I Got This!

Finally I have some control! Yeah that's right I said control. The Gang members have been going through Behavior Bootcamp as most of you know, and I'm finally getting to take my turn as the Drill Sargent formerly a rotating position between Renegade Doodle and Smarty Pants. Bedtime is a piece of cake, all members of the Gang have been in their own beds asleep by 8:30 at the latest w/o tears, screaming, kicking or hair pulling. So I've been slipping a little melatonin in the snack time sippy but everyone needs a little assistance once in awhile. The melatonin isn't enough to knock them out but calms them enough to sit and listen to a story or watch a movie.

RD's aggression is being handled by putting him in the highchair for time out until he is calm, we decided not to give him any type of play dough or putty, but he can have something to bite on. When the time out is over he has to apologize and hug whoever he hurt.. even if it was the dog. This is working very well and he is getting it... He proved that he knows what hurting is and that there is now a consequence for it today when he accidentally knocked Scooter down. As soon as Scooter fell William looked at me then immediately hugged and apologized to Scooter. He LOOKED AT ME!!! YAY! He wanted to see if he was going to be put in the highchair... YES! So I explained to him that it was an accident.

Smarty Pants on the other hand is giving defiance his all and bucking like a Bronco. The hardest time frame is during his "rebound period". I can manage to talk him thru frustration and prevent tantrums for awhile but eventually the Big T occurs. Nell and I are working on this and so far I'm still at a loss. She has wonderful ideas and strategies but some of them I don't feel are practical for my situation but something has to be done. We might go back to ignoring, that seemed to be working. To do this Nell and I are going to need to spend time teaching the daycare kids to ignore SP when he's having a tantrum. I am seeing improvement, the Big T's are not as severe, and are not lasting nearly as long. Woo Hoo.. so we are getting somewhere.

Basically what I'm trying to say is " I got this" and doing it on my own feels awesome! This is the first time in my life where I haven't felt dependant on my husband to enforce the rules. I actually turned down his offer to help me and TOLD him to go WATCH TV!!!