Nicole getting well.......

Nicole was gradually feeling better. However we decided not to take her to Pre-School on Monday and Wednesday, because her nose was still running. We did not want her to spread anything to her school mates.

Nicole's tongue sore was probably gone, because on Sunday she even could eat the grapes Grand Auntie Sue offered her. Starting Monday, she could eat her regular breakfast, cereal with raisins. As her appetite gradually returned, she kept asking for jello and icecream which Mommy usually doesn't want her to eat too much. So she would have a fit when we offered her something else, like the congee that I specially cooked for her. Usually she likes congee very much, but since her mind was on jello and iceceam she just absolutely refuse to try it. Giving in to her, I left the bowl of congee in front of her and went to get a little jello for her. When I returned with the jello, she was helping herself to the congee and loved eating it very much. That ended the battle.

Then another battle just begun. Ever since she got sick, she had been refusing to take her naps. First I had to fight to change her diaper, she won't let me do it because she knew after that we would put her to bed. No matter how you tried to persuade her, she just tried to run away. Sometimes it made me so angry, I just lift her into her bed screaming, hoping she would quiet down after I left the room. Well, of course she won't stop crying. Worrying her crying would wake Baby Jason, I had to get her out of bed. When Becky finished feeding the Baby, I offered to hold the Baby and let her try. Monday, it took her quite a lot of effort, like reading a book, putting babydoll to sleep with her etc., she finally managed to keep Nicole in her bed and lied down. Meanwhile, Baby Jason was giving me a hard time, crying and sleeping on and off, and Becky didn't even have her lunch. All these upset Becky very much. She said I was too rough with Nicole and it wasn't her fault waking the Baby etc.

Tuesday, Nicole cut down her whining, but her request for food was almost non-stop. She kept dragging me to the kitchen, then with hands stretched she wanted me to hold her to the counter so she could search for food. After feeding her lunch, it was time to put her in bed. Of course, she simply refused. So I told Becky I had no way of putting her to bed and asked her to try again after feeding the Baby. I didn't know that displeased her very much, saying that I just did not have enough patience with Nicole. So unhappily she went to try, but she also didn't have the luck. Chris came home from work because it was half-day for him on Tuesday, so I asked him to take care of Nicole because he usually has no problem putting her to bed. Well, this time, he tried and tried. Nicole used all kinds of deterring scheme, like wanting to say good night to Po Po, reading a book etc. etc. but after all that she still did not want to go to sleep. Finally, even Chris had to give up and just left her crying in her crib. She kept crying and yelling. I did not know if they mind me picking her up, so I waited. Pretty soon, I heard all 3 of my babies crying. I hurried to see if I could calm Nicole down by holding her for a while. Since I was pretty tired myself, so I thought perhaps if I put her down in my bed and sleep with her, then we both could get some rest. Well, it didn't work out at all, because once she saw the big exercise ball stored in my room she wanted to get it. That really defeated my purpose of bringing her to my room. So I had to get her back to her room. She started to cry louder and louder. Chris probably couldn't stand it any longer. He came up and said he would take her out for a while. After packing everying, diapers, snacks, drinks and jacket, he took Nicole to Kidspace. Though I finally get some peace and quiet, I couldn't help but wonder would this be a good idea, would it encourage her to cry more each time she refuse to take a nap?