Self-correction
I wish I hadn’t waited so long to write again. Stuff happens. The Boy is well. He’s 22 months, healthy, growing and talking up a storm. He can hold a conversation with you and understand what it is you are conversing about. He is able to identify, by name. pretty much every picture in his picture books. He can say “obnoxious” and say it obnoxiously. He can already correctly pronounce words with l’s and r’s, something other kids have problems with until they are six. His ability to mimic is frightening. You only have to say something one time for him to repeat it perfectly complete with whatever gesture you made. He is the most linguistically advanced child of any we’ve met in his age group.
The Boy’s dialectic accomplishments are a double-edged sword. We have found ourselves dealing with “terrible two” behavior a little earlier than we expected. He learned the word “no” several months ago and until recently any time you asked him anything, he would respond with no. He says “ok” for yes, so we’ve at least been able to identify when he really wants something, but for the most part we are replied to in the negative. This had not stopped us from being good parents and making him do it, whatever it is, anyway. We have recently wondered if we are being a bit too harsh on him when we tell him to stop doing something as a strange behavior has started to emerge.
A while back he was playing with some Duplo (baby Lego for those not in the know). I had made a “car” for him, little more than 4 or 5 bricks on a wheel brick base. He was driving it around and it came apart, which they are designed to do. He started crying and then “fussing” at himself for breaking it.
“Stop it! Stop it! Breaked it! Stop it!”
Clearly he felt he had done something “bad” enough to warrant a punishment. We didn’t really know quite what to do since what he had done wasn’t really anything bad at all. We eventually went over to console him and calm down the hysteria.
Since then, when he’s doing something he knows is wrong and we start to get stern, he immediately follows up with “Stop it!”
We have also been using Time-Out as a method for punishment. It is only moderately effective as he is able to entertain himself without the aid of toys or tv fairly well. Regardless, he knows when he’s done something bad or is going to do something bad as he prefaces it with “Time Out?”
Our evening routine has added picking up our toys before going up to bed. A large part of that is picking up all the Wheelies off the floor and putting them in the bucket. We’ll say, “Pickup your cars and put them in the bucket please.” To which he responds by running away, playing with something else and then saying, “Time-Out?” So then he goes to Time-Out.
He understands what is going on. He knows when he’s doing something wrong. We’re just not sure how to make him actually do the right thing instead of the wrong thing. Parenting is confusing.
Daddy On The Fly 
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