Time out and other things..

 

At Beckett's 18 month check up his pediatrician suggested time out for his little tantrums.  We always used the rocking chair as the time out chair for our older two kids.  One day Richard was getting on to Beckett for throwing at fit and he deiced to but him in the corner of our playroom by the piano and that spot has become our time out area for Beckett.  When Beckett gets in trouble we tell him to go to time out and he runs crying to the area.  He doesn't stay long, its mainly just for him to chill out and try again.

A couple of weeks ago while the kids had a play date over at the house the movie Monsters Inc was playing on the TV.  Beckett stop died in his tracks and watched completely memorized for at least 15 minutes.  Which is a big deal because he has no interest in TV whatsoever.  One day while we were on our daily three miles walk Beckett was particularly fussy.  I forgot his diaper bag and had no snacks, drinks, or toys.  It was so cold I didn't want to pack him and the stroller back up and go home to get it so I figured we would try to walk with out our things.  Well Beckett made it for about half an hour and was not happy!  So I decided to find Monsters Inc on youtube on my phone.  All I could find was some 14 minute portion in French.  Well I guess Beckett didn't mind, the kid watched the whole thing!  I jokingly told Richard that Beckett will learn French before he learns English because he now loves to have my phone to watch Monsters Inc.

Early this week I set up an appointment for Beckett to meet with a speech therapist.  I am worried with his lack of verbal communication.  He has a very small word base: mom, dad, Allie, door, cheese, nana, oh oh, no, yay.  The other thing I worry about is that he has no interest in repeating words we tell him.  He also doesn't self babble or make many sounds on his own.  On the flip side Beckett totally understands everything we tell him, even complex commands he can follow through.  We can ask him questioning in books for example like asking him to point to the dog or cup.  He just refuses to speak.  Beckett will communicate with us by gesturing, or grunting, and pointing.  Our appointment is in two weeks so I am anxious to get some thoughts about Beckett's progress.  They had concerns with Beckett's breathing issues and reflux saying it might have caused a slight delay in speech.  Beckett had a very hard time with baby foods and drinking from a sippy cup.  He associated anything with his throat like food and drink as negative because it was painful.  We knew because of his reflux it would intentionally cause him pain at first.  It was such a struggle to get him to eat and know to talk.  I just hope we can learn some tools to help him better communicate.

Besides Beckett's speech issues he is a totally normal toddler.  I jokingly tell Richard that Mr. Destructor is back (AKA Cooper James old nick name) .  Beckett is totally into destroying and making messes.  He gets into draws and cabinets, he opens doors, gets into his siblings rooms.  He has done this for a while but know he just makes a huge mess!   He will help me with laundry and just throw clothes every where!  Last week Beckett got into the toothpaste and thought it was gel and fixed his hair!  That stinker is always getting into things.  I was surprised how hard it was to get out of his hair!  Beckett has also learned to buckle and unbuckle his car seat and stroller buckles.  He has become very independent wanting to do a lot of things himself.  OH THIS STAGE DRIVES ME CRAZY!  He doesn't want to hold my hand or help him in any way.

Oh the joys of toddlerhood.  Some days I feel like he is still my little baby and other days I think when did he get big enough to do this or that!!!