Thank you, B.F. Skinner (and my college education)

You know those days when you just get fed up with repeating yourself a million times? This is now my daily life. I'm trying really hard to focus on the cute nature of my children now and relishing it, rather than living in my emotions. I miss those days when Livi was so little and cute and realize that I will miss these days, too, once they are long gone.

So, in practicing this, I've learned a few things. I really am more patient and find myself in more control of my emotions as these stressful situations arise, you know those situations where you talk yourself blue in the face over the dumbest thing (eg. "put the animals away, please.") and end up getting so extremely frustrated and irritated so your voice gets increasingly louder... at least I hope you know. I've had a few instances with Olivia where I've raised my voice a little--okay, a LOT, to increase the harshness of the "mommy voice". Usually when I get to that point I'm just so mad I'm just seeing red. Lately, I check myself and realize that I'm in total control of my emotions. I also get better results.

Example:
Tonight I was putting the kids to bed. I really wanted to get them to bed as quickly as possible because BJ was sick and coming home from work early. I walked in to Olivia's room to find that she'd completely emptied her dresser in a giant pile on the floor and that the drawers (very light weight), were scattered around the room. I also saw the puzzles all over the floor and her dolls from her doll house lined up in front of the closet. I calmly asked her why she took out the clothes that I'd worked so hard organizing. She replied, "I'm being like mommy, I'm doing the laundry." I told her that sounded like a lot of fun and was a good thing to practice, but we need to try to keep things nice and organized when they are clean because mommy works very hard to keep the house nice and tidy (yeeah right, tidy, that's what we'll call it).
I decided to ignore the dollies because she typically likes to pick up where she left off on those. Fine with me. I can live with that. Then the puzzles. I asked her to pick up the puzzles while I got Ethan ready for bed. She did two of them. That's when I went upstairs to get them each a new water sippy cup for bed. When I came back the puzzles were still all over the floor and she was playing with Ethan. I said in a very Mommy voice, "Olivia..." She crept out of Ethan's room with the guiltiest look on her face. I said, "Puzzles. Now." Then the whining started. Oh how I hate, no, LOATHE whining! It's like nails on a chalkboard to me. I raised my voice (I yelled a little, really, it wasn't bad) and told her exactly what I expected of her while I put Ethan to bed (this was punishment enough because there was to be no story tonight for her and she likes to sit quietly in the corner of his room while I pray with him and sing him songs). That's when I checked myself. I actually stopped and thought, "Am I losing it, or am I in control of myself. Much to my surprise, I wasn't really mad at all. I just wanted to get my point across. I hoped she'd be obedient. I heard her moving around the room, but wasn't sure what to expect when I opened the door. A bigger mess? Nope. The puzzles were neatly put together and set aside and she'd tucked herself into bed. She has never done that! I was so excited! I smothered her with kisses and hugs and she hopped out of bed and said her prayers without goofing off (another miraculous thing!!), then hopped back in while I got her water then layed by her to sing songs and give her a light tickle. I love positive reinforcement! Especially when I'm the one being reinforced!