The Land of Vacation

Whew, a week spent driving from CT to GA and back again, with two dogs and a toddler - that was something. Strangely enough, it wasn't terrible, and I'd do it again, but not anytime soon!

What I'm wondering is, how did PoT happen while we were away and travelling? I think there was so much distraction and new interesting things to do, that our interactions flowed pretty smoothly. Of course, Family Meeting got snuffed again. Must happen this weekend! I'd really like it to happen in the morning, so I'll talk to DH about that.

Now that we're home, we're enforcing dinner rules again. If Fi gets out of her seat (except to get a dropped fork or some such), we ask her if she's all done (so she has a chance to say no and get back in her seat), and then she's not allowed to get at the table and eat again. So, she can leave early, but she can't wander in and out of the dinner table. She cried and fussed when we enforced this tonight (we were SUCH a tribe of nibblers while on the road!), but it held.

i've noticed recently that Fiora is "practicing" crying, even in mirrors, and certainly when she wants to be picked up. It seems innocent enough right now, but just writing this down, I'm realizing that I'd rather she be honest and ASK me to pick her up, or to sit on my lap, than to use emotion to get what she wants. In fact, even tonight, she was trying to get on my lap and just fussing to do so, and DH and I both requested that she use words, that she ask - she seemed to have trouble, I don't think she knew quite how to ask to sit on my lap, but then she finally asked and I said 'sure.'

she's using her words more and more, telling more elaborate stories, so cool! Still hates to put her breakfast bowl in the kitchen sink, but does it pretty quickly if she can get something she wants. Tonight we helped her get into her toy chest, and I realized we could use that as a privilege to help her learn to clean up the toys that are already out.