Taming the Wild

I put the "soft" edges on this pictures to contrast the wildness within Savannah that I'm about to talk about.   I have been realizing that Savannah is not only "active", but also a wild child.  She doesn't walk anywhere - she runs, skips, hops, drags, or crawls most of the time.  She is hands on - to EVERYTHING.  She talks, constantly, about everything.  And for the most part  - it's really awesome and really fun.   However, it has come time in some instances to TAME THE WILD.  Here's what we're doing:

1. Spanks.  We believe that to spare the rod is to spoil the child.  Early on we taught Savannah what it means to Obey and what happens when you do no Obey.  If she does not obey she gets spanked on her bear bottom with a wooden spoon.  Sounds harsh to some people, but it only takes a few spanks a week (most weeks) to keep her in line with what we want her to do, and usually what's best for her.

2. Whinning in her room only.  If she is genuinely sad about something that we've enforced and feels the need to cry it out, she can go to her room and sit in a chair and cry about it. But we don't put up with crying fits out in the open to attract everyone's attention.

3. New Grocery store game. I got this one from our friend Ranel.  When I take Savannah to the store I have her obey certain actions depending on the aisle.  Some times she has to ride in the cart the whole aisle, sometimes she has to just walk and keep one hand on the cart, sometimes she can just walk freely, sometimes I have her hold my hand.  By changing it up every aisle it keeps her from getting bored and causing pandaemonium and it also keeps me in control.  SOMETIMES she gets a reward at the end of the visit (candy or a cereal she wants).  But not every time.

So that's how we're rollin right now.  She's one special kid!