Sniffly Sniffles!

Last night was interesting as I heard some coughing and crying from my 20 month old daughter I thought was sleeping.  Getting up and going in to get her, the poor thing just collapsed into me as I picked her up.  She was terribly congested, cranky and in need of a little TLC.  I brought her out and fed her peanut butter & jam sandwich.  She actually seemed impressed, seemingly because it was way past her bedtime and here we were snacking.  Compassion doesn't even come close to what I feel when my daughter is sick!  We hang out like there's no time.


I gave her some chamomile tea brewed with lemon and ginger, watered down.  Fixed the humidifier up to par, rubbed some vaporub on her chest, and tucked her into bed with a night light on.  We slept until 6am, so I was really GRATEFUL for the long sleep!

 Today marked a quick trip to the doctor for some children's advil and a pat on the head that said she had a viral cold.  How simple could that be?  We get home, she has an hour nap.   For the afternoon, we snacked and drank tea.  It was fun to put her in the playpen, turn a dvd on and just take it easy.

If she wakes tonight, I'd not be surprised.  Tired perhaps, but certainly not surprised!

The art of time outs

 I’m having issues with my 19 month old daughter biting!  She does this out of frustration when she doesn’t have the words to say what see needs.  I then tell her to say “help please” in hopes that she’ll remember next time.  Sometimes yes, other times the concept seems lost!

Biting her back is a method I’ve heard that I don’t agree with.  Using violence for discipline is not going to be a long term deterrent, it’s just a short term remedy which reinforces violent behavior.  That means she react just the same way when she’s stressed later on.  I have tried to use the time out method with good success.  She gets a 1 minute time out and she realizes the consequence.  There are arguments that this subliminally sends the message that the place of time out is a bad place.  There are obviously bad places to do this in such as a crib, because that’s where she sleeps!  I’ve concluded the crib should only be used for sleep times; therefore, I have the playpen setup with blankets, stuffed toys, and placed in the living room corner just in case the need arises for a time out.  By the time she’s tall enough to climb out, we’ll have a strong foundation of boundaries established.  Like no biting!