Grabby Hands

While I'm feeding Trey, I have time to type up an embarrassing story about Cosi :) I would type up a story about Trey, but he doesn't do much yet...maybe he'll poop on someone tomorrow....I'll let you know if he does.

The other day an East Asian friend was visiting at our home. Cosi, in typical extrovert fashion, squealed in delight to see my friend and promptly asked for my friend to pick her up. My friend complied, while I (the worrisome mother) started looking for what Cosi might grab.

Here are some of the items on my mental checklist:
Glasses - none
Earrings - none (so thankful b/c Cosi grabbing big earrings and ripping them out of ears is a big fear of mine)
Hearing Aids/Ear Phones/Phones/Other?
Hair Bands or Clips - Uh Oh, sure enough there was a hair band

Now that I've spotted the hair band and Cosi is within range, I have to debate what to do. Should I warn the person? Will that just alert Cosi to the presence of the hair band? Should I pre-emptively instruct Cosi not to touch the hairband? Is that just me not trusting my daughter and giving her a chance to obey on her own?

As I think it over, Cosi acts. Her hand quickly became securely lodged in the ponytail of my friend. She was not been able to pull the hairband out, because my sweet friend had her hand on top of Cosi's hand and was preventing the completion of the pull.

Shoot Shoot Shoot. I'm the mother. What should I do? So, I said "No Cosi, Let go." I said it again and again. This didn't work. Our little girl is nothing, if not determined. I grabbed Cosi's hand and squeezed it. I said, "let go" again. Cosi might have grabbed on harder. Not only that, but Cosi had a slight hold on the hair band and was pulling on my friend's hair in an attempt to get the band. My friend was flinching in pain. I became frantic. In the moment, I thought maybe I could shock Cosi into letting go. I might have smacked her on the back of the head a little (not too hard, just hard enough to make me embarrassed that I did this). Cosi didn't budge. (which makes me even more embarrassed b/c my "shock her into letting go plan" was stupid and didn't even work) At this point, I froze. I had no idea what to do. I revert to telling Cosi to "let go," while still keeping my hand over Cosi's hand and trying to lessen her pulling ability. This retains the same level of effectiveness as before = none. Finally, my friend tells me to step back and let go. We let Cosi pull out the hair band, because Cosi is stronger than two adults and we have no choice. However, after it's out, I promptly take the hair band away from Cosi and put her in the "naughty chair" for a minute to "think over her wrongdoing."

If anyone has advice on how to stop (or slow down) grabby hands, I'm open to it! This situation happens everyday, except usually she has already grabbed what she wants before I can try to stop her.