AKG

Nolie.  With a little chocolate on her face.

This is Nolie.  Sweet as can be.  Bright, funny, effervescent.  Loves:  animals (especially cute, furry ones), movie night, being in your lap, telling you everything that comes to mind, her friends, her family, being included, making things, reading, taking hot baths.  She can now go upstairs by herself without collapsing with anxiety.  She sleeps through the night.  Her knees hurt her a lot right now, I think because of growing pains, but who knows.  She hates being embarrassed, and embarrasses easily.  She's also a performer and loves being the center of attention.  I understand these contradictory feelings.

She wants to be a biologist, or an entymologist, or an artist, or a teacher when she grows up.  She doesn't like being the littlest one all the time.  She loves being the littlest one sometimes.  We talk a lot about how this is the year of her becoming an individual, and that this takes time and patience and can be trying but is also fun and exciting.

She had a parasite in her tummy named E. Nana (I know, I know).  We don't know how long it was in there, but it was probably making her tummy hurt for a long time.  Her immune system isn't working just as it should, but the doctors say she might grow out of that.  She just finished antibiotics, so she's still have some tummy aches, but they don't seem as severe as they did before.  But just as before, it is hard to know.  We'll just have to wait, and listen, and respond when it seems time.   The next step is all the outpatient exploratory "-oscopies" so I'm hoping just getting rid of the bug gets her better.

This Nolie still gets pretty mad sometimes.  Last week she took a mirror off the wall and slammed it on the ground and stamped it with her foot.  How she did not get a bloody foot, I do not know.  Still, we're all getting better at the anger and frustration.  Acknowledge her feelings, the best parenting book in the world says.  Another trick:  when you see your kid's frustration start to mount, help them to draw it.  

Nolie was getting pretty mad the other day because her sister got to go on a playdate and she didn't.  I saw it starting to happen and grabbed a piece of paper and pen and drew a big black mark, dark and scribbly, and said, "This is how that would make ME feel!  How does it make you feel?"

Here's what she drew:

akg.

Totally.  And then she was over it and we went and had some pasta.