Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Toddler Boundaries

At twenty months, we are well into the world of no and mine with the Lone Star Baby and have been for some time, now. We tried very hard not to say no a lot when she was first learning to speak so she would not say it so much but ah, well. We have more recently moved firmly into the land of self, generally the screeched response to any attempt on our part to modify toddler efforts likely to unintentionally result in undue harm or mess. Self!

There's another boundary that comes up a good bit, along the same line as self these days: body. Sometimes, when nursing, the Lone Star Baby will annoy me with her hands. Since she has been old enough to understand - if not always obey - I have at such times told her to keep her hands on her own body. Now, when I want to hold her hand because, say, we are walking into the street or something, she snatches her hands to hold them tightly against her tummy, gives me a fierce little look and says Body!

Well. I guess that's clear enough.