As Miss C. said in the comments to my last post, everyone needs a pass on sunshine and happiness once in a while.  In general, the Omega household is just puttering along, but there are some clouds on the sunshine.

First off, that really way-kewl opportunity for OmegaDad vanished into the mists.  Sigh.  What happened: at his mid-August conference, he was actively courted by a high-level person in his agency for a specific position.  This HLP actually re-tooled the position announcement so that he could apply for it.

Then two weeks later, the HLP got bumped upwards in the chain of command (moving and shaking going on).  *Poof* went the job.  Within a week, it was re-re-announced, with qualifications that automatically disqualified OmegaDad.

Then there's the dotter.  Another sigh.

After our trek to Colorado, I was going to review the second adult workshop I attended, about emotion regulation.  I obviously haven't gotten around to that.

Anyway, it appears that we are having some real problems on that front.

The dotter has been having severe tantrums.  The kind of tantrums where she gets wound up to the point where she is throwing things, hitting things, screaming, and ends up...sobbing, "Help me!  Help me stop!"

So, one night, while she was trying to calm down in my lap, and I was trying to get her to breathe in deeply, then breathe out, I asked her, "Would it help if we found someone other than Mommy and Daddy to help you learn how to calm down?"  She nodded yes.  As a result, I'm looking for...someone.  A child psychologist?  A counselor?  An occupational therapist?  Goodness only knows.  Time for me to call Dr. Sheila, our pediatrician.

In the meantime, we're going to shortstop some of what's causing the tantrums: late nights to bed, trying to get her back into her bed after she wakes up in the middle of the night, etc.  We've invested in...

...another sticker chart!!!

She gets a gold star if she stays in her own bed all night long.  She gets a silver star if she stays in her bed for a significant part of the night, and sleeps the remainder of the night on her "special bed" (folded quilt with sleeping bag on top).  She gets no star if she crawls into bed with us or throws a tantrum in the middle of the night.  After seven gold stars or 14 silver stars, she gets this.  We'll see how bribery goes.

It sure would be nice for all the Omegas to get a full night's sleep...or several full nights' sleep in a row!

Technorati: Tantrums, jobs, bribery, sleep issues