I swanny; if my boys weren’t born three years apart, I’d swear they were twins. When one is happy, the other is happy; when one is sad the other is sad.
And when one is bad, well…let’s just say that MLE now has “Two Strikes” on the old biting policy chart.
Yesterday, both of the boys had a little trouble at daycare. MLI’s class gives out stickers for being good, and one little incident can keep a child from getting a sticker. Depending on which story you listen to from MLI (the one he gave CareerMom, or the one he gave me), the infraction went something like this:
“We came in from playing outside and we were waiting in line for water, and I hit Carter and then I went and sat down.”
Now, if this doesn’t quite make sense, realize it’s coming from a four year old whose recollection leaves a lot to be desired, and who probably figures he’s about to get in trouble despite what daddy just told him about being honest. We had our own little “sticker contest” going at home where if he got five stickers, he could go see Wall-E with CareerMom. He had already gotten the requisite stickers, but knowing he fudged up yesterday, when CareerMom picked him up and found out he didn’t get a sticker, he psyched himself out of movie excitement with, “It was probably going to be boring anyway.”
Since he’d already gotten five stickers, I told CareerMom that he’d already earned it despite what he’d done that day, so he went to the movie with CareerMom last night anyway, and turns out he was right. They didn’t even finish the movie.
On to MLE! All’s I know is that he and another little boy were fighting over a push-toy, and recognizing that he might be about to lose the fight, MLE decided to fight dirty and reached over and bit the other boy. Which, as it turns out, worked…up until the point where the teachers came and put him in timeout with a “stern” admonishment.
Let me just point out here that a stern admonishment is about as effective with MLE as well, timeout. Which, shockingly, for a 16 month old, MLE is very good at. He’s apparently had lots of practice in timeout. We put him in timeout this weekend for something and he actually sat there until we told him to get up.
To say were were in “shock and awe” would be an understatement. And as CareerMom has said on many occasions, “It’s a good thing he’s so cute, because he’s going to be quite the troublemaker!”
Isn’t that way of it? How many hotties do you see going to jail? Male or female?
I’m just sayin’.
So anyway, we have one more strike before the mandatory parental meeting, and then if he continues to bite, it’s expulsion. CareerMom swears she’ll pull MLI AND MLE if it comes to that; although she’s not figured out what we’ll do with them then.
Hey, don’t look at me! I may work from home a lot, but that’s only because nobody else is there!
Any suggestions as to how we can curb this biting thing? Barring that…anyone know where we can find a really good (cheap) nanny?
Postulates & Pastimes 
Hmmmm…I can’t really help you with the biting situation. If I had to guess, I would think it would take a different approach with each kid b/c of the age (and developmental stage) differences. However, I don’t have a suggestion for either age, so that isn’t very helpful to you. Sorry.
About the nanny. I’ve said this before, but I think it’s worth repeating. No hot nannies. I am not kidding. Nothing good could come from a hot nanny. Look at Ethan Hawke, Jude Law, any other stupid Hollywood couple who hired a hot nanny. Do you remember when the Keatons hired Geena Davis to be a nanny on Family Ties?
RE: I don’t remember Geena Davis on Family Ties! I bet she looked great then. Heck, she looked good five years ago in “The Long Kiss Goodnight!” We looked into the nanny thing for a while, but couldn’t find one we could afford really. I don’t know what we’ll do if we have to find a new daycare. It all seems a little ridiculous though for a few biting incidents!!! They can be sure of one thing though, should my toddler get kicked out for four bits spread out over a month (or however long it is), they can bet there’ll be a write up on the Web somewhere.
Wall-E totally looks like the robot from “Short Circuit”… minus the cheesy 80’s style of course
RE: Yeah, I’m not quite sure how they got away with that actually. Perhaps there’s a statute of limitations on likenesses? All I know is, if Hollywood stars start getting plastic surgery to look more like me, I’m sure gonna sue!
Re: the biting. Our kids have only had brief brushes with biting. When my daughter bit her younger brother a few months ago, we brought the hammer down HARD to nip it in the bud. She lost all her privileges that weekend, which included planting flowers with Nana and going to a birthday party. She hasn’t bitten again since.
Re: the nanny. Sounds like the premise for a great reality show. You could do it like Top Chef or Project Runway, just with nanny stuff.
RE: Sounds like your daughter was older when that happened? I mean, reasoning with a 16 month old is difficult in the best of circumstances. And the thing is, if he bites at home, I can do something (more harsh) about it, but at Daycare, the best they can do is a stern “No biting!” and put him in timeout. I mean, how rough is that???
But, I like the nanny reality show idea; except I wouldn’t have any overweight British nanny’s…nossir! I think what America really wants to see, are hottie nannies who take the kids to the pool! I’ll start calling FOX this morning!
Maybe Anna from the pool wants to nanny?
RE: That would actually be an interesting test for CareerMom. On the one hand, you’ve got a (presumably) college kid, who can’t be making all that much money working at the gym…so she’s probably affordable. On the other hand, she’s hot.
I wonder which would win out?