back in. I was torn. I didn't want him to have any interactions with me as he was 'napping' and I didn't want to feed into his attempts to get me to interact with him, but at the same time, this is his first loose tooth with a mom! When we hosted him in October 2010, he had all of his baby teeth. In May of 2011 (7 months later) he had lost 8 teeth!! I wanted to be able to have sort of a nice moment with him over this, so that was my compromise. To acknowledge briefly.
In the mean time, Two has had a loose tooth since BEFORE CHRISTMAS!!!!!! It is dangling. For reals. Super gross. Bribed her. Bossed her. Tried to yank it with my fingers. No go. Sigh.
Saturday morning BoyTwo was up bright and early (drives me absolutely NUTS that we have to drrraaaaaaggggggg this child out of bed on school days at 8 a.m., but Saturday he's up and at it at sunup). I sent him back to bed, only to be woken by him again shortly after. He was holding a wad of toilet paper to a hole in his mouth where his tooth had been. It was gushing blood. BECAUSE IT WASN'T READY TO COME OUT YET!! (now I know how it is he lost 8 teeth in 7 months)
For the love of Pete! Could we have a happy medium?! One kid can't bear to part with a dead, dangling tooth and the other literally rips it from his mouth. Good night. Tonight (Sunday) Huz spent some time with Two working on getting that tooth out gently.
I'm happy to report that the tooth fairy visited three children tonight. Two, BoyTwo and BoyOne. BoyOne did not lose a tooth, but given the fact that he had lost all of his teeth prior to coming to America, the Tooth Fairy has decided to make him an Honorary Tooth Loser and will deliver money under his pillow every time his brother loses a tooth (trying to make up for lost time).
As for the Jinx? My kids will. not. stop. with the 'jinx'. They say it all the time. It is not even cute or funny anymore. We had to ban jinxing from the car, the dinner table, during songs (yes, they would literally yell 'jinx' after every word while we would be singing a song), while praying (picture the 'amen' at the end of prayer followed by a chorus of shreeking 'JINX!!!!!!'), and various other times. I tried banning it altogether but it didn't work. They would have lived the remainder of their lives in restriction.
p.s. discovered tonight for certain that BoyTwo is missing two of his teeth. Not that they were lost but that they do not exist. At least visibly. He has his top two front teeth and next to them are his eye teeth (pointy little fangs). I've wondered ever since we got back to the states and I caught my breath (sort of) (about November) if they were missing because it just looks so weird but the dentist had never said anything, so I let it go because I really didn't want to gaze into his stinky little mouth:) But tonight, because we were already in everybody's mouth (you know how when one kid loses a tooth everybody else wants you checking their teeth for possible cash bonuses), I checked it out real good. They are missing. I'm hoping that they just haven't descended yet (which is likely the case if he pulled them out like he pulled out this one waaaaay before it was ready)... Calling the dentist in the morning.
