No Escape

Friday, February 09, 2007
My mind is a bit hazy as I am writing this under the influence of Sudafed. Apparently I didn't escape the wrath of the virus making Chloe ill. We are trapped indoors attempting to recover full health though it seems unlikely for a few days. Chloe is now napping. I attempted to get in a nap too but I can't handle the crazy Sudafed/sickness-induced dreams so I opted to blog instead.

Up to this point Chloe and I have been indoors since Tuesday afternoon, except for the visit to the pediatrician yesterday. So, Chloe and I have been playing. She kepts demanding to watch Barney and Diego but I can only deal with so much. I thought we should use this as an educational opportunity and not just "turn on, tune in and drop out" in front of the mind-numbing TV. I have Sudafed for that. So, I am trying to teach her to recognize letters in the alphabet. Apparently Chloe sees this not as an opportunity to learn but as an opportunity to torture her dear Mother and she's not to ill for the challenge.

Right now everything is the letter K, which is alright. When she was learning her colors we thought she was color-blind as she declared everything to be green. This is just the way she learns. She knows K is a letter of the alphabet and she is going to stick with it as an answer. It has to be right eventually.

For Christmas, I bought her an alphabet train floor puzzle. She loves to play with it. The first time we attempted to put it together, it took 3 days. I kept singing the ABC song and telling her the letter. It didn't seem to be of any relevance to Chloe as she believed the J should go after the P. When the puzzle pieces didn't fit she would yell, "It doesn't fit!" and throw the piece on the floor and start into some drama. After she recovered from the tantrum, she would go and pick up the J puzzle piece and attempt to make the J go after the P again. We must have repeated this 20 times. Eventhough I was a teacher, this was more than I could take and while Chloe was attempting to fit the J and the P together, the puzzle got put together by yours truly. It was simply more than I could handle. Well, she decided to get out the puzzle yesterday. I had hoped that she had forgotten about it as I didn't think I could handle the drama and sing the ABC's to her another 45 times. See, I do try to get her to sing them but she just says, "You sing them, Mommy!". So, as she dragged out the puzzle and threw the pieces on the floor I decided I needed to dust the bookshelf. After completing one shelf, I noticed that no tantrum had been thrown yet, so I turned to see what Chloe was doing. I am not exaggerating when I say that in a matter of minutes she had already put the puzzle together through the letter L. I was stunned and have come to the awareness that she enjoys seeing me suffer and that she really does know her ABC's but loves to see my expression when I hold up the letter A and ask her what letter it is only to be told by her that it is the letter K.

She also has a little laptop that teaches computer skills, counting and the alphabet. Up to this point all she likes to do with it is press the volume button on it because it makes an annoying monkey screech, which she enjoys. As I had a throbbing sinus headache and a sore throat and the feeling that I could snatch the laptop and hurl it across the room, I thought it best to actually show her how to use the computer to learn. So we played some games together and discovered that the little laptop will also play music. Chloe loves to dance and as the 1st song started playing this required dancing. Luckily I had the camera beside me to record the moment.



Well, I hear the little footsteps of the Chloester upstairs, that means my time goofing off on the computer has come to a close. I think I will give up on teaching the ABCs for today and opt to read to her or have her put stickers all over my sweatshirt as she really enjoys both.

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