Naughty

You hear about the terrible twos and then you are warned that three is even worse. Colin was great up until about two and a half and then the terrible twos kicked in. He eventually calmed down, turned three in August, and now that he's three and a half...well this must be what those people were talking about! He's been whiny, and throwing fits, and demanding, and just not very nice. He refuses to nap at school and he also refuses to let anyone else nap at school. He's been in trouble there a lot lately because he likes to bother the other kids and not stay on his mat during nap. Then since he's up at 6 AM every day and refuses to nap, by the time the afternoon rolls around he's a beast. He doesn't listen, he melts down and he's tired. This means he gets in a lot of trouble. My child is as stubborn as his momma and he just does not let up. He's been making us and his teacher crazy lately. We started taking away things when he would get on orange (they start on green, move to yellow when they are not behaving, then to orange and lastly to red, which means they have to call mom and go home) because it was happening almost every day. First it was no tickle flops (a game Colin invented and loves) with Daddy and no playing with the boy next door. Then he started losing TV and iphone privileges too for being on orange. Nothing was working, so I came up with a modified behavior plan for home to supplement the one at school. If he gets on green or yellow (depending on what the move to yellow was for) he can get a stamp on his behavior chart. When he gets 4 stamps he gets to choose a small treat. Things like baking cupcakes with Mom, going to get ice cream from the shop, stuff like that. When he gets 8 stamps on his chart we'll take him to the toy store. No, I am not above bribery if it means he doesn't get kicked out of preschool! He finally had a decent week at school and managed to get four green and yellow days. One day he got moved to yellow because he was caught eating toothpaste from the tube in the bathroom. Smart, no. But I'll give the kid a stamp for that yellow day because we all have our weaknesses, lol. Today I asked him what he wanted to do for his treat and he said he wanted to go and get ice cream, so we did. He had chocolate and strawberry mixed with chocolate sprinkles and M&Ms on top...all his choosing.

Here's to hoping that next week we can manage four more good days and a trip to the toy store!