The Hold Returns

Natalie's been a bit of a stinker these days. Several times over the weekend, as Lily as tried to make her Duplo creations, Natalie would come by and smack her tower in half or push Lily's house off the window ledge and break it. She totally does it on purpose. Yesterday we scolded her and told her not to do that and "be nice". And THEN she walked by Lily, totally grabbed her hair and pulled on it as she walked by - she didn't even look at Lily, she was acting totally casual pretending she was just walking by and somehow Lily's hair got tangled in her fingers... She's being a bit of a naughty tease, and that means it's time for the hold.

Corey's put Natalie in the hold several times the past two weeks. The way to get out of the hold is to stop fighting it and humbly apologize. But Natalie is pretty stubborn and is very slow to say she is sorry or admit any wrong doing. This time she didn't either. This time the hold took place around 7 pm and Natalie hadn't had a nap, thus she was tired and fell asleep before she was broken. But falling asleep is an acceptable outcome of the hold.

I'm sure she'll have more sessions of "the hold" in the coming weeks, cause she does need to be broken - this little girl dishes it out on both ends of her siblings. She picks on her older sisters Lily and Sophi AND on younger Owen (watch out Daniel!) With Owen usually she's just playing rough and isn't being careful and will pull him to the floor as she swings him around or something like that. But he's already so accident prone and he's also pretty sensitive, so we have to come to his defense rather quickly. She's cute though, and she knows she's a "good girl". She was wearing a batman mask the other day and I asked "Are you bat girl?" and she replied "No! I'm a good girl!" Bat girl = Bad girl, I can see those being confused. Yes Natalie you are a good girl. And I guess being the 9th of 11 you have to learn to hold your own. But unfortunately Sophi and Owen are both docile and sensitive, (I don't know that Sophi was ever even put in the hold! Here's two pics of Abi and Lily being broken though) ...so you gotta tone down on your survival-of-the-fittest instinct or you're gonna be branded as the bully of the toddlers. Don't worry, we'll try to help break you before things get too out of hand.