Lesson 'O The Year for Holland: Eat your veggies!
Lesson 'O The Month for Liv: Be a good sport and have fun even while losing.
Holland woke up this morning giving me the cold shoulder. Instead of our daily morning snuggles, she went right to Gramma. Once there, I overheard her spill all the gory details of her horrible dream last night. Now, Holland seems to have dreams, often of the nightmarish quality, every night. This can be attributed to her overactive imagination, as she often dreams of the concoctions she and her brain worked up throughout the day. Trust me--this girl can dream up some crazy stuff! This morning, though, her dream worked her into devastation, thus the cold shoulder.
Holland: Gramma, I had a bad dream last night. (Sniff, upside down smile, wrinkled forhead whiny voice.)
Gramma: What happened in your dream, Holland?
Holland: Mom gave me ice cream with salad and all kinds of things on it and made me eat it!
Gramma: stifles laugh. Oh, I am so sorry that there was salad in your ice cream!
Holland: Yah, cause I don't like salad in my ice-cream. (face still wrinkled, sniffles, too.)
(15 minutes pass. Daddy comes downstairs.)
Holland: Daddy, mommy made me eat ice cream with salad and all kinds of things in there! I didn't like it. It tastes yucky!
daddy: That's horrible! You know, daddy would never make you eat ice-cream with salad in it and kinds of other things.
Holland: Yah, but mommy does!
Mommy: Holland, you know I would never make you eat ice-cream with salad in it!
Holland (stifling a shout): Yah, I dreamed it! Mom, I dreamed it!
Which leads me to believe that Holland thinks dreams, or at least this one, are real. It also leads me to believe that I am the dreaded health food enforcer of the family. I also believe that Brian likes it this way.
Liv has been learning how to be a good sport. She is uber-competitive (yes, she still is upset that Colin is 3 weeks older than her. She also does not like Drew to finish his lunch before her, and she often can be seen flexing her biceps with other kids and you know she is telling everyone that she is stronger than they are.) So my goal has been to teach her how to lose with grace and dignity. My approach: play games over and over until we have had adequate chance to lose, and consequently, adequate chance to react appropriately to losing with a sweet handshake and a "Great Job" besides.
So yesterday, Liv and I sat down to play a really cool Old Maid game involving dice. I explained the basic rules but did not tell her about Old Maid...as I did not want to confuse her with too many rules up front. I let her obtain Old Maid first, then I told her the dreaded news: This is one die you do not want in your pile. If stuck with it at the end (da da dada!!!!) you will lose. Oh, the criminality of it all. She was not happy. She almost lost it. I re-explained to her that it did not mean that she will lose...but if I don't happen to grab that die, she may get stuck with it and lose. That was all she needed to hear, apparently, for after a few rounds, I realized that the Old Maid was nowhere to be found. Not in my pile. nope. Not in her pile.
Me: Umm....Liv? Where did the Old Maid go?
Liv:I don't know, mom. You must have it.
Noooo.
Me: Where did you put it, honey.
Liv: (long pause) With a sigh, Liv reaches underneath the table and brings up the inconvenient Old Maid...hastily thrown out of the way. (Nodding her head and said with her best convincing voice) Mom, let's just play without the Old Maid.
She seriously HID the Old Maid! This girl does not like to lose.
This lesson may be harder than I thought.
1 comment:
I was so competitive with games as a kid my mom wouldn't let me play!! haha I don't know when I got over it, but I still like to win!! :)
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