Emma understands that time outs are a form of punishment, she also knows that they are a way of killing time when she doesn't want to do something. When I want her to sit and eat or take a bath, and she is just starts doing flips, I do my countdown of 1-2-3. When that doesn't work, I ask if she wants a time out to which she replies, "yes" and runs to put herself in the timeout chair. I know she is just doing this so she doesn't have to do what is really important.. She can be sneaky.
But on a plus note, Emma started telling me why she is in time out or what she has done wrong. The first time I heard her say it, I was floored. See early one when I would ask her, she would just look at me so confused and say "sorry, sorry", but the other day, she actually told me,"I broke book". Granted it sounded more like "ibobo book", but it was clear! Now she tells me she if she was yelling, or hitting or shushing. Ah baby steps. really tiny itty bitty baby steps.
One thing that has really been bothering me though is how she has really got into hitting. When my mom was here she would hit her and then me, but mostly she hits poor Gato. Nothing seems to make her understand that hitting isnt nice. So I started focusing the attention not on her but on poor Gato to see if that would work. When she would hit him, I would just coddle him and hold him and completely ignore her. Needless to say E does not like to be ignored, so she would start kissing Gato and be gentle with him. She stills will try and strangle him and hit him when I am not looking, but she rarely gets away with it.
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