The Terrible 1.5s

So Addison has started her stage of being possessed by a crazy monster independence and getting upset over well everything she can't control early - the so called Terrible 2s have begun! We are encouraging her to use her words/signs and are ignoring (trying too - this is really hard) the whining, screaming, and tantrums (fortunately those aren't too crazy yet). Our goal is to be consistent and show her that we are there for her but that she can't get everything she wants and that we are in charge (haha - she doesn't seem to think so :)). We only want to use time-outs for harmful behavior and her getting use to them will take a while, I think. We tell her to stop/no when needed and redirect often explaining why we are redirecting. It is really hard and frustrating because she knows so many words and signs but she gets upset/mad and doesn't want to use them. So we will see. We have many months of this to come so hopefully Scott and I will come out on top :)

We got Addison her own little tree. It helps us to redirect her from the big tree, which she has almost pulled onto her a couple of times. The big tree no longer has ornaments on the bottom...the less to entice her with the better. We put candy canes and toys on her tree. She likes taking them off and putting them back on.

Addison helped me make brownies the other day...her job was to clean off the spatula.

Dylan of course just sits there looking at Addison as if something has possessed her and as if to say "Ummm...I can't talk as well as you can and you don't see me acting like this" and "Seriously, can't I get any sleep around here" and "where are the cheerios?"

She is enjoying the tree as well...or at least sleeping beside it. Now if only we could train the munchkin to curl up beside the tree and sleep.