Gage is 21 mths. And he's copying EVERYTHING as they normally do. Well DH and i have always kidded around and he'll tell me to "shut up". or me him. WELL now Gage is telling me to shut up. He'll get this stern look on his face and say "shut up mommy". HOW in the hell do i break that? do i ignore it? or what? DH and i are being really careful now with our kidding around using that phrase, but the damage is already done. I tell him No no, that's not nice. You be nice boy, don't say that, or something along those lines. i dont' even know if he knows what he's saying, chances are he doesn't, but STILL.

And while we're at it....HOW do you keep the little monkeys from climbing on furniture? I know its a normal thing, but my couch is just falling apart and i need it and its cushions to last a little longer. WELL Gage has taken to jumping up on the couch and behind the cushions, pushing them off, along with the blankets that i have on the back of the couch. I don't know why but it makes me NUTS. I really hate it. I tell him "no no, mommy said no." No jumping, etc..etc...he just laughs and does it anyway!:rolleyes: SOOOO what's a mom to do? I know we are supposed to pick our battles, but WHEN does following the rules apply?? UGH toddlerhood can make a mom batty....especially a pregnant mom!:D I'm reading Dr. Sears Discipline Book looking for the Big Answers, but nothing yet! LOL

My son is 23 m/o and he likes to spit water or juice across the room. If we say ANYTHING about it he does it worse. But we figured out to just ignore it. Then he stops quicker. Not sure if that is the best thing to do, but it works for us.

hth!

But not on a regular basis. I HATE that. LOL I usually take his juice cup away when he does it repeatedly. Or lays on his back and gurgles...UGH. LOL I guess i should ignore it...why can't i just ignore more things?

oh, forgot to mention that my ds also likes to jump on the couch. He would pull off the cushions and jump on the springs. I let him do it. He did it for a couple weeks and now has lost interest. I think if I had tried to tell him to stop, it would end up being a game and he would do it more, kwim?

when ds spits juice/water in the car or house, I take away his cup. He knows. He does not even fight it. But outside, I let him spit away.

I hate that it bothers me so much. I'm REALLY trying not to let it get to me! LOL PREGNANCY HOROMONES!!! But oh well....what can you do? I'm going to try to ignore it, see if that helps. Any other suggestions??

Ava's into the jumping, and I mostly just let her do it. Some options - take a mattress or cushions and put them on the floor, then let them go for it. At least they won't have far to fall! The other thing is to look for one of those little mini-trampolines at a garage sale, that would save your couch at least! Our local rec center also has a big trampo that the kids can play on too.

Shut up mommy - right now we're listening to "no, YOU do it". LOL! I mostly ignore her, change the subject, distract her or model "would you do this please?" instead. The reaction is what they're looking for. If you don't react, it's not as fun! ;) We had a time when Ava was saying the "S" word...and we stopped saying it, responded to her saying it with "Ava say shoot" or "shazbot" or something like that. It didn't take long and she forgot about it. Now she says things like "Oh Dear", which is SO cute! LOL

Spitting juice - again, providing the opportunity to explore this neat thing might save the furniture and floor. I let her do spitting games in the tub or outside, and if she starts in the house I quickly distract or offer the choices of outside or tubbie. Frequently, the distraction is all that's needed.

HTH - repeat after me - this is a phase, this is only a phase. ;)

I KWYM about the couch thing. It drives me nuts too! However, when I started really telling them not to jump on the couch, they started taking ds's mattress off his bed, stripping the blankets, sheets, waterproof pad etc off of it and hauling it around the house to jump on. It's a bigger pain for me to get the mattress back on and the bed made up again, then put the couch together. It still drives me nuts, so I'm not much help. I don't have eyes in the back of my head (contrary to folklore about mothers!), so can't always see them in time to stop them anyway.

As far as the words - the kids pick up on what we say. We have also found that out the hard way. It can only take hearing a word or phrase once sometimes! So the only way I can think of is to change how you talk and ignore him when he talks that way to you or just keep saying that isn't very nice and eventually it'll go away. Sometimes kids say things to get a reaction from us too.

I'm realizing that as we ignore the language, he forgets. LOL but the couch thing MAKES ME CRAZY. LOL i'm going to TRY to ignore that. TRY TRY TRY....

its just a phase, its just a phase (chanting it to the moon, the gods, and who ever else will listen!! :D )