If any of you are fans of the series “Mad Men” you may remember this scene. For those who don’t know about it, briefly it’s a show about 1950’s era Madison Avenue Advertising Executives. They cheat on their spouses, smoke in front of their homes, and drink at work. Even the doctors smoke. Well one episode shows the little girl playing “spaceman.” While the moms are visiting and smoking in the kitchen, the daughter comes in with a dry cleaning bag over her head (watch here), and the mom is more concerned about what happened to the clothes.
Josie has officially entered the terrible twos without waiting to turn two. For her age her vocabulary is unbelievable, she is starting her manipulation stage, and is being openly defiant. Although she is my beautiful princess, I don’t want a Paris Hilton on my hands, so we’re taking care of it. A very specific example happened this weekend. My old charger/inflator/compressor died and I bought a new one. I took it into Mancave to charge it and left the box out in case I wanted to take it back or it didn’t work correctly. So Connor sees the box and thinks it might be a present. He asks if he can open it. Of course I say yes. So he does and he finds the plastic bag in which the unit arrived. So he starts to put it over his head. I tell him “no” and start to explain to him that it can be very dangerous. Now I know unless he duct-taped the bottom around his neck the absolute worst thing that could happen was that he could start to pass out and hit his head on the way down, or freak out while trying to take it off. It’s pretty minute that anything REALLY serious could have happened, but why take any chances on playing with something like that.
Enter little Miss defiant. While this was going on Josie was sitting on my lap watching the Olympics and Connor…mostly Connor. Once I told Connor to take it off, Josie was sliding off the couch and moving into position. I figured her MO would take her immediately to the bag. She picked it up and I told her not to put it on her head. She did. I told her to take it off. She did, then calmly took out her little hair clip, looked directly at me and put the bag back over her head. Connor looked on in horror and then looked at me.
We are working on Connor not saying “No” when asked to do something and we certainly don’t tolerate open defiance of this magnitude. Connor knew what was happening and Josie was just testing her little limits. So she got a swat and a time out. She HOWLED at the injustice. Nita came into the kitchen to see what was going on (I moved Josie to another room so she couldn’t enjoy watching Connor play). Josie in between sobs tried to explain that daddy spanked her bottom and she was just playing with Connor. I asked Josie why daddy spanked her and she said, “Josie wasn’t listening.” Nita reinforced the lesson and said, “You have to stay on the stool until daddy says you are out of time out.” Well that was enough for me. Way to go mommy. When I came back into the Mancave, Connor was asking, “Is Josie in time out?” I said yes and asked him why. He said because she wasn’t listening. Hey a two for one!
We’ve also been really working on positive reinforcement for the kids. We’re starting a little rewards calendar where they can earn things for good behavior and listening. That has also been going very well. As luck would have it, our HEB down the road has just brought back salt water taffy snacks in wax paper. When I was buying them the little girl at the checkout stand asked if I’d ever eaten them before. I said, “For about 40 years.” Well the kids LOVED these new snacks. They are gooey like gum, but they can eat them. Good stuff. One piece is a little too big for Josie, but she’s going through her little independent phase right now. So she wants to open it herself (no matter how long it takes) and if Connor puts the whole thing in his mouth so must she. The downside is whatever color the taffy is becomes a new pattern on her top or dress. Maybe I’ll ask her if daddy can have a bite before she puts the entire thing in her mouth. Or maybe I’ll go cut a few in half and re-wrap them. Hmmmm, I’ll figure something out.
Anyway, it’s really fun to watch her struggle with her shoes, some toys, and other items as she’s figuring the world out. Oh and since Connor is wearing big boy underwear now... well you know. She loves mimicking the things she sees the big people doing and her vocabulary and usage makes me believe she understands a lot more than she might let on or at least is capable of annunciating. I know my teacher friends love those moments when the kids connect the dots for a breakthrough and recognize those signs when they are just on the verge of doing it. I also recognize how important to her future confidence and self-reliance that she make those discoveries with little or no help. I know she’s only 21 months, but it is never too early to start a good habit.
For fun Nita also took the kids to Mayfield Park with her mom and a neighbor. They had a little picnic with the peacocks. The funny thing is a couple of weeks ago at a cousin’s birthday party Josie got a little freaked out at the pigeons coming to see what fell on the ground that might be tasty. If you remember earlier this summer Josie had an incident where a seagull snatched a peanut butter cracker out of her hand and even broke the skin. Well Josie sure remembered and was not happy. So I wondered how she’d do with the peacocks walking around her during the picnic. Apparently she doesn’t fear beautiful birds, only pesky ones. I can live with that.
It’s so funny how I’m always trying to think of creative ways to entertain the kids and have fun with them. I came home for lunch the other day and the kids were on the back patio, completely naked covered in shaving cream. Then Nita took the hose to them and they jumped and danced and sang songs. Barbasol, $1.19. Nice! Josie then runs around the house and is insistent that she do the things Connor is doing. She is way ahead of schedule, and I love it.
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