Two Mama Tails, Cows and Time Out

This morning Clare treated us to sleeping in, when I walked in her room at 8am she was still asleep, we are truly blessed with an exceptional sleeper.  Jeff had to hit the road for a 9am meeting so we were on our own.   I love mornings where we aren’t rushed and we can take our time. 

When she opened the closet I suggested she wear her new Hanna dress, she was beyond excited at the idea.  I then suggested that we do TWO mama tails!  I anticipated her not sitting still long enough for me to get two decent mama tails in her hair, but she surprised me by eating her blackberries and sitting still long enough for me to be successful on the first try. 

I think this will be our new look; it seemed to keep the hair out of her face all day!

Thankfully this afternoon was much cooler than the past few days, but that didn’t stop us from hanging out in the basement when we got home.  Clare announced she wanted to play trains before she even got out of the car.  Dada was happy to play; he likes to build big ramps and silly tracks. 

After playing trains it was time to play ‘match’ or Wii as it’s commonly knows as.  Clare LOVES to play match, especially the ‘cow one’ and baseball.  It only took me twice to figure out that Jeff gives Clare a controller with no batteries while he plays, ha!  She likes to play baseball, ‘ding dong’ and the ‘cow one’.  Jeff tried to convince her that when she ran around pretending to ride a cow she would do better at the game, sadly I didn’t have my phone handy to capture it on video. 

Time Out is something new in our house, and when I say new I mean tonight was the first time.  Clare is definitely two and has the attitude to go along with it.  90% of the time she is a sweet little girl, but the other 10% of the time she can be a crabby, bossy, sassy two year old.  Generally she tests the limits more with me than she does Jeff; she has tried out hitting and saying a firm ‘no’ and pushing any button of mine she can find.  Tonight she was tickling me and began to ‘tickle’ my face, I asked her to stop 5 or 6 times getting firmer with each one, finally I asked if she needed to go to time out, to which she replied yes and stomped off to the steps.  Jeff and I were both a little surprised.  She sat there for a minute, maybe two, and then announced she was done, when we asked her if she was going to hit again she said no.  I was pleased.   I know that Karen uses time outs at her house, and that Clare has been in time out a handful of times (although if you ask Clare she’ll say she goes everyday) but never at home.  So, I guess we’ve entered the stage of putting Clare in time out.  Hopefully future time outs won’t include rolling around on a dog hair covered rug.