Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Another Little Update



I know it's been awhile since I've posted. It seems like time is flying by and I don't know where it's gone most of the time. Last week was a bit hectic since it was spring break, which meant both Jaden and Danielle were home all day, every day (normally Jaden is in school in the mornings and Danielle is in school two afternoons a week). Plus, Scott went back to work for three days last week (back a full week this week). It's definitely different to be home with the kids all day by myself. Noah takes a lot more supervision than Jaden and Danielle. And sometimes the three of them can get pretty crazy while playing together. It can be a bit challenging.

I've started giving Noah time-outs when he doesn't listen, and the first few were pretty rough. He doesn't like having to sit in one spot and the timer doesn't start until he stays sitting (I give him a little leeway, but he can't be crawling all over the stairs). And, after a time-out is over in our house, you have to say sorry for the misbehavior. Well, that was a MAJOR issue the first time. Mind you, Noah will generally repeat anything you ask him to say. He loves repeating. But, after his first time-out, he was mad and he absolutely refused to say, "Sorry Mommy." In fact, at first, he would just turn his head away from me and wouldn't look at me at all. I could tell that the other kids and the TV were a distraction, so I took Noah into the other room and sat him on my lap. I kept him there until he said sorry. He finally got to go play after about an HOUR and fifteen minutes. Yep - it was crazy. Sometimes Noah passed the time passively, sometimes he got upset and cried because he wanted to go, sometimes he tried distracting me from the goal at hand by talking about something else (usually pointing and saying "gade"). I just kept reminding him that if he wanted to go and play he would have to say "Sorry Mommy." There were quite a few times when I wondered if I should give up - especially when he would cry. I kept thinking, "How long do I do this for?" But, at the same time, I knew with almost absolute certainty that he knew what I wanted him to do and that he was just being stubborn to see if he could win our first battle. I was pretty sure that I was setting a precedent here and I really didn't want to give him the message that he could hold out for longer than I could. Still, I think I was reaching the point of desperation when he finally blurted out, "Sorry Mommy" (actually it sounded more like "sublunmb Mommy" - but that worked just fine for me). You would have thought that he won a marathon for all the hugs and cheering that he got for saying those words!!

Since then, time-outs have been much less painful. I think he decided that my excitement at him saying sorry was more motivating than his need to be stubborn (or he just decided he didn't want another hour long time-out) because the next time, he said it immediately. I was so relieved and so glad that I had stuck it out. I know he needs to start learning that he has boundaries in our household, but it really is hard.

Let's see. After that long explanation, what else new can I mention. Noah's getting better at the stairs. He can go down without us holding his hand now as long as he's not too distracted (but we usually still remind him "one step, one step, one step...). Naps have been on-again, off-again, which can be challenging. I'm pretty sure at COTP he took a three hour nap every day, so I'm not sure why he sometimes doesn't seem to want to nap now. Once again, I think he might be testing to see if I'll eventually just let him out of bed to play - but I haven't quite figured out the right way to handle this yet. Noah is starting to pick up a few more English words, but the doctor said that we should call the school district to have him evaluated since he's definitely developmentally behind in speech (we also want to do a hearing test to make sure that there's no remaining impairment).
That's all I can think of for now. As I keep saying, things are going amazingly smoothly so far. We really couldn't ask for much more at this point. :-)

1 comment:

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