Breaking the Rules

Check out these feet!

Before I was a parent I definitely had my ideas about parenting. I generally agreed with and followed guidelines put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics. I watched the Supernanny in judgement of parents without backbones. And I thought things like "my kid would never act like that" at the grocery store......until.....Now I get it. That is, Libby had a jealous (of Peyton) moment last weekend and hit me in the face with a bag of goldfish crackers. When I grabbed her hand she laughed and then hit Peyton in the face with said crackers. This shouldn't surprise me. She had the same moment about a month ago with Grunden, then me, only at the time she was weilding a plastic golf club. So....now I've caved on a few points. For example, Libby is a huge fan of dipping her food. This is a picture of her dipping her toast in her hot chocolate, a favorite breakfast that I grew up on. That's not so unusual I realize, but it doesn't end there. This week she dipped an entire meal in maple syrup. Yesterday she dipped her meatloaf in ketchup. And today, she dipped her crackers, and then her hands, in her soup. I wonder if she'll ever eat another meal without something to dip in.

I've also caved on the t.v. front. It's amazing how 1/2 an hour of Teletubbies makes her happy, and gives me time with Peyton, or time to get something else done. It's a win win. As soon as that baby (in the sun) rises on the t.v. Libby squeals in delight and I know I've got 29 more minutes uninterrupted. The AAP suggests no t.v. until the age of two. Oh well. So I guess I didn't have it all figured out, and we're learning as we go.