Dealing with Daphne

I don’t know if this is true for all kids, but I remember Brett going through this phase and Daphne is definitely going through it. It’s the phase of “deal making”. She understands well enough now that we can really talk with her. So now when we want her to do things we can tell her and she will usually do them as he’s very into trying to “he[l]p”. But there are sometimes when we really need to make sure she gets something, or it’s something we think it’s unlikely that she’ll just accept or do. On these occasions, we’ve started to explain things to her really well in succint steps and get her to agree to each step. It’s very cute.

Examples:

Mom/Dad: “We’re going to put your shoes on now, but you have to keep them on, ok?”

Daphne: “K”

M/D: “We will get food, but first we have to buckle the car seat, ok?”

Daphne: “K”

M/D: “I’m going to go to the bathroom and you need to stay here, ok?”

D: “K”

M/D: “And you can’t cry, ok?”

D: “K”

And she does a really good job of keeping her word. She tries really hard to do what she’s agree to do or not to do. It’s sooo cute to watch her try not to cry when she has agreed not to. She gets this HUGE bottom lip and holds it back as long as she can. It really makes you not want to go do what it was that you needed to leave to do.