i reject your negative labels and substitute my own

Difficult = Active, or challenging, or entertaining

Stubborn = Persistent, or tenacious

Destructive = Inventive, mad problem-solving skills

Hyperactive = Energetic, conscientious

Give me your word for a negative trait and i'll give you a word that would put a gleam in every HR director's eye when reading a resume'.

It all started this morning when Alan called, saying, "D is a difficult baby." (i prefer "challenging", but this isn't exactly news.) The answer to my "what happened" is that as soon as he took D to daycare and put her down, she made a beeline for a baby who happened to be in a swing and attempted to steal said baby's pacifier. Several times. Even to the point of slowing down the swing's controls to make it easier on herself. No one better accuse my baby of being a dummy!

When i picked D up this afternoon, the teacher said she's a very stubborn baby. i had to say, "i reject your negative label. She's not 'stubborn', she's 'persistent'." And boy is she! She will stand next to a cabinet that has some drawings taped to it, look to see if the teacher is watching, and try to remove the drawing. Over and over and over again.

i mean, at 10 months old, there's really no such thing as "disciplining" a baby. There's only redirection. But what do you do if you have an un-redirect-able baby? There are days when i'll literally redirect her for a half hour or more, and she just keeps going back to whatever she wanted in the first place. i have to take her out of the room for a good while, and still she'll go straight back to it when we return a lot of the time. i try to let her just have at it as often as i can if it's safe to do so. For example, right now she's obsessed with the china hutch that has a cupboard in the bottom with stemware in it. It's not something i want to drill holes in for child locks, so i guess we'll be boxing up the stemware and letting D open and close those doors to her heart's content. But to showcase my girly's mad problem-solving skills, for the time being i blocked the hutch with 3 chairs. Which D, who can't even walk yet but likes to slide chairs and stools around like they're walkers, moved individually and lined up in a neat little line of 3 chairs just to get to the cabinet.

i love my entertaining little stinker!