Today's post could be very similar to yesterday's, but rather than rehash the whole thing, I'll just say that I tried a little harder today when things got difficult. Example later.Today was a unique day in that I spent the entire thing with Jake. The babysitter was moving so it was all me. The gist: breakers at Whole Foods, school to get my papers to grade, oil change, home for nappers/cleans, lunch with omma (ramen), park for slides down the hill (Kakaako WP) on cardboard boxes, and dinner with Lina at chun-chon. That's where the fun began.
As per usual these days, Jake has about 5-6 bites of food, then gets antsy and starts saying "Omma" in a whiny voice whilst out-stretching his arms (toward omma). We usually take him out of the highchair and he proceeds to, well, do whatever he wants. Today it was open the cooler door, run around, pull stuff off the table, etc. etc. In light of what I wrote yesterday, I decided to try a new tact. I took him outside and for the first time used the dreaded "timeout." I told him what was appropriate behavior, asked if he was ready to go in the restaurant, etc. He kept saying "ne" (yes), so I took him in. He went right back to refusing the highchair/eating. I took him back out, except this time to the car, and talked to him. He listened to me, answered when I asked him questions, and showed he wanted to go back in. I did this about 4 times. I think it was a success. He knows what a timeout is now, and did sit and eat nicely for a while. Patience.
Sunhee suggested that he was too young to get right/wrong. He is in many ways, but he's also understanding what we're saying. He's smart. I think based on this fact it's OK to introduce limits, and that was my goal tonight.
An example of his intelligence: He has a box with 12 miniature Disney (Lion King, Cinderella, etc.) books in it. Each book is about 3"X3". This afternoon we were sitting on the couch and he said "appa" and pointed at a picture of one of the books on the back of the box (all 12 are represented there) and said "No!" I turned the box around, looked for the book, and sure enough, there were 11 books; the one he pointed to was missing. Freaked me out.
Song of the Day: Jimmy Cliff: I Can See Clearly Now
