Toddler Fun

Lately I have met my match with a certain little toddler boy. I knew that this day would come, but I honestly was caught off guard by just how HARD dealing with a misbehaving toddler could be. I was not enjoying constantly dealing with a toddler who would not obey and I was certainly not enjoying that the source he took his frustration out on was his poor little brother.

I had been attempting the use of timeouts and was not really seeing much of an improvement. My frustration was reaching its peak quickly. But over the weekend I was able to do a lot of reading on how to become a better parent and implemented a few minor changes to my discipline this week.

I didn't change very much at all, but the slight changes I have made seem to be making a world of difference! I am staying calm, stating what behavior is not allowed, and then following through with immediate discipline (timeouts in the same room that I am in) if he does not obey! Such a simple thing to do, but I am so amazed in how quickly this has helped with his behavior. For the first time, I now see that my son respects my authority!

One of the books I read stated how we have to get our young children to respect us. That we are the first authority figure in their lives and if we are unable to get their respect at a young age, then they will never learn to respect God's ultimate authority over their lives. That really struck me! I want to raise Godly young men and that is going to require a lot of work on my part.

I also was concerned that all this disciplining I have been doing would hurt my relationship with him. But it has not done that at all! He respects me, but he is also showing more affection with me. Also because I am not showing my frustration, but reacting calmly because I am dealing with the problems before they escalate, we are having more fun together!

So, it is not ALL work around here. I am actually enjoying a lot of the time with my toddler. Pinterest has been an awesome source of ideas to entertain my little boy and I am collecting supplies to do a few more fun projects with him. He is growing old enough now that I am feeling a lot more comfortable that he will be able to handle things like play dough and finger paints without eating all of it :)

So we started with colored rice!

And it becomes a play toy, similar to sand.

It took a couple seconds of me showing him what to do,but he caught on fast!

He's watched me cook enough for is imagination started to take off a little and he was stirring things up and using the measuring cups!

I thought he would enjoy playing, but I had no idea how much he would love it. The fun lasted an hour before I had to make him take a nap. He was very sad that I made the fun stop :(

My precious, precious growing boy!