Jealousy

We are dealing with this a lot in our house, mostly from Ethan. Ethan likes to snuggle and cuddle with me and Lucas likes to play independently. When Lucas decides he wants some one on one attention from Mommy, though, Ethan doesn't like it one bit. He'll come and push his way between us. He will pull on Lucas to move him away from me. He will push him out of his way so that Ethan can be on my lap instead. It has been for a long time that if Ethan wants a toy that Lucas has he will take it away from him, which still continues. But now he's pushing and pulling Lucas which is far worse than just taking his toy away.

Stairs

When the boys started showing interest in the stairs a few months ago, we didn't want them any where near them. Well, we then figured maybe it would be good for them to know how to get up and down the stairs. Plus they really have lots of fun. Both boys are proficient going up and Ethan is proficient going down, Lucas is still learning. They always do this supervised with an adult one or two steps behind them. Here's a video of Ethan.

SO GROSS!!!

When I woke up this morning, I thought this was going to be a regular morning. Uh, so wrong. We do not use an alarm clock to wake us up in the morning. We use babies. I normally go down and get their milk ready so once they're changed, we can give it to them immediately without any meltdowns while waiting. This morning James decided to pour the milk. I went in and gave good morning kisses. I picked Ethan up first because he usually has a poopy diaper first thing in the morning. I leaned him down to Lucas so they could touch a minute then laid him on the changing table. I went to take his diaper off and realized he wasn't wearing one!!!!! Oh NO! I peek in his crib and what do I see, a poppy diaper laying in his bed. I yell for James and look back at Ethan. He has it on his hands. Yuck! He has it on the right side of his cheek leading to his MOUTH! How disgusting. What was in his diaper still looked intact, not a mushy mess so I can't say for sure if he did eat any, but we are assuming. Now I know crazy things are going to happen and things will get messy with two boys, but ewwww. He hasn't gotten sick so I'm glad for that. I do think he will have a black eye tomorrow though. We have a wagon that the giant size legos came in that Ethan likes to crawl in and out of. It's the perfect size for them. We'll put them in it and drag them around the house. They love it. Well, Ethan was climbing out of it, his foot got caught and he fell hitting his head on the corner of a cardboard box right where his eyebrow ends. That spot was already bruising within a few minutes and it looked like under his eye might be turning a purplish color. What a day! I know spills come with the territory, but I still felt bad about it.

Time Out

We've been trying out "Time Out" the last two days. Do I think it's working? I have no idea. I'm going to continue to do it though. Lucas still wants to turn the tv on and off and Ethan has started pulling my hair. So I kind of smack at their hand, say no we don't ____ and then put them in the pack n play in the other room for a minute or two. Then when I get them out, I again say what it is that they're not supposed to do and when I bring them back to the living room, give them a toy that they can play with and tell them that. Hopefully they'll catch on soon. We'll see.

Thankfully Lucas hasn't bitten anyone lately. He does have two new teeth that just broke through overnight. Now he has 8 teeth. Such a growin boy!

Biting...Advice Please!!

My intention was to blog today about all the words they've been saying. After this morning's incident, it's time to talk about biting. Both boys had a little bit of a biting issue when they first started teething. Ethan stopped as soon as his mouth filled up with teeth. His bites were usually your fingers on a little munch on your shoulder when you were holding him. Lucas, however, has not stopped and he's graduated from misdemeanor biting to felony biting.

He used to bit at your shoulder when you were holding him, your belly if he was sitting in front of you, my knees if I'm on the floor with my knees in the air, my ankles if my legs were straight out in front of me. Now he's biting Ethan. But he's not biting Ethan the same ways he's biting me or James, he's leaning over and chomping on Ethan's cheek. He's done it twice now. "No Bite!!" isn't working. I've asked a few friends and they've suggested that we bit Lucas back. Not hard enough to leave marks, but hard enough where he learns that it hurts. Those who've suggested it say it worked for their kids. These are people I trust and their kids are well behaved. We have to teach him not to bite. I'm confident this will end when he isn't teething anymore, but the boy has 4 front teeth and two molars that have started to come in. We have a LONG way to go before he's finished. What do I do? I want to teach him that it hurts and is wrong. Do I bite him back? Time out doesn't work. He gets distracted, but it isn't teaching him not to do it.

I'm also dealing with him learning not to turn off the tv. We have a flat screen in the living room and James said it's not good for him to keep turning it on and off. Plus it's annoying, whether I'm watching something or if it's off and he turns it on. He loves to cruise up to the tv, press the button, then turn around and smile. I said firmly NO, smack his hand and he laughs. Why is he laughing? Does he not see me as a disciplinarian? They've never really done anything up to this point that required more than a NO NO. I'm not really sure where to go fro here; what to do. Help me, please. What did/would you do???