Advent disastrous



This is the first year that Leah has noticed the holidays and been interested in what they are. She still doesn't understand that Christmas=presents, and when someone tries to chat with her about Santa she gives a blank stare. But she knows something is up, so we thought we'd get her an advent calendar to help her get some idea of time until the big day. After getting the calendar, the rest of the day turned into a HUGE screaming tantrum.

1)I got the 'Playmobil Princess Unicorn Advent Calendar'. Sounds harmless and totally unrelated to the season, right? We are new to the world of Playmobil-and after today, I think I'll bow out. This ridiculous set had over 100 tiny pieces that had to be put together before the calendar was functional. Leah had zero patience for the setup period; it's for this reason that before her gifts are wrapped, they are assembled first. That was the start up of the tantrum...

2)The whole idea of the advent calendar is to open one box every day. Each box has a little toy that will eventuallly be a set that can actually be played with. Leah noticed that the box had a pink horse and decided that it was for her to play with immediately. She doesn't understand that you have to wait until day 23 to play with the pink horse. She also has an incredible memory and I'm sure we will be hearing about the pink horse for the next three weeks. This was the tail of the tantrum, which led into a hot chocolate tantrum, which was followed by her falling asleep on the couch watching Shrek.

I'd like to mention at this point that it took me two hours to put that STUPID thing together. It's a good thing I don't swear.

So the calendar was a bad idea. She wasn't ready for something like that and now I don't know if we should go ahead with the plan of open one a day, or bag the whole thing. I feel bad for introducing something so stressful. Something about parenting makes me feel so clueless. Why don't these kids come with manuals?!

Comments

Brian said…
I'm soooo sorry. I wish you'd have had a better day. Hopefully tomorrow.
December 2, 2008 at 10:31 PM
Unknown said…
Sorry to hear about the advent...who would have known. I just saw this link on KSL. I thought it might be of interest to you. http://autismjourneys.net/ and http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=4963851 Hope they might be useful. Hang in there. :)
December 2, 2008 at 11:19 PM
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