Day 9

We had another episode yesterday at the moms' group at my friends house. Shortly after we arrived, both of my boys began to play with their friend's remote controlled train set. There are at least three different remotes for three separate trains, but of course the track is shared, and there are always conflicts arising from that favorite toy. Peanut Butter's intense desire was focused on playing with the train set, and Christopher Robin's train was getting in the way. They both had ideas for what they wanted to do, and the track was small, and they kept interfering with each other. I entreated Peanut Butter to stay calm and explain to Christopher Robin in a normal voice what he wanted, but passions ran high, and there was no room for reasoning or cooperation. After several times of trying to keep Peanut Butter calm and reasonable, I warned that the next frenzied outburst would mean taking a break from the train set. Moments later it came, so I lifted a howling Peanut Butter away from the train, and took him in the other room where the toy box was. When he refused to gain control of himself I gave him a few firm swats, counted to three, and he managed to calm himself and stop his outraged wailing. I took him to the toy box and asked him to find something else to play with. It was not what he wanted, and he told me many times that it was the trains he wanted to play with, but as I held him and showed him other options, he calmed down, and finally settled on holding a fire truck and having me read him a book. It was not the kind of situation I like to have to deal with at a friend's house, but I was thankful that we fought through the situation without an all-out tantrum or having to pack up and go home so soon after arriving.

Sometimes it feels like progress is slow, but I'm encouraged that I'm seeing progress. It gives me hope that over time these tantrums will be a distant memory.

I've been using our Wii Fit program since early January, with the goal of shedding about ten pounds to get to my ideal BMI. Progress is slow, amazingly slow, considering the thought I've been putting into what I eat, and the elimination of bad habits like sitting down with a book and a pile of cookies in the evenings before bed. But the Wii Fit tracks my progress daily, and every day I can see the chart of the progress I've made, so when I zoom out to see where I started to where I am now, and I see that I have indeed lost five pounds, I'm motivated to keep it up. I mean, warm weather is still months away, and if it takes me 2 months to lose the next five pounds, what's wrong with that? I'm still losing them by summer, and forming permanent lifestyle changes in the process. I think if I didn't have the chart of my progress I'd be much more disheartened by the ups and downs of daily weigh-ins.

Anyway, I think this blog is kind of like the chart on Wii Fit. It gives me something tangible to look at and see the progress we've made. Maybe by summer I'll look back and be amazed at how Peanut Butter used to react.