The clean up

Last night Daniel´s diaper was off, which is rare in this Nordic atmosphere. He was ambling around when to his surprise, pee happened. Without a sound and after a bit of wonder, off he went to the kitchen. He opened the correct drawer, got out a rag, and went back to the pee spot and wiped it off. With 19 month olds like this, life is easy for mamma!

"Mamma, mamma!"

Daniel was a screamer, up until last week. This week we have a much calmer boy, and a calmer mamma for sure. Why? Well, I noticed that he screamed out of frustration whenever he couldn´t manage to do something he wanted to do, or needed help from one of us bigger people with something. I decided to try a variation of baby signing (which we don´t do), by giving him a word he could use to ask for help. I told him to say "mamma," and decided not to help him (much) when he screamed, but to urge him to say the magic "mamma" word instead. When he screamed, I´d come over and say "say mamma, and I´ll help you." It took a little while, but not long at all and he understood! Now, there´s way less screaming out of pure frustration and annoyance, and it´s blissful! I think he´s generally getting calmer now that he can master some important basic things that require some balance and coordination, and that, too, is a huge help for him. He´s such a smart, funny, sweet and determined little boy!