MORE "NO" LESS TANTRUMS...?

It seemed like that for most of January, Ryder's vocabulary consisted of three phrases, "No Mommy, no mommy, no mommy," "I need it," and "Don't want to." His behaviour consisted mostly of rolling around on the floor in protest to almost anything requested of him.

I am happy to say, that as we round the corner and head towards February, his vocabulary, at least, has begun to expand. I am amazed every day at how many more words he can put together and I get such a kick out of his expanding language skills.  I have noticed that his, "Thank you, Mommy" is becoming habit and comes out of his chubby little mouth without being prompted more often than not.  Today, he told me that one of his little friends who was visiting was "bugging" him after he got bumped accidently into the wall.  When he wants to eat or drink something now, he'll ask for it by saying,  "I want to eat it/drink it with my mouth."

He spends less and less time rolling around on floor and more and more time running across the floor and trying to "jump." We are all smiling a lot more every day!  I am not gonna be so bold as to say, that our consistency has paid off and that Ryder is finally learning how to cope with "no", but secretly, I hope so. :)

Things have been going so well (either that or we've become desensitized,) that we decided to head out on a Family date Friday night, to Earls Restaurant.

Sitting in the booth, like a big boy.

We only have trucks at the table in a restaurant, NOT at home!

The outing itself can be considered a success can't it? There was no rolling around on the floor screaming in the restaurant, or in the parking lot. He managed to keep all of that "inside" until he was buckled safely into his car seat and we were on our way home and then he let it all out...all the way home!

This morning, Ryder and I had an almost tantrum free dog walk together.  We played at the park, even slid down the slide in the snow and watched Scout eat bunny poop (with her mouth.)

Ryder only layed face down on the sidewalk screaming, "don't want to!" twice. Once when I insisted he walk ON the sidewalk not on the street and once when it was time to head back towards home.

Ok, maybe I am just becoming desensitized, but I walked through the door after our walk, feeling like we'd had a great time! I didn't have to drag him home kicking and screaming, to me, that equals success!!! :)

STICKS!!!

I could lie and tell you this is a picture of Ryder feeding Scout...but it's not. This is evidence that I still don't say, "no" to everything. He wanted to play with the dog food.  He loves to pour it into Scout's bowl and then dump it back into the bucket...I kicked the dog outside and let him play to his heart's content. The only one who threw a tantrum was Scout, locked outside, unable to access all the kibbles that were spilling all over the floor!!!

We also went out to the farm to visit Uncle Dirt today.  As soon as we were ten minutes from home, heading in "Farm direction" Scout began to get excited. She started whining her "excitement wine."  Ryder is now able to read her cues and before long, they were both sitting in the back seat "cheering" with delight over the idea that we were heading to see "Uncle Dirt." Scout was whining and Ryder was throwing his hands up in the air, shouting, "Yippee Uncle Dirt! Yippee Uncle Dirt!" Adorable!! As loud as it was, it was heart warming, there was nothing left for me to do, but join right in! :)

We had a fun, outside kinda day and now, this happy, tired Mamma is ready to hit the hay!!

I will take me and Little(?) Peanut to bed!! Good night!

28 weeks!!!!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and get out of the house once in while, even if there's a pretty good chance your lil one will lay face down in the snow and throw a fit...there's also always a chance he won't!