Re-tooling

Tiegan, as previously reported, is a happy, active little guy. His needs are simple and he generally communicates them clearly, including by use of a few signs. According to reports from home this weeks, he is saying "doggie" and "thank you". How much those reports are distorted by the pride of grandparenthood we'll have to see when we get home in a few days...

... from vacation in Grand Cayman. We are incredibly fortunate to have the support to be able to do this. It has been such a welcome release. So this is what it feels like to get a full night's sleep more than one day in a row.

Among other benefits, this break has given us some time to re-tool. We feel that our small toolbox of Tiegan-management tools and techniques is adequately stocked, although we of course need to adjust from time to time. The most recent example: Giving in to Tiegan's desire to have full access to the remote, on the theory that the worst he could do is turn off the TV, turned out badly. It resulted in a DVR programmed to record all episodes of "Saved By the Bell", "Pimp My Ride", and some other VH-1 reality shows I'd never heard of, the collection of which displaced Moorea's favorites and an entire season of "The Shield" before we recognized what was happening. Still, fairly easy fix once the problem was identified.

Our Moorea toolbox, though, has been steadily emptied over the course of the past six to nine months. Physical coercion is no longer an option when she refuses to get dressed, since even if it were possible to get the clothes on her, she can now take them off just as quickly. The sturdy "promise of special treat" tool has become flimsy under ordinary circumstances and downright worthless in the face of three-and- a-half-year-old temper tantrums. Upon hearing "I don't WANT a special treat! I don't LIKE special treats!" a few times, we realized that Moorea had plucked that standby from our kit, never to return. Perhaps most unsettling, the heretofore extremely reliable reverse psychology tool has become little more than a joke. For a while, I hoped that it would remain useful under certain circumstances, but when Moorea a few weeks ago urged me to eat by saying "Dada, you do NOT like hamburgers", I realized that not only had she fully laid the trick bare, but that she was working out how to use it for her own purposes.

So we're resting up, doing a little reading on the topic under a beach umbrella with some adult beverages ("Smart Love" has some interesting ideas and I find they go well with gin and tonic), and getting ready to come back with renewed energy and a couple of new tools.