Happy family

I've been trying to limit the number of times a day I say, "Sarah said ..." but that program with Molly's teacher really hit home for me. She talked about this NPR story about tantrums -- how there's nothing a parent can do to stop them and how the quickest way to end them is to do nothing. This is advice I've heard before but it made me realize that even trying to intervene in a nice way makes tantrums worse, and that's what I've been doing. We've had a week now of just treating tantrums like sneezes -- they happen, she can't help it, they pass -- and it's remarkable how different things go. They're still intense (she even made herself throw up during one, awesome!) but they just end and life goes on. Before, things tended to escalate until she would, say, throw her trains at the television or hit people or generally crank it up until we had to put her in her room to cool off. Now I find that it hardly even brings down the mood of the house at all. So much better for everyone.

Molly and I have also had a lot of mommy-Molly time in the past week. That helps a lot, too.

I found these baby overalls in a box of Molly's old things and they're almost too small for Kate already. I can't believe we've gotten this far without putting overalls on her!

Both girls have colds this week. Molly decided to stay home from school yesterday. Actually, she decided that a few days ago before she even got sick. She said she wanted a day to rest and I couldn't agree more. She loves school but it exhausts her.

She stayed in pajamas until after lunch and played quietly by herself most of the day. What a sweetie! A lot of that play was with old Legos that she brought back from Grandma's house at Thanksgiving.

She even played quietly in the kitchen while Kate and I took naps. Here's what I found when I woke up.

It's a parade. Every single guy's leg is lifted up. They're marching. :)