Unplanned Parent/Teacher Conference

So Drew is *that* child.  He got in trouble a few times at school and last week his teacher requested we join her for a meeting to discuss Drew's behavior when we both returned from our travels (I had to work in SoCal, Dave in Atlanta).

Last week he threw a HUGE fit because he didn't want to wash his hands.  It lead to a nearly 2 hour tantrum and screaming fit - which made him pee his pants.

This week, he freaked out when someone stole his tissue for erasing the whitebaord, so he hunted said child down and slugged him.  This lead to a time out that he didn't want to take and then being passed from his teacher to another to force him to take his time out.

Needless to say - Drew's stubborn, strong willed.  So yesterday we met with his teacher shortly before school and she requested we all get on the same page with Drew and use what they have at school - the 3 C's: Command, Choice and Consequence.

The command is pretty obvious, the choice is to get Drew to do what we ultimately want him to do (wash hands/ go to Time Out) but giving him the choice to wash his hands in "this sink" or "that sink".  Hop to time out or walk to time out.  If nothing works then offer to have us assist him with the issue - which his teacher says is not likely to happen.

So we're going to test this out at home and continue to battle through his attempt to get the upper hand.  I don't think so Mister!  We're also going to create a sticker chart for him at school so he can be rewarded for good behavior - since it's working out pretty well at home!

Since this is sort of a downer of a post, here's a sneak preview of Drew in his Halloween Costume - he tried it on yesterday morning before school.

Sorry about the grainy picture -- it was from Dave's phone.  Apparently it was a bit sleepy yet at that hour and well, jet lag. hehe

"What the Turtle?"

As if my son wasn't already a little mimicker, he has now picked up some bad "speaking" habits from someone at our house - who shall remain nameless (but for the record it isn't me).

It started the middle of last week when I go to pick up Drew from day care, and Ms. Stephanie mentions Drew dropped an F-bomb. She wasn't sure she heard him right, so she asked him to repeat it a few times.  For a while now Drew has said "What the Heck" - but this time while he was already sitting in time out, he blurted out "What the F*#@".

After Ms Stephanie realized he was actually cussing - she tried to explain to Drew that it was a bad word, and we don't say that.  She wanted him to say "What the Turtle" instead.

Fast Forward to Saturday morning and while Daddy was sleeping in (not that this is different than any other day) but my angelic little son was climbing on his little chair and says clear as day "What the F*#@!"  I instantly begin scolding him how we don't say that word - and Drew announced "We say 'What the Turtle'".

I said yes, he can say "What the turtle", but if I hear him saying the bad word again I will wash his mouth out with soap.

Drew starts processing this as all two year olds do, and rather than using his "inside voice" he thinks aloud and says "We don't say 'What the F*#@' we say..." I didn't let him get that far when I scolded him again for swearing.  Thankfully hasn't done it since.

Of course we were out and about later this weekend and he yelled "What the Turtle".

Needless to say, the nameless person who taught my sweet, adorable child this potty mouth is in the doghouse.  And of course denies ever cursing in front of said child.  Uh, huh.... right...... that darn Elmo is swearing on those videos again.

"I Don't Love You"

I thought for sure I had another ten years or so before the "I hate yous" and the "I don't love yous" started.  I mean isn't that classic teenager behavior?  OK I'll even go so far to say as the tween years.  But at two?

Last Thursday, I got my first "I don't love you Mommy".  OUCH!

The offense - leaving Drew to lay by himself in his room at night.  You know the parenting technique of tucking your child in, and then going about your evening?  Apparently that's a big no-no in Drew's book.

A few days go by and bedtimes go fairly smoothly, and then wham on Monday night while Dave's at Softball I get it again: "I don't love you Mommy".

I tried to reason with my toddler (that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one - reasoning with a toddler...) that it's not nice to say you don't love Mommy, that it hurts Mommy's feelings.  I asked him how he would feel if I said "I don't love Drew".  I asked if he liked that - and of course he said "no".  Then proceeded to say again, "I don't love you Mommy".

That's when I gave up and said "Ok, good night."

Going TP'ing

Um, leave the child home sick with the husband and you find out your child went TP'ing.

OK so he didn't really go TPing but he did proceed to unroll the toilet paper.  I swear this kid just loves to see things go round and round - I mean it's no surprise he loves his "spinners".  And I've shown you the measuring tape fettish.

So now that we're potty training, Drew's now into toilet paper.  Lovely.

Busted!

For those wondering about our "angel" Drew, yes he is known to get in trouble from time to time. One thing that works for discipline - time outs. At Ms. Stephanie's house, there is even a special Time Out chair that Drew has become accustomed to.

His biggest violations - hitting, pushing and most recently whining.

He doesn't like Time Outs, and usually if you ask him if he wants one, he will stop the whining for example. One day in July, Drew was busted for something or other and was sent to the naughty chair. His reaction was so funny Steph had to get a few snapshots.

Here are the faces of Time Out....

Mr. Troublemaker

My little monster was just that this morning... he's definitely entered the terrible two's a few months early.

Today while trying to get him dressed, he slapped me across the face - for no reason - which resulted into his finger in my eye. I slapped him back (on the hand) so he knew what it was like to be slapped. Then he got in trouble.

Less than five minutes later, we were in the bathroom to brush his hair. Little monster head butted me right in my left temple - and if you've ever seen Drew's head it's big and HARD! So he got in trouble again, and started screaming and crying so hard you'd think he was the one that got hurt.

He could get out of trouble by telling Mama he was sorry. That's when Mr. Troublemaker turned into Mr. Stubborn, and he kept telling me no. Daddy came into the bathroom to see what all the commotion was about, and to make Drew apologize to me. He listened to Daddy of course (why is it that when I say something -no results, Daddy says something and there's instant results), so the apology came, and the tears stopped. Ironically Dave had no idea why Drew was even in trouble, when he came to run interference.

Needless to say we warned Ms. Stephanie that Drew was in a mood today....