A Little Bit of Sass...

It has been another busy week in our household. Juddy was traveling the second half of the week and came home very, very late last night. Actually it was more like the wee hours of the morning.

We have been spring cleaning like busy bees. It's been great and I love cleaning out the closets every year. I mean where does all the STUFF come from? I can tell you where it goes - Goodwill.

I'm officially entering the land of "I really have no idea what to do with my child". I have no idea what I should be teaching her, how I should be disciplining her (more on that in a minute), how much I should be feeding her and the list goes on.

Back to the disciplining - I know she's only 15 months but our girl definitely has her fair share of sass and a slight temper. I know I can't do anything over the top but firm words and 60 seconds in time out seems reasonable to me. What do you do when you tell your child "no you can't go outside right now - it's 30 degrees and raining" and she sets her jaw, stares you in the eye & then whacks you in the face? Anyone? My response is to speak very firmly, move swiftly to her chair, put it in a corner and place her in "time out". This usually entails 30 seconds of crying, 30 seconds of laughing and then she gets up on her own. Not be outdone by my child, I promptly put her back in the chair and tell her "you can get up when I say you can get up". I give it another 15 seconds, tell her to get up, explain it's not nice to hit mommy, please say you're sorry, now let's have a squeeze (a hug in Reese language). It always ends well. Is this okay? Will she learn it's not nice to hit people just because you didn't get your way?

Another one - last night while out at dinner, I was picking up the food she sprinkled all over the table and putting it back in her bowl. She looked me dead in the eye, put up her pointer finger and said "stttttop". What?! Did she really just tell me to stop? We don't even use that gesture or word here so she must have gotten it from preschool. Last one, I went to put her to bed last night and instead of drifting off to la la land as usual, she decided to be a motor mouth to stay up as long as she possibly could. As I'm gently swaying back and forth, I quietly say "shhh". She pulls herself up and says "shhh". Oh boy are we in for it! My mom always said I was the perfect child. How can this be paybacks?!

Any and all suggestions are welcome. At least it's not anything really horrible...yet. I usually have to try very hard not to crack up in front of her. She is hysterical and a joy! Thanks for letting me vent!

Enjoy the day - it's sunny and beautiful here. Church was awesome today - everything from the music to the message. Reese is napping and Papa is home. Life is good!