Monday

We saw Toby again. Because we had Spot with us, Maggie ran ahead to pet him and we hung back. I saw her pet him but at one point she came running back to me. She said Toby had hurt her. I never could get a full story and she didn't have any marks so I'm not sure what happened. She told me she thought maybe he hadn't remembered her. :(

Maggie's been having a lot of behavior issues lately. I've spent a lot of time talking to her and trying to get to the bottom of it but I think what it comes down to is that she's had too much upheaval in the last couple of years. I will continue talking to her but today I started a behavior chart. I want her to have feedback on what is and isn't acceptable behavior and to feel consequences (good and bad) right away.

I made a color chart; red, yellow, green, light blue, blue, dark blue, purple. She starts on green and if she is aggressive it moves down. Yellow is a warning and red is a time out. If she makes any kind of good choice, it goes up. I'm really trying to focus on the good. I'm going to use food as her reward. I know you aren't supposed to tie any food to a reward or punishment but I want her to have immediate feedback and I can't think of anything else that's so immediate. I'm going to buy hippie candy from Whole Foods. Can you tell I'm not sure about this???

Today was her last princess class. She seemed to enjoy it. She got to keep a ring and a bracelet.

After princess class, we came home, ate lunch and headed straight back out for the splash park. It was so freaking hot. We stayed out there almost an hour and had to go because I was burning up.

We worked with felt today. She really enjoyed cutting out tiny scraps and using them to create pictures on different colored felt.

We went to the grocery store after that. She is so cute at the grocery store. She wants her own bag and to put some of the groceries in her bag. At Whole Foods, there is a little pretend mart at the front of the store with real fruit in it for kids to have. She got out some oranges and wanted to give them to various people. It was so sweet. She gave one to our cashier, who was so kind about accepting it.

When we got home, Maggie went straight upstairs. While I was unloading groceries, she came back down and sadly told me Greenlea (our cat) was mad at her. I asked her why and she told me, Well (you always know you are going to hear an interesting story when it starts with well. . . ), I think I forgot to be nice to Greenlea and was accidentally mean.