The Itsy Bitsy Spider

For some reason, Madeline hates her car seat. It isn't so much the seat itself but it is being strapped into it. She just doesn't care for the five point harness and unfortunately for her, this is going to be how she travels in a car for the next few years. Also, she sits behind the passenger seat and sits backwards. Not the best way to go when you are still figuring things out. But since there are really no alternatives, this is how things are going to have to be. Thankfully, once the car is in motion she normally is fine with everything so we try to put her in her seat as the last thing before starting the car. I even have taken to strapping her into her car seat in the house and then carrying her out to the car. Again, once the seat is in motion, she is usually pretty happy. Unfortunately she is getting heavier and carrying her is taking two hands now a days. Not something I can do when I have a toddler attached to one hand (who always wants to be picked up when I have the carrier. Yes. One kid in one arm and one kid in a heavy carrier. Try opening doors with that one!) but we make it work.

Sometimes Madeline has just had it with being in her seat. Either she is hungry, bored, whatever and starts to wail. We used to be able to just pop the pacifier in her mouth and satiate her for a little until we arrived at our destination. However, since she decided she would rather chew on the pacifier instead of suck on it, we have gotten rid of the pacifier altogether. I am not upset with this AT ALL. I never liked the pacifier in the first place but since she did, I went with it. Maddy has found her thumb and sucks it to sleep but if she is all worked up because she doesn't want to be in her seat, the thumb just doesn't cut it. So I decided I would sing to her so she knows that I am there and hopefully it would calm her down. The other day I started with my repertoire of kid songs. "ABC", "Pop Goes the Weasel", "Wheels on the Bus" etc. Nothing was helping until I started to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Instantly the crying stopped! I figured, she finally calmed down enough or cried herself out a bit. Then I went to the next song and she started crying again. Fine. I started Itsy Bitsy again and she stopped immediately. Of course I sang it about 46 times until we got home but it was worth it to keep her happy.

What is really great is that Abby has started to help me. If Maddy is crying, I ask Abby if we should start singing a song. She says yes and starts singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider went up the water spout..." At the end of the song, she directs me to start singing. I sing my four verses and then back to her. It is an Itsy Bitsy tag team song to make Madeline happy. I am just glad that there is something that will calm her down. Of course singing with Abigail is just icing on the cake. Hopefully this will work for awhile!