Luke Happenings

NO WHINING ZONE
We've been teaching Luke to communicate using his words. "Use your words," we say. He is getting pretty good with this reminder and will say what he needs instead of whining. "I have - some - apple juice please?"

There are times, however, that he whines beyond reason. The situation might go something like this: We've asked him to communicate, he has, we've said no, he cries, we validate that he is upset, give him another chance, ask him to stop whining, and it still continues.

I am much more prone to put up with it, tune it out, and be patient with it than Howie. But lately its just so unreasonable. One day, after I had done all I could do and he was not moving on, I said, "Luke, this is a no whining zone. If you would like to whine you can go to your room and do that." I really didn't know how he'd react but I DID NOT expect him to say, "Ok," walk to his room, and come back with a better attitude!

I have now used this tactic a number of times and each time he says, "Ok, Mama," walks to his room and comes back at least somewhat better. I am still in a bit of shock this has worked!

STUBBORN
Today Luke spilled his popcorn on the floor. Ashley T. helped him clean it up. The next thing I know he threw his cup of popcorn in anger. Here's how the interaction went...
M: You need to clean that up.
L: No!
M: Ok, then you can go to timeout until you are ready to clean up the popcorn.
L: No.
Yet he calmly walks to timeout and sits down as if he's totally fine with timeout. He sits and enjoys watching the kids play. So I asked them to move out of his line of sight so he'd have no stimulation in timeout. He's fine with it.
After a couple minutes...
M: Are you ready to pick up the popcorn?
L: No.
M: Ok, then you can sit in timeout.
L: No!
M: Luke, you can pick up the popcorn and then go play, or you can sit in timeout.
I don't know how many times I made it clear that he could get out of time out if he'd just pick up the popcorn. But he choose timeout over picking up popcorn.
L: All done timeout.
M: Oh good! Then pick up the popcorn.
L: No.
Luke sat in timeout for 10 mintues before he decided it would be a good idea to pick up the popcorn and go play. And although 10 minutes is not that long, for a two year old, and Luke at that, it was a long time for him to sit there with absolutely nothing to do.
Its strange how he can be so defiant, and then once he decided to clean up he had a good attitude about. He began throwing popcorn in the trash as he sang, "Cleam up, cleam up, eveybody (*do your*) share." Then I gave him the dust buster and he vaccuumed the crumbs, then asked to vaccuum the crumbs left in the playroom.

I remained calm during the whole thing, which isn't always the case. And this whole interaction made me wonder how I act like this in relation to God. Sometimes God must just say, "why are you choosing captivity when all you have to do is clean yourself up a bit? Its not that hard, and you will have help."

I wuv Disa!
On the way to Puggles tonight, Luke was saying, "Christian, a Christian, Christian." I don't know where he learned that word, its not like we refer to ourselves that way at home, and I'd never heard him say that before. So I asked him if he knew what a Christian was. There was a long pause indicating he didn't know. So I said, "A Christian is someone who loves Jesus. Do you love Jesus?" He very enthusiastically responded, "YEA! I wuv Disa!"