The terrible twos are upon us. Hello tantrums, meltdowns, and a new level of feistiness. When time outs started losing their effectiveness and I was closing in on my patience threshold, I called my mom and sister for advice. Christy had a great idea that worked well with Annabelle. Sticker chart! Pretty simple: earn stickers for good choices, lose stickers for poor choices. A full sticker chart will be a major accomplishment and earns some sort of special treat, like a new book or a trip to the park. Katelyn caught on really fast and loves earning stickers for following instructions, not throwing fits, using her manners without being prompted, and other "big girl" behavior. Some days she loses more stickers than she earns, and I'm ok with that. She's learning to identify positive behavior and that choices- both good and bad- have consequences. I realize this phase is just beginning and many rough days are ahead, but I feel like we're off to a good start as far as managing it.
According to Katelyn's teacher, she has become the alpha female of the class. She is super feisty... But also super loving. When another child cries, Katelyn is the first one on the scene and immediately hugs the child and literally wipes away their tears. I witnessed this one day when I picked her up from school and It. Is. Precious.
Lately we've been singing a lot of "Old McDonald." Kind of. Katelyn made up her own little game where she wants me to substitute certain words for farm animals in the song. She says, "E-I, Mommy. E-I _____." Fill in the blank with whatever word is on her mind at the moment and the song goes like this: "...and on that farm there was a _____." Baylor, Daddy, baby, fly, rice, tortilla, broccoli, flag, nose, you name it. Silly girl!
Mouthful of Cheerios
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