A Better Week

Last week was great! I honestly can say that I actually enjoyed most moments of being a stay-at- home-mom of 2 1/2 year old twins. Savannah is starting to improve on her nap time issues. The sticker and Smartie bribe is working. Of course, I'm still afraid to let her nap without backwards zip-up jammies. I think I'll wait a few more weeks before we try napping in normal clothes again. I did return her toys to her room and so far she's been very good to just stay in her bed and sleep instead of throwing everything all over her room. In fact, I think I got in a good 2 hour nap 4 days in a row last week. What a change!

Now, Emily is starting to up her misbehavior as Savannah has improved--good thing my PAT counselor gave me a book that addresses that kind of thing. It's an identity issue. The good child now does not stand out so much once the misbehaving child begins to behave. So, now the "good" child will act out to get more attention. It's supposed to be temporary, so I'm hoping it won't last too long. Mainly it's just defiance and spitting. What's up with the spitting? Whenever Emily doesn't get her way, she starts spitting all over the place. It carries over to all situations. I recently had a PAT visit and asked my educator about it and she told me to make one location in the house okay for spitting. So, this is what I'm trying--whenever Emily starts spitting I pick her up, take her to the bathroom sink and tell her no spitting all over the house, we may spit in the bathroom sink. I've had to do this three times, and I do think it has cut down on the duration of spitting. Now, if I can only figure out how to get her to stop biting Savannah. Emily is a biter. She quit biting for a long time and has recently started it up again, only now that she's bigger, she bites a lot harder. Today, she bit Savannah so hard it made her shoulder bleed. Yikes! I took away the sticker and Smartie privilage because time-out did absolutely nothing. We'll see if that works.