Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Reverse Birth Control

Recently a child free friend who joined me and the kids at the grocery store during one of Little Lady's more...demanding... days commented that these kids are birth control all on their own. And there are days when boy is she bang on. But today has had the reverse effect of my reproductive longings.

First of all in the last few days I have finally started to see the effects of some really intentional discipline on Little Lady. After feeling exceptionally frustrated with her lately we decided to change our tactics slightly to IMMEDIATE, calm, and related consequences to misbehavior. For example rather than calling her to the table ten million times we call her once and if she doesn't come we call her again and say if she doesn't come right now the toy she is distracted with will be taken away for a day. Then we follow through. All of it is done calmly and quickly. Zero yelling or delaying. It's been REALLY hard sometimes not to snap at her or to carry through when I'd really rather not or to actually discipline her when I almost feel it would be quicker, and take me from what I'm doing less, if I just continued to call. But something had to change for all our sanity so we gave it a try. On top of that we've really been focusing on good behavior and on spending quality time with her.

Anyway, today she has been an angel, listening the first time I tell her to do something and with a smile on her face. But the real boost to my baby desire came when I asked her to clean her room so I could vacuum. It was a pretty big mess from her very imaginative morning and usually she will pick up a few things and I will end up doing the rest. Since she's only three I usually feel pretty content if she just helps out with some of the stuff or does one of the jobs, like put away all her ponies. So I wasn't expecting much but when I walked in the WHOLE room was clean. It was like a miracle! My little cleaning prodigy!

Lancelot also impressed me today by beginning to stand on his own while holding an object and by walking a step or two between furniture. I feel some intense independence coming on. It won't be long until I really won't have a baby anymore.

On top of that Lancelot and her played house ALONE (with me peeking to make sure nobody was passed out or anything) in his room for HALF AN HOUR today! Well, she played house and he cooperatively crawled in and out of doors when she told him to and otherwise played with his toys and ate his feet. But nobody bit, kicked, hit, or cried about the other kid! And Lancelot, a complete mamma's boy, didn't even attempt to crawl away to find me or scream for me to scoop him up and get him back into my sight! I was totally in awe. It really was worth it to have siblings!

Now if only there was a way to skip the sleepless nights, sickness, and stress I think I'd practically be begging for another baby!

3 comments:

Lavonne said...

just wanted to thank you for your kind comments!

The Dolskys said...

Have another one... you make cute kids

Chelsa said...

i'm interested in the type of discipline you were speaking of! B is driving me practically insane lately. i think he is bored with me since he is only doing pre-school 2 mornings a week now that i'mh ome on maternity leave. he is used to going 4 full days. i go back in 2 1/2 weeks, but i really feel ilke i don't have a consistency with him and discipline. before he was never a problem so i never worried about it, but lately he doesn't listen well and has a smart mouth (i know now why my parents were always frustarted with me!).