Time-Out Chair and Manners

Yes, we now have a time-out chair.. see above. Looking at our two angels you might ask yourself, "now why would they ever need to use a time-out chair?" Actually, I don't think this could be said without a little grin. For the most part, we do have two fine, little kids, but like most kids, they do things that require some kind of punishment and it was just time to try something new.


So far it's mainly just two things that get them put in the chair.
1) Saying "No," "Uh-Uh," (this was Addyson's way of saying no, but not "no," now picked up by Aeron) or "Nope" when we ask them to do something.
2) Hitting or fighting



It's only been a few days now, but I'd like to think it's already starting to work. The first day they were in the chair quite often, testing boundaries and such, I am sure, but now all we have to say is, "Do you want to go to time out?" and they usually shape up pretty quickly. It's nice to have a little tool like this sometimes.


A certain little girl who surprisingly is not in time-out quite as often as her brother may even be a little jealous. I was trying to get Addyson to do something the other day and resorted to the time-out threat, which seemed to work. But just a few seconds later she said, "I wanna go time out." She has asks several times now to go. Silly girl.


I'm surprised how well they do sit there now (of course not the first few times). I was in their bedroom, which is down the hall, going through all their clothes for fall and Aeron earned himself a time-out. I took him out in the dining room to the chair and left, thinking to myself that there was no way he would stay there, but went back to work anyway. A few minutes later I heard him yelling for his milk .. I came out and he was still sitting on the chair. I was very impressed.



Before the time out chair started, and still now, we often say, "we don't say no," when they come back at us with the furrowed-brow negatory (usually it's Aeron who throws in the brow.) So now if Aeron gets into the "Uh-uh" mood, Addyson has told him, "Awon, we don't say uh-uh." I also did something the other night and said "No" for some reason and she told me, "mom, we don't say no." There are two mothers in this house.



A rare moment of stillness as Winnie the Pooh came on TV..




The kids have been saying "please" quite nicely for a while now ("peese!" with a cock of the head), and Addyson is now picking up on "thank you." She says, "tanku!" when you give her something. I told her "you're welcome" today and she said, "no, I welcome!" Guess, we'll have to work on that one.
Aeron has picked up "excuse me." When we are in his way he says, "scuse, mommy" or "scuse, daddy."



Aeron now says, "ooh, zucky!" when we change his poopy diapers. Addyson says, "Ewww!" We keep hoping this is just another step closer to wanting to be potty trained.



Addyson is still loving her bugs. We were outside the other evening and she found a beetle that she carried around. It was dead, thank goodness, because she wanted to bring it in the house. I actually let her put it in a box until morning. If she sees an ant or a fly or anything, she wants to hold them and let them crawl all over her. Aeron tries to like them, but definitely doesn't want too much to do with them.



Not much better than cool popsicles on a warm summer day.






The kids aren't the only ones with toys these days. Matt now has this little toy to run around in. Street legal and everything. A motorcycle engine and rear axle and a car axle on the front .. strange, yes, but how fun!