Time Outs - Effective?

Something to think about when you put your child into time out ...



Speaking of time outs, the whole discipline thing is very trying. He doesn't recognize the word "no" at all, and time outs are not effective. Once released he goes right back to hitting, or whatever it was that he was doing before. We'll just have to keep at it, and hopefully things will get better! I think that we have definitely hit the Terrible Twos early.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

TGIF

It's been a long couple of days. Ben had a really bad kidney stone, and had minor surgery yesterday to have it removed. He can't lift heavy objects (a.k.a., Cameron) and is moving pretty slowly. At least the pain is gone!

While he was in surgery, Cam and I hit Vilas Zoo. He really enjoyed the animals, and I let him run around on his own while I pushed the stroller. The tiger came pretty close to the fence!





And today we made a chair out of blocks, which he thought was really very cool =)

Argh

Cameron was in a hitting mood today.

Grr...Argh!

Easter Quickie

Due to an unfortunate death in the family (one of my mom's older sisters), we were up north visiting the family this Easter holiday. Things went well, and Cameron adjusted very nicely to the altered schedule. He missed his nap and went to sleep late most days, but it all worked out. I think that he was very happy to be home (me too!).

Tues-Sat we were at my mom's house in Hayward for the wake and funeral. On Sat-Sun we went down to Cadott for Easter. I would have just skipped it, but my dad was in town and had to spend time with his grandson. On Sunday we went to my cousin Tiffany's house for dinner and an egg hunt. Then the three-hour-twenty-minute car ride back to Madison.

Back to our regular schedule. Yay! I had such a bad headache almost the entire time we were gone, probably due to increased vigilance of Cameron. That kid can get into everything.





And we got a cute shirt:

A Revolutionary Breakfast

Cameron has recently been demanding to have anything that Ben or I is using. Sometimes we can give him the item, depending on it's safety factor. One thing he really likes is silverware. The reason I personally gave in on this is because sooner or later he will have to learn how to use them. It DOES make me a little nervous when he gets a fork, but I guess that's parenthood.

So this morning I made french toast. He started "eeeenh eeeenh"-ing for my fork, so I got him is own, a salad fork. He truly does not know how to hold them! Usually I hold his hand and help him skewer a piece of food. He's really good at getting it into his mouth. Eventually, though, he had the fork in his hand with the tines facing down, and managed stab his own piece of food and eat it! All by himself!

I think we need baby silverware.

Frustration

I am frustrated with:

• Cameron waking up in the middle of the night almost every night now
• Not eating his food
• Hitting
• Not accepting comfort (i.e., hugs/cuddling when upset) - he pushes you away
• Tantrums
  

Also, I know that it's getting to be time for him to stop drinking out of the bottle, but I have no idea on how to accomplish this. His bedtime routine is: (bath every other night), diaper change, sleeper, brush teeth, bottle on the couch, then crib. One thought is to do bottle, THEN brush teeth. After he gets used to this we can cut the bottle out cold turkey and hope for the best.

I guess I'm just feeling a little worn out. It seems like nothing we are doing is very effective. If he hits, we tell him no and he does it again. Firm voices make him laugh. This would all be kind of funny if it wasn't so maddening. The waking in the night is tough, because a bottle is almost the only thing that will get him to sleep again.

He's lucky that he's so damned cute....