Compliance

My daughter has to go through a lot of medical things.   She has what our play therapist says is a “feisty” temperament.   She is definitely feisty, but she’s also a very compliant child.   There are things she doesn’t want to do—like eye drops.   They sting, they interrupt her day and they’re not fun.   But she does them and she helps us do them once she stops trying to avoid them.   She will lean her head back and hold her eyelids open for you and calmly wait for the drop to land in her eye.   Once the first drop is in she immediately shifts to holding the second eye open.   We get amazed compliments all the time when she’s somewhere like the hospital for surgery or her eye doctor’s office.  

She also listens to medical advice and try to follow doctor’s orders.   Yesterday at the orthopedist’s office the doctor told her she should wear her shoes in the house for the next two days to give her toe some extra support while it does some healing.   My daughter agreed and then she heard she couldn’t climb the door frames for a few days longer.   And she heard that too.

Yesterday she made sure to keep her shoes on whenever she was walking someplace.   She spent a bit of time on our bed on her iPad and because she knew shoes weren’t allowed on the bed, she took them off just before getting on.   I saw the shoes on the floor and because I didn’t want her to trip on them, I moved them up against the wall.

A while later I heard my name being called.   I came in to find a rather incensed daughter saying her shoes had been moved.   She didn’t want to get off the bed and walk without putting them on.  At bed time she asked me if she needed to sleep with her shoes on and this morning she came downstairs immediately and put them on before getting breakfast.

My daughter sometimes doesn’t like the things she has to do, but she is always careful to follow instructions when its explained to her how important they are.

The Big Boy Update:  Nana called today while we were in the car.   She had been talking about Hawaii and my son had a question for her.  “When we go to Hawaii can we wear those things over our pants and dance?”   Nana told him that yes, we could wear hula skirts and even take lessons.    We don’t have a trip to Hawaii planned at the moment, but it appears my son and Nana are already making initial plans.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  We had pizza last night.   My husband got it as soon as it came out of the oven after waiting in line and drove straight home.   My daughter’s pizza was hot for the first few bites and then cooled down while she worked on it over the next ten minutes.   After that she said, “Daddy, I’m freezing.  May you please warm up my pizza?”