Parenting

So I have been having a hard couple of weeks with Myra. Most of it is me I know but I like to blame it on someone else. Here is what a typical day is for Myra:

* drawing on the couch with a pen
* touching the projector
* getting into my makeup and worst of all my eyeliner
* bringing juice into the living room and spilling it(not to mention that it is cranberry apple juice...so a stain is involved)
* getting into the kitchen cupboards and dragging everything out
* not holding my hand while crossing the street
* getting chairs and other objects and stacking them until she is able to reach things that she is not supposed to get into
* laying on top of Kandie
* getting into things while I am feeding Kandie because I can't get to her fast enough
*getting on the computer and pushing buttons making our computer download things that make it slower
*getting into the wet wipes


And the one that I wish would be over with already

NOT POOPING ON THE POTTY AND MAKING ME CHANGE HER STINKY DIAPERS...

I have been reading a book on disciplining your toddlers and younger children and it is funny how most the anger and frustration is from the parent. First the parent talks to their child. Next tries to persuade them to do what they want. Then they argue and yell until they eventually hit their child out of frustration. They call it the talk-persuade-argue-hit syndrome. The toddler is just testing grounds to see what they can get away with.

How come parenting is so hard!!! Some days' (like today) I wish that they came with a manual. 'When a child does not listen or throws a tantrum, unscrew the back and pull out the batteries'. Oh how I wish that were true.

To control myself I find that I have to sit down and read that book until I realize that I need to teach them that I am the boss. And not by throwing fits. She learns those fits from me probably.

Now the potty training thing...boy how I do I start. She was so anxious to sit on the potty when we first got it that I pushed her too far and now she's not interested at all. The only reason she sits on it is because she used to get cookies. I have changed the rules though. She gets a sticker for trying and a cookie when she actually poops on the potty. But she hasn't gotten that yet. She looks at me, "mommy I want a cookie"...then she remembers that when she poops on the potty she get one, so she takes off to the bathroom, pulls down her pants, sits on the potty and say, "cookie mommy cookie mommy". And I know that is the only reason why she sits on it. When she finds out that she doesn't get the cookie she's done. It makes it so that I don't want to take her to the potty because I know that she won't go.

Oh the treasures of potty training...Can I switch places with her one day so I can be the one to drive her crazy...