My daughter spits.  Yeah… initially this was called "blowing raspberries" but not any more.  The child has learned how to do one of the best Bronx cheers you’ve ever seen or been the victim of.  This was an infrequent thing but now, it is out of control.  And, the little bugger is starting to do it in response to being told "no".  So, today, this family and home, etc became a No Spit Zone.  AG is a bit unhappy about this but I don’t think she totally gets it yet.  I expect that tomorrow we will have the true test.  In other words, I expect tomorrow will be a bad day.  Once she has gotten the point that spitting is now officially against the rules (not obeying… just knowing she’s supposed to obey it) this family will also become a No Scream Zone.

(Can ya tell I’ve had an interesting weekend?????)

The screaming started quietly enough several months back.  She loves to hear herself scream.  She has lots of happy screams.   But in the past few months she also has had some "I’m mad as a wet hen and I’m gonna let you know about it" screams.  And… of course, we’ve got the "I’m gonna scream because you told me no" scream.  It’s hard to discipline those when the happy screams are allowed.  But, the catch with the happy screams is that if I reminded her (i.e. in a restaurant, in public, etc) that we needed to use our "inside voice" she was always very good about lowering her voice, a lot, and making her little quiet "screams" (not much louder than a whisper).  Well…. not any more.  She was quite the spectacle when I took her to dinner the other night… and then when we went singing Christmas carols (carrols?)  last night at church, etc etc etc.  So,  I have no choice.  No more screaming.  I’m going after the spitting first, then the screaming.  We’ll see how this goes.

Here’s the kiddo, disassembling her shopping cart (a favorite activity).