It's funny; I didn't think much would change when AA turned two on Monday. But it's only Thursday and already there have been drastic changes:
1. The eve of her birthday, she started saying a word along with the letter for one or two letters, such as "C. Cat!" We were telling her that K was for "kangaroo," and she went and got two letter Os and started saying "oo"!
2. On her birthday, AA headed to her potty saying "pee-pee." Not unusual since we often "play" at going potty, sometimes with pants and diaper on, sometimes taking them off. But this time she wanted them off, and she actually peed into the potty a little bit, for the first time. Hasn't happened since, but this was impressive to us!
3. After her checkup on Tuesday, I started reading the materials the pediatrician gave me. They talked a lot about family dinners being an important part of eating, nutrition, etc. We don't do family dinners at present -- AA gets hungry as soon as she gets home, whereas adult dinner isn't usually ready until between 7 pm and 8:30 pm, depending on the complexity of the cooking and whatever else is going on. We usually eat in the living room in front of the TV.
So last night, I happened to be making burritos for which I'd premade the refried beans over the weekend. We decided to throw it together and eat early, at the table, with AA, TV off. We gave her fruit as a snack to help her wait.
She didn't do too well with the structure -- we are usually pretty loose with making her sit even at her little table, and so she kept whining to get down, and wouldn't eat most of it. But we made her stay until all of us finished eating, and she didn't freak out too bad. (We did let her have some snacks after, since she barely ate any, but we'll work on minimizing that.)
We are now working on a game plan to premake parts of dinner the night before, so we can get it to the table sooner and eat together. AS made up a lasagne last night that just needs to bake when we get home tonight.
4. Later last night, AA got a bit overexcited and slapped my face. She got her first time-out ever! (It only lasted 30 seconds, but I did make sure she didn't get up during it.)
Big changes in our family all of a sudden!
Suddenly, implementing changes for toddlerhood
March 8th, 2012 at 07:13 pm
March 8th, 2012 at 09:53 pm 1331243600
March 9th, 2012 at 12:32 am 1331253160
March 9th, 2012 at 03:01 am 1331262095
If the adults typically eat a later dinner, how about making that her dessert time? You can feed her dinner as normal, then let her have fruit or some other kind of snack while you eat.
Or, as she gets older and more talkative, you can tell her that she gets to do all the talking while you eat, and she can tell you all about her day?
Good luck...