when john was first learning to walk, kyle and i decided that we didn’t want a child that cried every time he fell down. so every time he fell, we would clap and say “yay!” it worked for us. he really only cries when he is really hurt. no fake crocodile tears for us. he is a tough guy. today he and another boy at school heads collided. john has a big lump on his head and all he says is “i got a boo-boo. fernando did it.”

we have attempted the same thing with gillian. it’s not working as well. partly because she likes the attention (she is a bit of a drama queen) and partly because john becomes very concerned when she cries. he immediately says “mom, gilly is crying. you need to fix her.”