I wanted to write a quick postscript to my earlier blog about the difference that a positive way of approaching a situation can make:

MissK is now three and a half and a total water baby. She will spend as long in the bath as i let her (literally hours at a time if she can!) and adores the shower ...but HATES getting water in her eyes. She has long hair that needs either washing or conditioning every two days to keep on top of the knots.
So,as you can imagine,hairwashing in the shower has always been a trial involving screaming,yelling,thrashing around and lots of MissK sobbing "no Mummy no! Stop stop stop stop stop!!!!".
Heartbreaking and hard on both of us.

Well,blow me down last week- she said to me (without any suggestion from myself) "I'm going to laugh not cry when you wash my hair today Mummy"
"Are you?" i replied in heavily skeptical tones
She proceeded to get into the shower and wet her hair herself,i lathered her head up and picked her up to get her close enough to the shower head to wash the suds out...
And she closed her eyes and started laughing. Truely she did.
Obviously it was a put on laugh not a real one.But it wasnt kicking screaming or yelling either.
I finished rinsing the shampoo out and put her back down and she went back to playing with her bath toys.

After her shower i asked her why she had decided to laugh when i was washing her hair and she told me that she "likes laughing" and that it "makes washing easier".
Words of wisdom from a three year old.
Exactly the same situation that she has fought tooth and nail her whole life,and used a lot of tears and energy letting me know how much she dislikes. And now she's decided to approach it from a happier point of view and it is a BREEZE for all involved.

We've had several showers since then and she's done exactly the same thing each time.
Amazing.Sometimes kids just knock my socks off.

We have had day after day after day of rain in Wellington this week. MissK and i finally walked to the supermarket in the grey drizzle just to get out of the house yesterday.
On our way we found the most amazing blossom tree and i was reminded that all this Spring rain was feeding all the new life that the world was growing.
Beauty even in the murk!