Defiance, Part XII

Thanks for all of your comments on the last post. Just so you know the issue is ongoing, here's a little re-cap of what happened this morning.

So we're eating breakfast, and he's doing a good job. I tell him a couple of times, "You're doing such a good job eating, buddy!" and "You're sitting so nicely - you're such a big boy!" You know, the whole positive reinforcement thing. We were nice and content. The morning was off to a good start. And then somehow it all went terribly wrong.

He has two bites of waffle left (we were SO close!), and slides out of his chair and starts messing around on the floor. We go through the routine of getting him back in the chair. He scrapes his fork across the wall and drops it (on purpose) between the floor and the wall. Syrup everywhere. "Uh-oh!," he exclaims. I ask if he is done. He says "no!" and I ask him to pick up his fork and get back in the chair. He ignores me. I tell him, "If you don't sit in your chair and finish eating, mama is going to take your plate to the kitchen." He ignores me. I count to three, and take his plate to the kitchen.

He screams and chucks his sippy cup across the room at me (the kid's got an arm!) I tell him it's not nice to throw things and ask him if he wants to sit in time out. He looks right at me, shouts "NO!" and subsequently SPITS on the table.

I'm sorry, did you just SPIT on the table????????????????????????

Where does he get this stuff????? Certainly Tommy and I don't sit around and SPIT on the table. And I'm pretty sure they don't sit around family-style at the daycare table and spit. So WTH????

Of course I put him in time out, which was a battle I eventually won. But who invented time out? I mean seriously. The person who needs a time out here is ME! If he doesn't want one - can I have it???