Time Out

 

Jadon had two first's yesterday.  His first year check up, and his first time out.  The time out happened in the morning so I had a good chuckle when my husband brought home the "12 mo. anticipatory guidance" sheet with this direct quote on it:

"Infants at this age are developing more and more independence.  They want to do more for themselves.  This normally leads to expected oppositional behavior.  They seem to resist everything you want to do.  Try not to get into a power struggle over everything.  Allow a reasonable amount of freedom within a safe environment".

Well, good to see Jadon is developing normally.  He is certainly becoming independent.  I do try to allow him freedom to explore.  Most kitchen drawers and cabinets have been reorganized to allow for Jadons exploration but there are some things that can't be moved out of Jadons reach.  Our computer for example.  There is nowhere else in the house that it can go where I can still monitor my children's use of the world wide web.  So when Jadon decided the other day that under the desk was going to be his new hang out I had a problem with that.  He was messing with the CPU, opening and shutting the disc drives (we are already on #2), and I was just waiting for him to unplug something important.  Not to mention the power strip and all the things plugged into it. Once I determined that this was not an acceptable hang out I prepared myself for the battle ahead.

 I underestimated the strong will of my youngest child.  After about 20 times of removing him from under the desk and giving him a toy only to have him turn right back around and go back at the first chance he saw,  I was about to lose my mind.  I was having visions of doing this all day long.  The look of determination in his eyes made me sure he could last that long.  So I looked around for something to block the desk with.  I decided on our toys bins.  Perfect!!   

This set off anger in my sweet baby boy like I had never seen.  He marched over to the toy bin and started pulling and dumping all the toys out.  He was going to find a way to get back in there.  So that is how he went to the stairs to sit in his very first time out. 

He looks all sweet and innocent in this pictures but I can assure you….before he saw the paparazzi was on the scene he was in a full out temper tantrum.   He did not want that to been seen by his public, so he quickly composed himself for the documentation of the situation.  If he could talk I am sure he would tell you that he is completely innocent in all of this.  Even looking at him napping when I checked on him a few moments ago and seeing how sweet and innocent he looks I have trouble believing it happened.  

Welcome to the toddler years!