A whiny crying baby will make you lose your mind (and when you have two of those, it digs so deep into your nervous system, that you still hear it even when it’s not there). One way I’ve learned that can help you win in the battle against crying is distraction. When the kid sees something else that’s interesting, the wining immediately becomes less interesting. Overtime I came up with some creative ways to distract my kids from crying, but this has been one of the most successful tricks I came up with so far: Drawing faces on the palms of my hands and show them!

Here’s a sketch of the faces I do. I’m proud to present Mister and Misses:

I draw them with black and red sharpies, and the hardest part was to teach myself to draw the Mister (which is easier) with my left hand. Try to introduce the characters to your kids when they are not crying. Let them touch your palms and play with them.

There’s a story that I tell my kids using Mr. and Mrs. on my hands. It’s originally in Hebrew, from an old Israeli TV show, but I made an effort to try to translate it, and keep the spirit of it, so the story goes:

Misses and Mister
Met in the Theater
“Good evening Misses.” (show Mr. as if he is speaking)
“Good evening, Mister.” (show Mrs. As if she is speaking, and so on…)
“Nice to meet you, Misses.”
“Nice to meet you, Mister.”
They sat down to watch the presentation

When it was funny – they laughed in exclamation
When it was sad – they held hands in anticipation
And at the end of the show – they gave a standing ovation

“Good Night Mister”
“Good Night Misses”
And on the next day – they met at the bus station!

With or without the story, I find that the faces on my hands always work with my kids. Try it with yours, and let me know how it goes?