A couple of days ago, I was enduring 45 minutes of whining and screeching before she would utter a word, now she's walking up to me and asking for things! When she doesn't know the word or exactly what she wants, she calmly comes over to me, grabs my finger, and leads me to it. She still occasionally goes over to what she wants, reaches, and whines, but now if I ask what she wants, she'll almost immediately change gears and tell me.
Today she has already asked for:
- A banana
- To do puzzles
- To do jungle gym
- Treat (damnit)
And here's the one that threw me for a loop - milk! She's not a big milk drinker, that honor goes to Teeny Tiny. But she brought me her water cup and usually she asks for more water and I have her help me fill the cup, but this time she clearly asked for milk! What makes this feel like such a break thru is that she asked for something that is completely out of our norm. In our household, the girls drink milk with meals and have water available in their cups all day. Asking for milk, it's a whole different level of thinking from following the patterns we usually follow, it's the creation of an action outside the norm. And you damn well better believe I got her some milk!
She's still whining a little bit but it's not nearly as bad as it was even a few days ago. We really only had to be hard assed and endure a bit of misery for one day, then consistent on the second day, and she's learned the lesson that she needs to communicate politely for us to understand. I know there will be backslides and stuff, but now I know that she knows how to communicate politely, she'll just have to be reminded to do so and not rewarded when she doesn't.
The household is already so much happier!
YAY!
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