Life with a toddler definitely keeps you on your toes. Leah can communicate somewhat but I don’t always understand exactly what she wants all the time. Throughout the process, when I understand, I have been trying to give her what she wants when it is appropriate and saying no when appropriate as well. Sometimes it is a direct clash of will while other times redirection and distraction work wonderfully. I don’t want Leah to get whatever she wants because of our fear of an impending, loud, passionate temper tantrum. I don’t want to get in the habit of saying no just because of my selfishness either. So we are trying to walk the balance.
As I was trying to get some chores done downstairs, I took Leah with me and she noticed her stroller in our laundry room. She rarely rides in the stroller anymore but still seems to have a fondness for it. She walked over to it and starting doing her ‘I want it’ murmurs along with her ‘I want it’ dance.
I thought through the pros and cons as I don’t want to say to no to everything without thinking it through. Slightly inconvenient but I can surely give ten seconds of my time for a moment of happiness. In the end it worked out wonderfully. I vacuumed the downstairs, moving the stroller to make sure I got all the floor. She still didn’t want to get out so I pushed her into our master bedroom so she could watch me clean the bathroom. I thought she would be extremely bored with no toys to play with but she was more than content and I got the time I wanted to do laundry, clean the bathroom, vacuum and tidy up our bedroom.
Now what will it be next week to keep her occupied happily while I get my cleaning done. It could be anybodies guess but the most unlikely will probably prevail. And that’s okay.