Timeout

No less than five times a day, I put either Zoe or Ty in timeout.  I'm actually getting frustrated that it's not working as well on Zoe as it used to.  But that's not the point here...

The OTHER thing I say numerous times a day is, "Don't throw toys over the gate!"  Cole and Eli are the primary offenders.  It's so annoying!

What do those two bits of information have in common?  Stay with me here...

Yesterday, I was folding laundry (does anyone else notice that things tend to go wrong when I'm folding laundry?) and Zoe came upstairs crying.  Apparently, she was hit on the chin by a flying Kung Fu Panda.  Struggling to contain the chuckles, I eventually got the full story: Zoe told Cole not to throw Panda over the gate, at which point he cocked back the toy and let it fly...and it hit Zoe square in the chin.

I soothed the victim injured child and went downstairs to confront the villain Cole.  Zoe was two steps behind me, making sure Cole was going to be punished for hurting her.  As I was figuring out what exactly I was going to do to/with Cole, I remembered my friend Helen tell me that she puts her one-year olds in timeout.  So I thought I'd give it a shot.

Success.  Suuuuuuuuuuure...he got up once, but that's while I was going to get my camera.  I sat him on the same step that Zoe and Ty sit on.  For two minutes (afterall, he's almost 2 years old...one minute per year, right?)  He immediately sat down, tapped his fingers on his knee, and avoided eye contact.  I stood a few feet away to make sure he wouldn't get up.  I had to turn my back so he wouldn't see me snicker.

I will definitely be using timeout again!