Time Out

Lilly has been on a bit of a violent streak lately so mommy has instituted time outs. I say mommy because I am the one that takes the most abuse from her and I got fed up with it a couple of weeks ago when she bit me (in a store no less) and drew blood. That made the second time she bit me hard enough to draw blood and I was done. So time outs have become a regular occurrence.

When she does something bad, we tell her two times not do it. The third time we say "Lilly, if you (bite/hit/throw things) again you will go in time out." For time out, we place her in the hallway and make her sit there for one minute. Once the minute is up, we go to her and sit down near her and make her walk over to us. We tell her why she got put in time out and we wipe her face off, make her say she is sorry and then we hug.

The Friday before Christmas Lilly spent a record five times in time out. The first two times on this particular day, I had to place her back in the hallway several times. She would wander out and find me and say "Hi mommy." Of course when you put her back in the hallway, she starts screaming and crying. On the third time out, Lilly got wise to the plan. She did not come looking for me, instead she sat/stood/lay in the hallway screaming, "mommy give me hug, mommy wipe tears away!"

When Joe got home that night he got to witness a time out. Lilly is screaming and I am in the kitchen laughing. The time out is really taking a toll on Joe and he wants to get her out before the minute. He asks me if the sight/noise of her doe snot make my heart break and I said no. This was the fifth time out of the day and it no longer made me sad to put her in it - she has to learn.

Fortunately we are down to a couple of time outs a week now. I have noticed that when it is time for the time out to be done and you ask her to come to you, she does so with a big grin on her face and tonight at dinner, she was asking to go into time out when she would attempt to throw her plate. She eventually did throw her plate onto floor and said "I go time out now," but I did not grant her request. I'm not sure that means she likes time out or she was using reverse psychology on me. I just went a poured a glass of wine and made her sit at the table until I was finished with my dinner. Does that mean I need a time out?

Lilly rambles

Here is Lilly rambling on while sitting in her doll's stroller. Right before we got the camera out, she sat in the stroller and said "I too big for stroller. We need get a new one." Towards the end of the clip she says mommy and daddy's names, her full name and her birthdate.

Elf in training

Christmas Photos

I dragged Lilly to the portrait studio in her fancy dress as she likes to call it,(thanks Auntie Carol & Uncle Don!) to get her Christmas picture taken. We requested the same photographer as always and when we walked in, Lilly said, "I ready to take my picture!" I thought that was a good sign. I was wrong.

We went back to the studio and Lilly hopped up on the table while Miss Kristen got things set up. All was fine until we had the nerve to ask Lilly to stand and smile. That's when she LOST IT! She started crying for me to pick her up and would not let me put her on the table. When she got on the floor, she quickly ran into the hallway and when she saw me coming for her, Lilly threw herself on the floor and started kicking.

Miss Kristen tried to coax her back inside with a Santa book - it worked as long a I was holding her. As soon as I tried placing her on the table, the crying would start. After 30 minutes of this, Miss Kristen had to call an end to the session. Once Lilly heard that we were done, THEN she was willing to stand on the table. So all the shots we got were after the crying and fits on the floor.








These pictures were taken at home prior to going to the portrait studio and she is actually smiling!

Hint of Spring

We had crazy weather a couple of weeks ago - close to 80 degrees so we spent time outside.

Lilly playing with the leaves on the deck:



Lilly "helping" to fill the bird feeders:

Just a hint of Santa

There are more Santa pics and stories to tell but I think this picture of Lilly with Santa sums up how she feels about him in person:

Our Older Children

I know everyone wants more photos of Lilly up but I just haven't had the time or energy to work on those posts. So here are a couple of pictures of our older children: Elsie Mae Confetti, Cleo Marie Sassafrass and Streak Moonshine.