I was supposed to go to the Chief’s game today. We have three tickets, purchased before we became an immediate family of four. I made arrangements early in the week to have Dora hang out with my friend Sunbonnet Sue (who regularly comments on this blog) while the other three of us attended the game. It would have been Dora's first "sitter" arrangement since her arrival. It wasn’t a punishment (I prefer the term consequence) for Dora, simply a reflection of one too few tickets. Although I awoke this morning feeling OK, after breakfast I became quite nauseated. I am on my second round of antibiotics for the finger that was infected several weeks ago, and the jury is still out as to whether or not that is what is upsetting my stomach. Suffice it to say, I felt so lousy after breakfast I was not football game material. My husband took the girls and went to the game while I watched it from my bed at home and actually finished a book. I haven’t read a book in ages. I’ll tell you about it in a future blog … it is all about trust, or lack thereof, in a family, yet it has nothing to do with attachment per se.


Yesterday morning Dora filled three more bags with manure. Once again, it wasn’t a consequence for anything … just a chore that needed doing, and she needed to follow up her successful efforts last weekend by repeating her success this weekend. She wasn’t happy about doing it, but didn’t resist. She came in about an hour later, having completed her chore in record time. She was crowing about how much faster it went when she didn’t scream for hours first, and when she just got down to the task at hand. Pretty good lessons learned, I’d say. She really was a different kid last week after her absolutely horrible week before that. We went out to dinner last night (a salad bar, part of my differential diagnosis for what ailed me this morning) and the girls were getting along well. We all had a great time. Dora enjoyed my husband tapping her on the back while sitting in the booth, all the while pretending he wasn’t doing anything.


Coming up, how I spent my afternoon yesterday, exhibiting for ATN and meeting an attachment and trauma-affected adult that reminds me of Nancy Ashe; and more about the book I read this weekend.


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