Would you post bail?

Jellybean is a tiny little thing, but BIG on personality.

Lately, she's been testing boundaries. Repeatedly she does something she knows she's not supposed to, and when you catch her in it, she'll literally either jump away, or toss the offending item away from her....if she could figure out how to finger her sister, or blame the cat, oh - she would! Busting her is funny, but it can go on all.day.long.

This is the stage of life during which my friend called her son a velociraptor, since he was 'testing the boundaries' to see which fence wasn't electrified.*

She isn't verbal yet, but she sure is communicative. You know exactly what she wants or doesn't want to do...and lately, it's a lot of things she doesn't want to do. Not because the activity is, in itself, offensive, it's just that she's being.....opinionated. Wants to control her own destiny. Head strong. Stubborn.

As M said to me the other night in his pre-sleep fugue state, Jellybean's going to be the kid that gets us called down to the precinct at 2am.

Let's just say I was knocking on wood......


*I was going to say bonus points for anyone that got this reference, but since there are only two recent movies about dinosaurs that are decent, gah, you all got it. So, yeah, never mind.

Time out

It is official. Mommy got a time out this morning. We were eating breakfast together, and I reached over to help myself to a piece of her dried mango. Well, apparently that infraction was going to go down on my permanent record, because Monkey gave me a time out.

"Time out Mommy, no mango. Time out!"

When I asked her if she was giving Mommy a time out, she said (with great gusto and vigor) YES!

But when I asked her why I was getting the time out (to see if the no mango rule would continue) do you know what she did? She shifted her eyes left and right, in William Shatner-like overacting, as she said "hmmmmm..." and tried to come up with a rationale. I swear to g*d, she was trying to make something up!

I about feel off my chair laughing. It's official, that kid is just bottled insanity. And I love it. Of course, next time I give her a time out and she starts laughing, I might regret this morning....

Time Out

So Monkey is 21 months old now, and she throws temper tantrums and hits when she is mad. So, we give her time outs.

Time outs are conducted in the big arm chair in the living room. No books or toys are allowed, and the tv can't be on. After all, she's supposed to sit there and not have fun!

When she does something bad, like getting sulky when refused crack cocaine sprinkled on her cheerios and trying to hit me, (kidding about the drugs, but not about her taking a swipe at me), her behavior prompts an immediate response. I would tell her no, scoop her up into my arms, scold her again, and tell her she is going to get a time out. Usually this precipitates much crying and writhing in my arms, she'll say sorry, act a little sulky, but then cheer right up and stop the bad behavior. And, when she was put into the time out chair, she'd cry and cry and cry. In general, this approach was working. The time out chair was something she wanted to avoid!

So, we moved onto using the time out chair as a threat. If Monkey was drawing with crayon on the floor we'd tell her no, and ask her if she wanted a time out. She'd say no, and stop drawing on the floor.

Unfortunately for us, she has now decided that she LIKES the time out chair. When asked if she'd like a time out (posed as a threat), she stops crying, nods, and says "yesth!" And when put into the time out chair, she rolls around on her back, wiggles her feet in the air, sings and generally enjoys herself.

She's killing me! Outwitted by a 21 month old.