LP is a wonderful, beautiful, smart, perfect little child. Except when she isn't. Last week I blogged about her mooshing up tortellini and spreading it all over the floor, like Tinkerbell, sprinkling fairy dust on the inhabitants of Neverland. Apparently my daughter thinks she is Tink, because this behavior has not stopped.
Even better she likes to draw our attention to her destructiveness when at all possible. She called me into the living room from the kitchen yelling out "milk!" so that I could see how she had taken a gulp of milk and spit it out on our living room rug and (relatively new) loveseat. Unfortunately the old standby threat of "just wait until your father gets home" doesn't really work either. Last night she confounded the Hoos by spitting out water, medicine, and milk all within an hour of each other.
It isn't that she doesn't like any of these things, rather it is just that she likes to get a rise out of us. Typically she just laughs if we yell at her. My strategy is to surprise her and remove her from the situation by grabbing the cup (or whatever) out of her hand, picking her up and firmly placing her down elsewhere. I thought maybe just the jolt of the world changing so quickly would snap her out of her nuisance mode, but she could care less.
I know they say that a lot of toddler's behavior is testing boundaries and acting out for attention (like when she took my shoes off yesterday afternoon by calmly and deliberately removing the laces), but what do you do when the child HAS your undivided attention and still does these things anyway?
2 comments:
I just bought Supernanny's book (in the hopes of obtaining some answers), but apparently, there's NOTHING you can do (other than be consistent)in disciplining a 1 1/2 year old because they don't have the thought processes to understand it.
Bear laughs at me when I try to discipline, and then does what he wants anyway. And now, he's been telling ME "No, mommy" when I ask/tell him to do/stop doing something. I can't wait until time-outs actually work!
That's the whole point - once they have your attention they don't want to lose it. Plus, they're having fun. What, mommy doesn't enjoy my milk spitting? entertaining? But I looove spitting milk - I'm washing the rug. And I've got to keep spitting to perfect my talent.
I'm smart, I know things. I read all that on page 114.
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