If you're not a regular reader of my blog, welcome, and let me explain Shakey. Shakey came to us the night after the Downtown Christmas Party. Charlotte was starting to get very excited about Christmas and if Halloween was going to be any indication, it was going to be one crazy month. I told Charlotte that I had called Santa for some help on ideas for keeping her on Santa's nice list and he had sent one of his elves. Charlotte named him Shakey and every night after Charlotte is alseep, he leaves and reports to Santa about Charlotte's activities during the day and whether she's been a good girl or not. Then, he returns to a different part of the house before she wakes. When she wakes, the idea is for Charlotte to go looking to see where he is. Did it work? Is she on the naughty or nice list?
Well, here's where we are:
1) A couple of months ago, Charlotte started coming up every night after going to bed. Whether it be for a drink, to turn down the TV, hearing a noise, just wanting to say goodnight again, she found a reason to come up often numerous times in a night. We'd tell her if she came up again she'd lose a TV show, books or songs before bed. She often did because she didn't listen. Since Shakey's arrival, Charlotte has probably been up twice in the last 2 weeks and even then she came up once and didn't come up again. All we tell her is that Shakey is waiting for her to go to sleep before he can go to see Santa.
2) Where's Shakey? Charlotte used to get up 6am before Shakey. We told her we didn't want her getting up before she heard Mommy or Daddy. She didn't always listen and was often up early, looking to watch TV which we told her wasn't happening. Now, she doesn't get up (or at least doesn't come out of her room) until she hears one of us and then, the first words our of her mouth are "Where's Shakey"?
3) Self Control. Charlotte doesn't always listen when we tell her not to touch something. I guess it's difficult for a child not to touch something that looks so interesting. Well, we're working on it. We tell her to "Look with her eyes, not with her hands". Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Shakey, isn't allowed to be touched or he'll lose his magic. When he first arrived, he stayed up quite high. Now, he's gradually getting lower and lower, testing to see if she'll touch him. So far, if anyone comes into the house, she tells them they are not allowed to touch him.
4) Excited little girl. With 2 weeks to go and constant talk about toys, Santa, toys and Santa, all Charlotte wants to do is open her gifts. We explain to her that she has to wait until Christmas Day to open her gifts (another example of self control) and that it's not all about receiving. We've taken her shopping for gifts for Harrison and other members of the family to teach her about giving gifts and of course about Baby Jesus. Shakey? Well, he helps us when she starts to get too excited as we remind her that he's watching and that Santa is still watching to see if she's behaving.
Today we had a VERY excited little girl on our hands but she was also a good little girl which was a Christmas miracle considering what we're doing tomorrow. Tomorrow, we're off to get our tree, decorating the house (including her room) and having our lighting ceremony (she's been patiently waiting for the outside lights to be turned on). Tonight, she went to bed and didn't come up.
So, all in all, with 2 weeks left I would say Shakey is working wonders and Charlotte is still on Santa's nice list. The next two weeks will be interesting and I'll give you an update next week. But if tonight was anything to go by, I think we'll be OK. Hopefully.
We love you Shakey!
 |
| Introducing Shakey! |
 |
| Shakey made his first appearance here |
 |
| Checking out the dining room |
 |
| Charlotte wasn't that impressed he was playing with her duck |
 |
| Getting closer to her level, Charlotte played him a tune |
No comments:
Post a Comment