Disciplining a toddler

Kaylee is getting good at following one-step commands. She can respond to a request to “help look for your shoes” and “pick something up.” She cannot yet follow two step commands and gets lost. You could try, “Pick it up and put it on the table” but it would be better to just point to the item and say, “put it on the table” and it just may get done! J

She often says “Keep up” when picking up things, but I figured out that she is trying to say “clean up” since she’s always stacking and organizing things when she’s doing it. We sing the clean-up song together whenever we pick up. It’s a song we learned from our niece.

“Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up,
Clean up, Clean up, everybody, everywhere.
Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up
Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share.”

Simple but effective. She remembers it and participates as someone her age is able (minimally). She does want to be part of everything so much though. I work to involve her in even boring things like emptying the dishwasher or doing the laundry. She likes to help put away the silverware and the washcloths. It’s cute to see her enjoy helping out. She is scared of our Room-ba (vacuum) and wants up in our arms if that’s going. When it goes back to it’s base, she watches with a wary eye and then says “Nite, nite, room –room.”

She loves to push buttons (no not just my buttons). She loves to help put up the garage door opener and to turn off light switches when we leave the room.

Life is certainly different with a toddler. You are “on” all the time, chasing them, following them with your eye, to make sure they’re not getting themselves into trouble. They don’t quite have sense yet. She’s finally stopped falling down so much so that’s a good thing. Also along with the toddler comes the striving for independence …which comes with the tantrums, fits and the need for discipline. Recently I’ve felt the need to lay down the rules for Kaylee and not accept certain behavior. Those changes have in general been:
1) No bottle or snacks before dinner. And voila, SHE DOES EAT!
2) No dawdling, or one minute warning, before leaving daycare. (cute note about leaving daycare yesterday. I said, "Kaylee do you want some water?" and she said "No, dinner." And lo and behind, as soon as I sat her down in her booster she was snarfing all her dinner up as fast as can be!)
3) Only nurse once a day, trying to move to morning to limit separation-related issues at night-time
4) No carrying around in the store, only in cart. No running or getting down in store. Kissing/hugging okay when she IS behaving well. Distractions and snacks used to try to make it through. If tantrums are thrown, so be it.

These changes have been brought on by a number of embarrassing moments, lessons learned and tantrums thrown. I have seen some success in these changes for sure, albeit a bit of being mad at Mama has occurred, but that’s part of being a parent I guess. It’s not just going to be her calling the shots. We’re the parent and she’s the child after all.

p.s. We had another terrible sleep night last night even while trying to repeat our success from yesterday – so who knows??? “Cry-it-out” here we come??? After 20 months of not sleeping well, we all need a change. Wish there was a better solution but I feel we’ve exhausted all our resources…