Teaching Your Toddler Manners

Manners are one thing that we have always tried to work on with Cruz. In my eyes, a "please" or "thank you" goes a long way.

Fortunately Cruz picked up on this early and very rarely does he not use good manners. Whether it be "yes please" when I ask if he wants milk with his dinner or "bless you" when someone sneezes, this kid actually does a pretty good job.

For the most part.

For us, some of the most important tips to teaching Cruz to use good manners have been:

• Model the behavior yourself. If you want your child to use good manners, then you should do the same.
• Be consistent. Use the words consistently in every day communication so your child gets used to hearing it.
• Praise good behavior.  When they say please or thank you, tell them thank you for using their manners. A little praise goes a long way with kiddos. Oftentimes, after I say thank you, it's no fail that Cruz will say, "does that make you happy, mama?"

Most recently, we have been working on "may I please be excused" when he wants to leave the table. I mean, I'll be honest when I say that I'm pretty sure I've never said this in my entire life, but remember this is all about making your kiddo waaaay better than you ever were, right?

And don't get me wrong, Cruz is not all please and thank you and smiles and roses.

Case in point...

Sooo, that is supposed to be him saying "may I please be excused, mama."

Uh huh, you heard that right. He instead said, "may I scuse me please, dummy."

My immediate reaction? "Cruz, you don't say dummy!"

"But mama, gran says it."

"Gran?" Who the hell is gran?

"Gran. From the Croods. She says 'we need some more fire, dummy.' Remember?"

Great. The TV I'm letting him watch is not only rotting his brain (or so I've heard) but now it's teaching him to use the word dummy.  Can a mom ever win?

On the other hand, I was more than happy to oblige when he sweetly asked me if he could please wear his "bomb" jacket to school.

Jacket // Camo Pants ($8 at ON right now!) // Nikes

Does it get any sweeter? I'm kind of digging the new 'sweep over' hair style he's been rocking these days.

The hair? It's all his daddy, I can't get it to do anything but stick up all over.

Potty Training 101

Ok, seriously, this title is a joke.

I'm the last person to take potty training lessons from.

Remember when I thought we had it all down with the nanny? {here}

Ha!

And then earlier this year I gave it another shot thinking if I bribed him with M&Ms and being able to wear big boy undies that he would just figure it out? {here}

Double ha!

And even better when he blatantly peed his big boy undies, slipped and fell right into it?  {here}

There was even a point when I felt all good inside after he would go in the potty and people were so impressed that he was so little and already potty training. I was kind of smug proud that we had it down.

Seriously, rude awakening.

As of right now, he has the upper hand and basically has proven that he will not tell us when he has to go. Or better yet he waits until he's gone and then tells us. Like he's mocking our little plan to get him potty trained.

Is it that bad if my kiddo goes to Kindergarten in diapers?  At this point I'm not sure I care.

Ok it's not that bad.

We are now approaching round #26 of this little venture and, while I'm not convinced I have it figured out, I sure hope we do.

I made this fancy little chart.

Bought some totally rad stickers.

Had him pick out a super cool toy at the store....that I bribed him with.

And now we have reviewed the plan over and over and over.

Basically it goes like this:

He tells us when he has to go pee pee or poo poo.

We hurriedly remove the dipe and set him on the big boy potty.

When he goes, he gets to take a sticker and put it on his chart.

After 10 stickers, he gets the big boat.

Since then? He has asked me no fewer than 212 times if he can get put a sticker on the chart or play with his Jake boat.

And all I've gotten is a lot of this.

With no action in the potty as of yet.

{smh}

I have a feeling this is going to be a looooong process.

Anyone have any pointers? I will listen to - and try - just about anything at this point...

Because I really don't want my kid walking into kindergarten with a diaper sticking out of the top of his jeans....

Linking up with Ashley and Jess. Because potty training is just one of those little things that we get to experience with these kiddos of ours.

And Kristin for her Baby Talk series.