Love and Logic

It’s been a wonderful couple of weeks.  I went home to Dallas to meet adorable baby Brooks (my cousin’s 4 month old little boy), visit my grandmother in her new nursing home and spend quality time with my family and friends.  Going through everything we’ve gone through over the last year has made me so incredibly grateful for everything.  Out of college I dealt with massive entitlement issues and in a way I feel almost completely cured of that disease.  I cherish every moment with the one’s I love and try not to take it for granted.  Feeling grateful instead of entitled has been a huge paradigm shift.  I like who I am when I am appreciative for everything.

I’m back in Cuero and my sweet sister and niece are here visiting.  I love how close this experience has brought me to my family.  It’s been a wake up call to a lot of my family and friends to make an effort to be with the ones you love and cherish the time you do have with them, because it’s not guaranteed.

Andrew is back in Houston for the week finishing up getting radiation on his pelvis.  He is having a difficult time breathing along with multiple asthma attacks over the last couple of weeks.  We are still waiting for the autoimmune trial to come to M.D. Anderson.  Since we found out there were more tumors in his liver and now in his colon we have been praying that the trial comes quickly and that he gets picked to take part in it.  With the tumors growing so rapidly we feel like we are in a race against time.  I truly think this trial could be the miracle that so many others and me have been praying for.

Last week I realized I had to start taking action on learning more about how to discipline my toddler.  I knew that with everything going on in our lives I was really slacking in this important area and it was causing me a lot of pain.  My mom told me about a program called “Parenting with Love and Logic.”  She had taken my sister-in-law a couple of years ago to one of their conferences and she raved about it.  I recently bought a love and logic book and started applying the principles right away.  The results were amazing!

The book teaches to give kids two options to choose from and both of the options are within your boundaries.  This puts the ball in the kids ‘court and helps them learn to make decisions on their own.  They also learn there are consequence for the choices they make.  Say I’m fighting with Ellie about putting her diaper on.  I would ask her “Sweetie, would you like to put your diaper on downstairs or would you like to put it on upstairs in your room.”  This question gets Ellie thinking and she feels that she has some say in it even though I put boundaries around the options.  Instead of fighting with her about putting on her diaper she picks one of the two options and we are both happy!

Since I’ve been applying these principles I’m able to take Ellie to public places and not stress about her throwing a fit.  The tools I’m learning are making being a parent fun again, because I know what to do when a situation gets out of hand.  Taking a little bit of time to invest in reading a book to help improve my disciplining and communication skills with Ellie has really helped to reduce a huge amount of stress in my life.  I also feel closer to Ellie because I sense she wanted boundaries and now that she has them she feels safe and her trust has been strengthened.  The book is called “Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood: Practical Parenting from Birth to Six Years.” By Jim Fay and Charles Fay.

I just want to thank you again for following our story, sending us your love, support and prayers.  Your example of love and generosity has planted roots deep inside my heart and daily I grow more and more in those areas because of you! I love you deeply. Blessings.