Lest anyone think we have a little angel...
We have had several biting episodes recently: First Trixie was bitten on the arm pretty badly by a classmate in a classic "Mine!" incident a few weeks ago. She seemed upset about it but was processing it, and would say "______ bite" and then "No bite" in a (hilarious) sad little voice whenever she wanted a little pity party attention.
Whenever she's attempted to bite one of us it's always been as a momentary frustration on the same level as the occasional swing she'll take when she isn't getting her way, and she sort of elaborately begins to bite as though she's saying "Ooooh, look at me, I'm naughty!" which we have time to intercept and say, "No biting" and thus she's never actually bitten anyone. Until this weekend.
What happened was I was giving her a bath and trying to get her to sit down. She stood up and bumped her head on the rubber duck protecting the spout (thus earning its keep, right there), started crying, and while I had an arm around her to comfort her and keep her from further head-bumping, she bit my shoulder. It hurt and shocked me, so I'm afraid I yelled "ow!" and she started crying even harder and then I burst into tears too. Pregnancy hormones. Such fun. J. jumped right in to take her out of the bath and let me have a few minutes to pull my shit together and then eventually we all calmed down.
I think she was upset and angry and frustrated and it sort of surprised her, because she did look shocked and scared at what she had done. I'm sure my screaming in pain had something to do with it too.
I don't think she's really a biter -- this was her first infraction -- and I hope she was upset enough that she won't do it again to any one, and in the meantime we have been working the "No biting" angle pretty hard.
Posted by designatedgirl at August 2, 2005 09:23 PM