The Second Year: Theory of Mind

Developing theory of mind (or understanding that other people have minds, feelings, and goals separate from your own) supposedly takes off around a child's second birthday. These first sparks of rudimentary empathy are exciting and certainly worth recording.

As of his second birthday:
* Soren hides where I can't see him,
* offers favorite food to others (especially his brother),
* uses words like please, thank you, you're welcome, and bless you,
* complies with simple requests,
* understands the necessity of a trade-off,
* asks for help when he can't accomplish something on his own,
* and does not take toys from other children.

This is an area that Soren is really blossoming in right now and I am excited to see what the next year will bring.

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Our Potty Training Journey

February 2010 GOAL: My initial goal was to introduce Soren to the toilet and make it a fun place to sit. I have to admit that I also hoped that we would have some fortunate "accidents" that would lead to potty training success. STRATEGY: My plan was to sit Soren on the toilet once a day and read him a couple of stories. If he peed, I was planning to give him a candy. THE BAD NEWS: The candy totally backfired. The one time that he peed on the toilet, I gave him a candy and he had a full-on tantrum begging for more. If I ever told him "When you pee on the potty, you can have a candy", he would begin screaming for the treat and be unable to focus on the toilet training. THE GOOD NEWS: Soren was not afraid of sitting on the big toilet. He actually really enjoyed it (when I was reading stories and not pimping rewards) and started asking to sit there any time his butt was bare. J June 2010 GOAL: My goal was to potty train S...

February 10 - 16

* I thoroughly enjoyed reading Skyward. * Soren beat Megaman 1 without dying. * Carl was swamped with art homework. His teacher assigned him 5 mini-paintings, 30 gradients, and 1 shading. * Sven finished reading the Frog and Toad treasury. * Leif talked a lot about wanting to make a friend. * Richard got to listen to lots and lots of read-a-louds.

What Works for Us: Room Time

I've decided to do a new series of posts on how I make parenting work for us. Every parent does it differently--which is great!--but I have a hard time keeping my discoveries to myself. The things I do may not work for anyone else but I want to record them and remember them. Hopefully, it will also help me vent my soap-box-y-ness so that I'm not always imposing my ideas on other people. That will be what "What-Works-for-Us Posts" are about. One of the things that we have always done, but has made a HUGE difference in the move from one to two children, is Room Time . When Soren was 6 months old, I started having him play alone (in a safe place) every day for a few minutes. At first it was only five minutes in the port-a-crib but we quickly worked up to fifteen, then thirty. At that time, I used those precious minutes to do housework or relax on the couch. When I was pregnant with Carl, Soren would play alone for about an hour in his room and I would usually tak...

Mom Remembers

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