Monday, February 7, 2011

Two Words and Oscar Worthy Performances

Wyeth finally, finally, is saying two word phrases pretty consistently.

NO GO.
Bue tuck (blue truck)
Momma coat (mom's coat)

Etc. SO that is a huge for us! GO Wyeth! The words are coming fast and furious. I am loosing track. This week brought: 'my' as in 'my hat'. And 'nuff' for 'enough pasta'. So I am relaxing a little bit on this. The other thing I'm proud of is that he can recognize the alphabet. As of this week, he knows all but four of the capital letters. A, G, L and Q confuse him. Not bad for 26 months.

The tantrums continue to come and go. I read a book a long time ago by the man known as the doctor of Happy Baby- Dr. Karp. In the book, written for toddlers, he suggests that you are to throw a fit if your child throws a fit.

I tried this about three weeks ago and it works like a charm.

Last Saturday my mom and I were trying to leave Burger King bounce house. Or whatever the heck it was. [I hate these things!] But after several weeks of snow and rain, it suited us just fine. In fact, the kids LOVED it. Leaving was not going to be an easy sell.

Wyeth did NOT want to leave. He did NOT want to put his coat on. He did NOT want to put his shoes on. He was mad and not having it. Little feet stomped. Tears flowed. The works.

I managed to fold him in half and stick him in his car seat. My mom, Seren and I headed away from Burger King with screaming boy.

And then I just acted like he did. I made the same tone scream he was screaming. I stomped my feet. I moaned. I scared the hell out of my mom who didn't know what I was up to! I hit the steering wheel with my hand. Oh I did I "cry"! I howled! I really did an amazing job of throwing a fit like a toddler.

My mom 'comforted me'. I sniffed back the tears.

And Wyeth just sat there with an expression that read, "What the hell? My mom has really flipped her lid this time!"

End of tantrum.

I'm jinxing this by writing it but it has worked every time. So far. Thanks Dr. Karp!

2 comments:

Julie said...

Glad that tactic worked! I tried that too with Lana and it just got her MORE worked up. Tantrums with Lana were epic and I am so glad to be done with them. Just in time to start again as Lacey approaches 18 months--she appears to be just as stubborn--yikes!

Jessica Phillips-Silver said...

I had no idea. That's hysterical. I think I could manage it, when the time comes ;)