Swingers

Get your mind out of the gutter.  It's not what you think.  After all, this is a family column.
With the recent snap of mild weather we've been enjoying thanks to the jet stream staying in the Great White North all season, we've been able to enjoy some time outdoors pretty much since the early end of mid-March.
Our two-and-a-half year old daughter enjoys it.  Which is refreshing to hear, with most parents complaining about their children disintegrating in front of the fabled idiot box.
Last summer, my wife and I had a swing built in our back yard, complete with a tandem, baby swing, 'big girl' swing, jungle gym and slide. 
We almost without exception, drop what we're doing and escort her outside so she can play on it.  Even if we're tired ourselves, we muster up a little more energy to accomodate her request.
Having looked like "The Michelin Man" while still in the baby stage, much of her baby fat rolls have melted away, and other than a little pot belly, she's
pretty much going to inherit Daddy's metabolic system.
Which I miss terribly.  The days where I could eat enough to feed a Third World country and not gain a pound, giving way to where I gain a pound just by cooking a meal and inhaling its aroma. 
Nonetheless, we're happy at the fact that Savannah's physically active.  Not just for the sake of her own physical fitness, but our mental and physical fitness as well.
A good workout on the swing, followed by a nice warm bath, generally results in a good night's sleep.  One where there's some initial protest, but silence after about five minutes upon laying her down in her crib.
That's usually 'alone time' for my wife and me, which she uses to prepare Savannah's lunch the following day, and I take care of uncorking the bottle and pouring the wine.
Yep...there's the ulterior motive!


NEXT WEEK:  Party in da Crib

Tub Time

Bath time.  The daily ritual of which I alone am responsible for.
The reason is because my wife, as the first one home from work, has Savannah to deal with until I get home.  Couple that with her trying to make dinner in the process.
So bath time is her respite.  I get our daughter ready for bed and a story read.
I do like bath time.  My back isn't always cooperative in my advancing years when I crouch down to scrub her up.  But we're working on that.
My parents got her two "Cars" loofah sponges...one of Lighting McQueen and Tow-Mater. 
I was hoping that using these would help her get used to scrubbing herself clean.  It hasn't.
Back to the washcloth.  Same deal.
"It tickles".
Then one day she says this to me:
"I wanna wash myself".
OK then!
She did pretty good the first time, with me doing "QC" work at the end, just to make sure she didn't 'miss' anything.
She's getting better at it...but she can be lazy at times.
Just when I think she's getting the hang of it, she says "Daddy will you wash me?"
Sometimes I wonder if she's coming or going with this Miss Independent stage she's going through.
And I often wonder when it's going to be before she decides to tackle this task entirely by herself.
I won't worry myself by caring.
Because these days will be gone faster than I think.


NEXT WEEK:  Swing easy

Potty Party

Our two-and-a-half-year-old daughter may not like toilet-training, but she sure likes the incentives.
At least until the novelty wears off.
And she finds the incentives are getting a little more tightened with her progress.
One of the more recent phrases to enter her vocabulary is "Splash Lagoon".
For those of you who aren't local, "Splash Lagoon" is an indoor water park in Erie, Pennsylvania.  My wife and I regularly travel to Erie during the warmer weather months to bicycle the trail on Presque Isle and find some time to do a little wine-touring as well.
We had known about Splash Lagoon for some time, but hadn't made the time to go there.  Then my brother-in-law surprised us this past Christmas with passes.  We made the trip in January.
Savannah had never been to a waterpark of any kind prior to Splash Lagoon.  Once she experienced it, she thought she had died and gone to heaven.
And once the experience was over, she said she wanted to go back...frequently.
Perfect time to incentivize her toilet-training.
Especially since we have to read facial gestures of hers to know when she needs to go, is going or gives us the less-than-desired response when prompted:
"No, I just went."
And not in the bathroom either.
An idea had formed by my resourceful wife...offer Savannah the opportunity to earn her way back to Splash Lagoon.
Margie created a sign on red posterboard, with pictures of Savannah in various stages of play at Splash Lagoon.  We also got some smiley-face stickers and black sticker letters.
For every time she successfully goes to the bathroom, she earns a smiley-face sticker.  When she receives five, then she earns a letter, with the goal of spelling out SPLASH LAGOON.  As she progresses, she'll need more stickers to earn another letter, in order to encourage her to keep going.
Literally and figuratively, that is.
We're at S-P-L-A now.
And I also want to point out that Splash Lagoon is an incentive separated from other disciplinary means.
We don't threaten to take away letters or stickers for bad behavior...that would be counter-productive. 
We come up with other ideas for that. 
Fortunately, we haven't had to spend much time doing so.


NEXT WEEK:  Tub Time

Treating Them to Better Eating Habits

This is my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter after only a couple bites of dinner (no matter what it is we serve her):  "I'm full."
And it's usually followed with "I wanna snack".
Or "I wanna treat".
This is a battle that needs to be carefully managed.
Your child is asserting themselves.  They don't want to eat what you've served for dinner, but they still need to be properly nourished.
Oddly enough, my wife and I have found success by using ranch dressing or ketchup to help dinner go down easier.
But sometimes even that doesn't work. 
And it may resort you to threats.  Or worse, capitulating to their wants.
Sending them away from the table with 'it's this or nothing' can be counter-productive.
You're sending them away from the table hungry.  This can later lead to 'snack-sneaking' in the middle of the night or at other times they feel that Mom and Dad aren't watching.
Bad snacks, I might add. 
If your child doesn't want to eat what's for dinner, allow them wholesome snacks. 
String cheese.  Apples, oranges, bananas, berries.  No treats...cookies, candy, or candy like snacks (this includes fruit snacks).  If you have dessert planned at the end of dinner, make it clear to your child that dessert is only for children who finish their dinner (or a better than average portion of it).
Treats are bonuses...that and nothing more.
This will incentivize them to finish the dinner you initially prepared for them in the future.
And if they want sweets instead of this, make it clear to them that they've been offered a choice.  These are the available choices and nothing else.
They'll get the message.
And they'll get healthy habits that will last them a lifetime.


NEXT WEEK:  Making a big splash out of toilet-training