Judah

(written a week or so ago...)

Sunday night we’re sitting at the supper table and Judah isn’t thrilled about the meal placed before him. That’s okay though because eventually he’ll eat it. At least that was the case two weeks ago. Tonight Judah is a little smarter, so he thinks. At one point during supper he says the magic word for #2. I rush him and his cream covered hands to my freshly bleached toilet seat. He made a mess alright, only it was with his creamy hands on the toilet seat, not the #2 he had mentioned.

Oh how my smart little child is learning quickly. This is normally Bethany’s trick – she whines that she has to poop and climbs out of her chair. My little Judah may not be fluent in this language but it didn’t take him long to pick up Bethany’s little trick.

Back to the supper table we go. Judah continues to play with his food. I’m lazy and give my attention to my laptop rather than reminding my son to use his spoon. Minutes pass before he pulls this same trick out of his hat again. Off to the bathroom we run. Our pitstop at the sink to clean the creamy hands and I hear Judah passing gas. Great, you totally are going to crap your pants because I stopped to wash your hands. We hurry on into the bathroom and place Judah on the toilet. I give him a few moments and this time he couldn’t even urinate in the toilet because he’d since filled his pull-up (yes, he did urinate on the toilet the first time).

This time I’m frustrated. I don’t want to play this game. I don’t want Judah to play this game, nor do I want him thinking that lying is acceptable. So, how do you deal with that? This isn’t an adoption issue. I wonder the same thing about teaching my babes from my buddha belly the same thing. How do you teach young children that being truthful is the only acceptable method. Though this isn’t an adoption issue, adoption issues (communication barriers and him being new to our family) do complicate it a bit. How do appropriately train and discipline him? I’m curious what training and discipline suggestions you might be willing to share for all 3 of my kiddos.

Back to the booster seat he goes. It’s taken way too much time tonight but I’m gladly catching up on blogs and wishing I was still connected to the internet so I could comment. Alas, it’s beyond bed time. I take Judah upstairs where he happily brushed his teeth and headed to bed. He climbs into bed where he starts in with his 2nd trick that he picked up from his siblings. Snickering under my breath, I turn to Judah when he calls me by name. Yes, my kids do that all the time to avoid going to bed. Judah has quickly picked up on this game too. I smile at my sweet son, tell him to stay in bed, wish him a good night and walk out of the room all while getting a kick out of the many things my s on has learned in a few short weeks.