Right now, I am listening to my husband trying to settle our daughter for bed time. She is very good at causing diversions. Every night he asks her, "Which princess are you?" and she will answer, "I'm princess (fill in blank with Snow White, Cinderella, etc.). The Anthony will say, "Oh! Well, princess (whoever), I'm prince Charming!" and Tessa will say, "OH! Hello, prince charming!". Then Anthony says, in his best prince charming voice, "I bid you a good night princess (whoever)." Tessa LOVES this.
Jack, meanwhile, is wrapped up in his swaddling blankets rapidly falling to sleep. My mom thinks the swaddling is a form of torture. She reminds me that at Odyssey Harbor, it was called a blanket restraint. Odyssey Harbor was a home for troubled children. So Jack is referred to as "poor Jack" after bedtime.
Lately, when Tessa is painting and decides to do something she knows she shouldn't, she calls it doing a "craft". So when I asked her what she was doing today, and she responded with "a craft", I decided to investigate further. Here is what I saw: 
2 comments:
I love the princess thing. Too precious!! That is something I will miss with boys. She is doing a craft, body painting. Some people pay money to get painted!
I worked at Odyssey Harbor for many years. Your Mom is right about the blanket restraint. It was misused by many institutions and when I found it being misused at OH I put a stop to it. 99% of the time it was used only in cases where a child was head banging, attempting to injure another child or endangering himself or staff members. I never liked its use. It was promoted as an alternative to a straight jacket which required more paperwork. It wound up being a convenience for lazy staff (many of whom I fired from campuses I was responsible for). Swaddling for an infant is a very different thing and up until the child is 3 or 4 can have a soothing effect on the child (harks back to the womb). You just have to make sure they don't get overheated.
I wonder if I knew your Mom?
Just doing some research on OH and this site popped up. Beautiful kids. You must be very proud.
Tom King
Post a Comment