Time Out

I've decided Pumpkin's temper tantrums are directly related to her sleep intake, no question about it.

Unfortunately, I can't make her sleep any more than she's willing, I can only produce a sleep friendly environment with good sleeping habbits and a relaxed bedtime routine. That, however, doesn't stop her from waking up 2 hours early sometimes and playing around in her crib until the sun finally rises. On those days, I'm left to deal with a tired little pistol who likes to have her way or the highway, manners out the window. I can hear her little "Humpf!" in my head right now even! And she's just like the old rhyme: 'when she was good (aka. rested), she was very very good and when she was bad (tired), she was awful!' I hate putting her there, but it seems like discipline is a fact of life. I do the supernanny approach: one warning, second offense leads straight to a time-out for one minute each year of age. Plus the whole approach and explanation that follows. It hasn't been until more recently the time-outs increased from 1 or 2 on her rough/tired days to 4 or 5.

Apparently, Pumpkin's had her fill of time-outs too.

She ran up to me holding her penguin, Osbert, and showed me his previously sewn-on wing that was now free-floating b/c she convinced herself that no, penguins could fly AND swim, which led to our first "mommy discipline" impersonation. I told her I would sew it back on that night, but two seconds later, here's where he landed -still not flying because his wing was allegedly "broken": the time out step.

She was so good at the technique! My li'l mommy got down to his beak-level and explained the alleged offense (flapping too hard) and that it was "unaseptable."

And now showing him how many minutes he'll be spending in the time out (5).

Next, she checked on him and reminded him he needs to "fink about fings an sit quietly pweeze."

And the grand finale: back on beak-level again, explainging that flapping too hard is not acceptable and asking for an apology and a hug -I was so proud!

Pumpkin turned right around and looked at me to reassure her she'd done everything right and waited for my reaction to how proud I was of her for disciplining poor Osbert. (Now, to only explain that breaking his wing wasn't his fault since she'd done it to him...) She schlepped him around for most of the rest of the night and reluctantly handed him over in bed so I could fix him and make him all better for the morning! I had my work cut out for me. Thank God I had navy thread!