Morning Mantra

Past two mornings had been particularly bad with R. He would start throwing a tantrum the moment we mentioned the idea of leaving the house to go to his daycare. All he wanted was to watch some Elmo on TV and he would refuse to move. It was weird seeing him like this and we just let him cry out. Today I reached a breakthrough with him. After having cried relentlessly for 15 minutes he came and hugged me and keep whimpering a little bit. I started talking to him in a calm voice trying to divert his attention. I asked him if he would like to sing the ABC song. He said a firm 'NO'. Then I asked him if he wanted to sing 'Twinkle Twinkle' to which he said another 'NO'. I pursued further (at this point he had stopped crying and was listening to what new ideas I might come up with) and asked him if he wanted to play his favorite word game. He got down from my lap, wiped his face and said a beaming 'YES'. He quickly ran and got the game. I sat with him for 5 minutes and we made 5 words and his mood seemed to have completely changed. After having done the 5 words he said "pack-up time" and cleaned up the tiles etc ... and said 'Mommy, C'mon lets go'. Within 2 minutes we were out of the house on our way to the daycare.

It is amazing how a simple 10 minute game with him helped lift his mood. I had figured the Morning Mantra and I couldn't be more relieved. I have now decided to spend at least 15-20 minutes doing some activity with him in the morning ....