Sunday, January 11, 2009

these three

L. has an issue with nightmares. She usually gets several a night and ends up sleeping part of the night in our room on the floor so that we can all get some rest. Lately, we've been trying different methods to try to teach her to address them herself, and defuse some of the fear she feels. Art therapy, humor, endings to the dream that she can 'control,' that kind of thing.




It has worked literally overnight, at least with with her dream about The Claw. She talks about squirting it with a special orange juice formula that he hates and that will land him in the hospital next time he tries to come near her. Meanwhile, she made him a Valentine so that he knows there are no hard feelings. It was her idea:


To: The Claw.
Happy Valentine's Day.
From: L.

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Artwork by A.:



It's a rainbow tunnel with two holes for cows. A big hole for the biggest cow and a small one for "the littlest cow in the widest world."

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The Ball of Rice. Or Ball of Stink as we like to call him at times... (I'm sure you can't imagine why!) He is still the insanely happy one-year old. He waves "Bye! See you soon!" as we carry him up to bed or nap. He LOVES his blankie so that is part of it. And his thumb. We have wondered if he will ever agree to grow up. However: he has finally decided to learn to talk. He just wasn't so sure it would be a useful skill until recently. And now it's, "Where is L.?" "I don't know" and "Where are you" along with other full sentences. Crazy kid.


5 comments:

Molly W. said...

ohmygosh L is so precious! Love that picture and story. I actually used to do that too...psyche myself out at the end of my dreams. :) Worked like a charm! (I never made cute pics for the bad guys though...L is a better person than me). :)

le petit prince said...

they are so adorable. and you made my day with these funny stories.I'd love to hug him, and miss the pix at Gymboree's birthday last year when I was holding him.
L. is impressive with her so grown-up assertive attitude "don't bother me you monster though I don't hate you".what's a claw?

beth said...

well done on the do-it-yourself child psychology!

Auntie J said...

Serious, good work on the nightmare-curing. P's fear these days is gnomes and noises, which he addresses by asking us to tell him endless stories about gnomes and noises. "Tell me the story about a gnome who hears a noise. What was it?" And I'll say, um, I don't know, what was it? And he says "No, YOU know. What WAS it?" Etc, etc.

Anonymous said...

Great artwork girls!
Can I commission some fridge art? Pleeeease :)