Friday, December 5, 2008

A Break Through!

Allie and Paige are inseparable. They have so much fun playing with each other. They often hold hands and frequently call each other their "best friend". Paige is 20 months older than Allie. Paige looks out for Allie and tries to resolve all of Allie's problems. It's not a good thing. Allie quickly learned that if she whines loudly, Paige will give her whatever she wants.

A couple of days ago, Allie wanted to wear a particular pair of shoes. The shoes belonged to Paige. Paige has slightly larger feet than Allie. I told Allie that Paige was going to wear her own shoes and Allie should wear her own shoes. Allie started whining. I told the girls to put their shoes on and load up in the van. When I was loading the girls into a shopping cart, I noticed that Paige was wearing Allie's too small shoes. Allie was wearing Paige's shoes. When questioned, Paige stated that she had told Allie to go ahead and wear the larger shoes. Paige would wear the smaller shoes that pinched her feet. I asked why Paige would agree to wear shoe's that hurt her feet. She responded that she didn't like it when Allie "cried."

Since then, I have been striving to not let the girls take things away from each other. It's been challenging and difficult to listen to Allie whine. I understand why Paige was giving in to Alison, she can be very loud and persistent. Yesterday, the first glimmer of change occurred. Paige took a toy from Allie. I made her return the toy stating that Paige could have the toy when Allie was finished. Throughout the remainder of the day, Allie was happy to wait her turn. No whining. No fake crying. The sound of happy children playing.

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