It seems that overnight my baby has become a full on boy. Right now he’s totally into cars, trucks, dinosaurs, running, jumping, climbing and basically giving me a heart attack every 10 minutes. He loves to use his “Cars” chair as a step stool to climb onto the couch and then look out the window. He also loves to take a running leap to his chair and see where he lands. He thinks it’s hilarious. I’m not as amused. The kid has no fear right now, which I kind of love and totally admire. He’ll be sitting in his armchair and throw his legs up, twisting his whole body so he’s turned upside down with his head hanging off the seat.
He’s still completely into music. We have to listen to his Gabba cd every single time we’re in the car. It’s funny because he’s so particular about which song he wants to listen to. He’ll make a funny little noise to signal me that he wants me to move to the next song. We continue that process until he hears a song he likes and then will proceed to rock out in his car seat. He especially loves the song “wiggle wiggle wiggle …hold still” because Rob and I will wiggle and wiggle and then hold still. If we don’t do it, he’ll say “Mama! Dadda!” and then will get into it and he’ll crack up.
Along with all these adorable traits, he’s also become rather stubborn and head strong. Well, ok, he’s always been that way. But now we’re at the stage where he understands what I’m asking him to do, and he straight out defy me. I’ll ask him to pick up his toys and he refuses. The other night he did something where Rob and I sternly told him “no Dominic, we don’t do that” and he got so mad that he stomped over to his bookcase and tried to push all his books off the shelf. Hmm, ok, well this is new territory. We’re going to have to work with him on that. I know he’s still young and is exploring his boundaries, and that’s ok, we encourage that. But I don’t want my son to be a brat who doesn’t listen. Rob and I both agreed it was time to explain to Dom that there are certain things that are non-negotiable.
Last night was our first big obstacle. Picking up his toys. Like I mentioned, right now he loves to dump out his busy boxes, his blocks and most of his toys all over the floor. And we’re happy to let him do that, he’s a toddler learning and experiencing new things. But it usually ends with met taking him for a bath and pajama time while Daddy picks up the toys.
Last night when it was bath time, I turned off the TV and told Dom we have put his toys away first. I started to pick up some toys but he kept on playing. I told him again, “Dom, come on, please help Mama” but instead he turned his back and acted really interested in the wall. Ok, here we go.
On the advice of Nonnie, I picked Dom up, sat him down on the floor among all his toys and told him “Dom, you need to sit here until you’re ready to pick up your toys.” I wondered how that would go over as time out for a 20 month old is tricky. He understands but has a short attention span, so if he sits there too long, he might forget what he’s supposed to do. Also, there is a very good chance he’ll just get up when I sit him down. There is nothing holding him there.
Luckily, Dom is a good listener. He sat on the floor and just kind of looked at me. After about a minute he got up and started to play with his toys. I asked him to put his toys away but he ignored me, so I picked him back up, sat him back down and told him again “Dom, you need to sit here until you’re ready to pick up your toys.” At this point, he was getting upset. He laid down on the floor and started this guttural growl of disapproval while pulling his hair, his fingers, his hands, his jeans…he was expressing his frustration, and even though he wasn’t happy, he wasn’t screaming or throwing a tantrum. I was pretty impressed. After about 3 minutes I asked if he was ready to pick up his toys. He said yes but started taking more toys out. I repeated the process of putting him back on the floor and he once again was frustrated and growled to let me know. Rob and I sat on the couch in silence and let Dom be mad. This went back and forth for about 20 minutes until I asked Dom again if he was ready to pick up his toys. He sat up and said “yea” and started putting them away! Whaaa?! It worked!
It was a pretty awesome feeling to see that our persistence and first real shot at discipline worked. When all the toys were picked up, we had a group hug and we told Dom how proud of him we are. I know, I know, it sounds awfully “Brady Bunch” or “Parenting Magazine” but I really did feel proud of him for listening to what we were asking of him. It was a big step for him and for us.
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