I like the reward idea. Lately there seems to be so little good behavior with Andrew so maybe a reward for good behavior rather than some sort of punishment for bad behavior would be more effective. Now only to figure out what that reward could be?

Still…teaching the kids that I do, it surprises me what works for some kids while others practically laugh at you. Is there anything that Andrew really enjoys that you could use as a reward? I have a ton of behavior management strategies from all of my classes and training, but I don’t know how much those will apply to a two year old.

We’ve tried time out. It does nothing. Unless I can strap him to a chair, it’s useless. He doesn’t sit still for a few seconds let alone sit in a corner or on a chair by himself for a few minutes (ETERNITY in Andrew world) without getting up. Yes, I could stand over him and make him return to the chair or corner if he got up and left, but that’s nearly impossible when I also have a 9 month old to take care of and I’m home by myself 12 hours out of most days. I can already imagine the game he would make out of it. The only form of time out we can do is lock him in his room, but I really don’t think that teaches him anything since he just goes and plays with something in there. So I really just avoid the whole time out thing. Sigh.

in my experience, when Andrew does these things, you need to put him in a “naughty chair” or on a “naughty step” or in the corner for 5-10 minutes. . i used to baby-sit my friends daughter when she was between the ages of 2-5 and when she was naughty i pulled out this little chair that we had and put her on it, and said she had to sit there until i said she could get up. she was a terror, she used to rip things apart, try to colour on my walls, throw toys all over. (so you know it’s not just little toddler boys that do this!! :) ) once i started putting her in the “naughty chair” for 5-10 minutes away from anything fun (pick a corner or an area where they can’t get into anything and where you can see them, we used our front hall area) she began to get the idea that if she did something that she wasn’t supposed to, she was gonna go in that chair and she hated that chair. so she stopped doing those things. you can also nicely “threaten” (which isn’t really threatening) to put them in the chair when they do something they aren’t supposed to. like when Andrew goes to throw the pillows on the floor, say “Andrew, if you keep on doing that, you’re gonna go in the naughty chair…” if he still does it, say “you’re gonna go in the naughty chair…” and if he still doesn’t listen then in the chair he goes. pretty soon he’ll get the idea that the chair is not the place he wants to be, and he’ll learn that the things that make you upset will put him there, and he’ll stop (hopefully) :) it’s an effective way to A. punish and B.teach without any malice or yelling.

anyway that’s just my suggestion. i hope he gets through the terrible 2′s quick!! <3

I also need to get on the ball with childproofing the drawers. The cabinets have been done for well over a year, but the drawers always seem to be a pain in the butt for me. We bought little plastic clips for the drawers, but I have yet to install them because I know he’ll just break them. Maybe something magnetic would work better.

Thanks a lot for your input, Meggan. Deep down I know Andrew is “normal”, he’s just a very, very active kind of normal! You’d think after being with him for 2 years I’d be used to it by now, but it’s just so the opposite of me that it’s hard to learn to let it go and accept that’s just how he is.

I try to head this off initially by not having things that are precious, but I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be upset if he peed on our couch or hurt our laptop or something.

Our biggest “mess” problem is books. I can’t put them away because he loooooves to read them, and I like reading to him, but he wants them all out so he can pick through them. I’m afraid they’ll get bent/ripped/ruined but it’s an exercise in futility to try to keep them cleaned up before he goes to bed for the night.

Our main rule right now says he has to put one “set” of toys away before getting out another. So if he wants to play Mr. Potato Head, he has to put his Duplos away first. This doesn’t always work, but I am pretty insistent on it for the little fiddly toys. If he wants to have his drum and toy piano and seven stuffed animals out, fine, because those are easy to throw in the toybox afterward. But puzzles or anything with small pieces is one-at-a-time.

I can’t say for sure, but I think in your position I’d over-the-top childproof everything you don’t want him getting into, to save yourself the frustration of telling him not to open kitchen cupboards or pull things out of drawers. It’d be a huge pain at first to install everything (maybe magnet locks or another childproofy thing) but maybe the frustration/time it’d save you would be worth it? We put those little push-down tab things on all our kitchen cupboards because Wesley was driving me insane rearranging all the tupperware, and now he doesn’t even try to mess with them.

“Normal” is hard, because I’d wager that Wesley is on the calmer end of the spectrum and perhaps Andrew is on the more active end. They’re both normal, but it’s all a continuum.

I hear you though; I see all these beautiful homes on design blogs and then the caption says they have three young children, and I’m like, surely the kids are kept locked in the unfinished basement then? Because there’s no way a house with kids would look like that. I don’t know how those people do it.

For you, I think gaining 20 pounds is completely acceptable! Knowing what you went through with your last pregnancy, I’m sure you’d be much happier gaining than losing weight from constant vomiting! I’m glad you’ve been having an uneventful pregnancy so far. I sometimes forget I’m even pregnant because the docs aren’t concerned about anything yet. It’s so nice to relax about it for once. Good luck at your scan next week. I go next Thursday for mine and I’m crossing my fingers everything remains in check.

If it makes you feel any better, I’ve probably put on about 20lbs and I’m 3 weeks behind you. I’m still having to eat every couple of hours to prevent the crazy heartburn and nausea though. I’m rounding out a bit but I still look mostly fat unless I’m completely in the nude (which is not appropriate dress for work!)

20 weeks on Saturday, got my next scan on Tuesday next week. Feels weird having a “normal” uneventful pregnancy though.

One of my boys is a handful and the other is so laid back. I couldn’t handle another handful! As soon as I get him out of one thing that he shouldn’t be into, he’s already into the next. I can’t ever sit down for a second or he’s into something. No amount of saying “no”, removing him from the situation, etc. does ANYTHING. It is so frustrating! I’m just crossing my fingers for another easy boy like my last one seems to be!

Also, with William, we were stuck on that and Robert with my last son. They’re both family names and since we were so torn, decided that if we ever had another boy, we’d name him William. Now to just find a middle name!