Last week I caught myself saying, “The great news is I know a trick!”  in response to L saying, “The bad dream is still coming into my head even though I am thinking of Ariel.”  I learned this from my husband who always has a “trick” to make everything or anything better…so I quickly decided to crawl into L’s closet hideout to have a talk with her stuffed animals.  I found 3 volunteers to help keep bad dreams away.  Pig – was eager to snuggle with L (so we tucked her in behind L’s pillow).  Polar Bear assured me that he could keep L’s bad dreams away (so he went in front of L), and Little Bear said he knew all about this kind of problem and he would protect her in the night (so he went above her head on her pillow).  She fell asleep within minutes!

These seemingly silly things really help to ease L’s concerns.  Even though she is getting old enough to know some of our tricks are kind of silly, or even pretend, she still loves them. She even makes up clever solutions for herself and baby B.

When L gets a scrape or bump, Gregg always comes up with things to make it feel better, whether it is having her straighten and bend her arm and then wiggle her fingers, blowing on the boo-boo, tapping it while he counts backwards from 3, tickling her…,  all of which, of course, have nothing to do with actual medical interventions –but they worked every time. 

Hence, I quickly adopted this strategy.  When L is concerned that her cuts will hurt when she gets in the bathtub, I put special lotion on it (moisturizer) before she enters the tub so it won’t hurt.  Gregg also happens to be the BEST storyteller EVER –which kind of goes hand & hand with the creative solutions to “problems”!

I am sure someday we will have to do more than be creative to solve our girls’ worries, booboos,…but for now this seems to work wonders. Likewise, I love the fact that when I get hurt L gives me kisses to make it all better.

My girls are SO LUCKY to have such an amazing Dad!!!