Thursday, January 1, 2009

Maggies tips for coping with "stress"

The other day, as we were driving home after a LONG day away from our normal confines, I witnessed something I found quite hilarious. As I said, we'd been gone literally all day, we left the house at 9:00 a.m.ish and didn't get home until 6:00 or so. We had filled the day with stops to stores, Maggie got to hang out at Jenny's for a couple of hours without me, then I hung out with them for a few more hours, then we stopped at Dana's house. Maggie got to jump in the trampoline with Jayce, which only ended when Jayce unzipped the protective net and Maggie took a topple to the ground below. Don't worry, she was fine, she was FAR MORE traumatized that the "evil" dogs were anywhere near her. After we cleaned her up from that, I headed out to find my Aunts house to drop off some Mary Kay. By this time Max was really tired and hungry and things were getting a big sketchy. I literally knocked on FIVE strangers doors before I found my Aunts house. No biggy, other than Max was losing it. So, we head off for home and at this point, Max is screaming, and there is no consoling him. Maggie has been quite calm through all of this, and I know she HAD to be starving, but she wasn't complaining. However, as we were driving down the road, after he'd been screaming for at least 15 minutes, I happened to glance in the mirror and THIS is what I saw:


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Yes, she HAS covered her head completely with her "night night". It cracked me up so much, that I HAD to take a pic, over my shoulder at the stop light. She was not asleep, merely "coping" with the chaos that was surrounding her. It should be said that beginning at about 4 or 5 months old, we'd go in to check on Maggie in her bed and the blanket would be completely covering her face. After the initial horror and fear that I had, I realized, SHE was doing this. It was HER way of going to sleep, or dealing with whatever. I initially would remove the blanket, 'cause I didn't need no suffocating. But, after a while I realized it was just "her thing" and I let it be. In fact, we got to the point that when we were putting her to bed, we'd just lay the blanket gently over her face. She preferred it that way, and as you can see, we're no worse for the wear. I don't know when it stopped, at some point just before she turned a year old, perhaps because she was so much more mobile in her sleep. Anyway, there it was again, her "coping" mechanism at work. So, moral of the story is this...if you're ever just stressed out, the babies crying is too much, or you just don't want to deal with the world...do as Maggie does, cover your head with a blanket, I hear it works wonders.

Peace and blankies,

Allyson

3 comments:

Mel said...

Love her. I think she might be on to something.

Lana said...

That is so funny. I think that is just a genius idea--unfortunately the times that I want to do that are when I'm in the car with the loud fighting kids...and it wouldn't work so well for me being the driver. But I'll try it at home for sure. :)

Crandell Fam said...

I knew I loved that girl for a reason! That's TOTALLY my coping mechanism! :) Actually, I do cover my head with a pillow or blanket every single night when I sleep. Troy thinks I'm crazy, but I think it muffles the sounds, and an insomniac needs all the help she can get, right?