One of the not-so-fun things about Lil’ Duck growing up is the need for punishment. Who knew someone so cute and little could be so naughty?

Oftentimes now he will throw something or hit us with ducky or use another object to misbehave. We discovered that rather than putting HIM in time-out in this case, it actually works better to put ducky or another object in time-out. Ducky sits atop the kitchen counter where he can be seen, but not touched, with his head underneath his wings . Oh my, the howls and the apologies as soon as this dreaded event occurs! Ever since that time-out, he hasn’t hit anyone or anything with ducky though.
Last night the humidifier got a time-out, with equal success so far (the irony in putting a HUMIDIFER in time out was highly amusing to me, by the way).

Be sure to visit the rest of the Works For Me Wednesday tips for other great ideas as well.

• Make it something special of course, but don’t add too much hype, otherwise they will probably feel the pressure. Be prepared to wait if they aren’t ready (i.e. don’t take the crib down too soon).
• If you have space, put the bed, with sheets/comforter/bed rails, in the room well before you actually start using it. They can get used to it being there and play on it during the day to see that it is a fun thing, not scary.
• Let them pick out fun sheets if they are able – some mommies have had great success with the new princess or Blue’s Clues sheets, for example – they may like them so much, they’ll want to sleep on them right away.
• Take down the crib while they are around, explaining that they are big boys/girls and going to sleep in a big bed now. Once the new bed was set up, have them help make the bed and choose which stuffed animals could go in their bed. One mother had success with having them pick two animals so that they can keep each other company during the day – this can avoid a giant pile of animals on the bed.
• Put a gate at the door, so they can see us, we see them and know that they aren’t getting into anything they shouldn’t. Some have had success with double gates, one atop the other.

Lil’ Duck refused to take a paci from birth, I tried and tried but he just wanted to nurse all the time for comfort. Anyway, a lot of his friends are still trying to kick the paci habit, so here are some tips from their mommies that might help anyone else in a similar situation.

• I would recommend cold turkey, out of sight, out of mind. Yes, it will be hard the first couple of days, but it gets so much easier. You can hold him and give him lots of kisses when you do it. If you really don’t want to, you can do the Paci fairy thing. The Paci Fairy comes to get all the binkys to give to the new babies (or to take the binky back to their Binky mommies and daddies) and leaves them a toy in exchange. You can have him put the binky on the window sill and say good bye to it. When they are sleeping, take it away and put all of them in the trash can outside. You can have a hunt (like an Easter egg hunt to find all the binky’s) before you do that. You can also have a little calendar and mark off days until the binky fairy comes to visit.
• The second attempt at cold turkey went SO much better than the first. He was probably about 19-20 months old by then. He fussed a little, but did not cry unconsolably. The first several days he would ask for it repeatedly, but we just kept telling him it went bye-bye and gave him extra love to help him through. After about a week he didn’t even talk about his binky anymore.
• I cut the tip off yesterday before naptime, and then when it was time for his nap, of course he asked for his binky. I gave it to him and showed him that it must have broke. He kept syaing “binky broke” but would try to suck on it anyway. Then he would take it out of his mouth, look at it, look at me, and repeat it again. He whined for an hour or so, after which i went up and rocked him some more, and he finally wanted to lay back down, cried for 10 min. more then went to sleep with his binky in his hand.
• Cut all the binky’s and tell him to throw them in the trash. You can make a big deal out of throwing away all the broken binky’s by just clapping and telling everyone around. When he throws them away, take the trash out. Then you can say, “Yay, you are such a big boy that you don’t need  binky anymore! They are all going bye bye – can you say bye bye binky’s?” I think that will help if you are going to do cold turkey.

Have any tips to add?? Put them in comments .

Might be useful, especially with Lil’ Duck loving to spread them all over my living room…..

1 tablespoon of baby wash
1 tablespoon of baby oil
1/2-1 cup of water (depending on how wet you prefer)
1/2 precut roll of paper towels (Bounty is the best and won’t fall apart)

You will need to find a Tupperware type bin with a lid that will hold a cut paper towel roll. Take your paper towel roll and cut it in half – if you keep the plastic on the roll it works better, but not necessary. Make sure you use a sharp, non-serrated knife, it will work better. If not, you will have to pick the frayed edges away. Pour the baby wash, baby oil and water and mix in bin. Put the cut paper towel roll in the bin and let sit for about 7 minutes or so. Then flip over – this will speed up the soaking up the liquid part into the paper towel. Then, once the paper towel is thoroughly soaked, pull the cardboard center out from the middle and the wipes will dispense this way. Bounty paper towels will not fall apart, but you could use the cheaper ones if you like.

Since I have a hurricane baby (he was born during a hurricane, then we had another when he was 2 weeks old, then a few since then have come close to us), we’re pretty well used to preparing for storms with a little one. Always follow all the general advice, including:

• Keep a full gas tank, gas supplies may be low for several days afterward.
• Keep a few weeks worth of food and medicine and water in the house.
• Have a safe place in the house away from windows and outside walls.
• Keep a flashlight, batteries, blankets, cell phone, radio, and any other emergency items in a container in an easy-to-find place so you aren’t running around with no power trying to locate them.

The common advice to fill all available containers and tubs with water makes me very nervous with the little guy – please lock the bathroom door if you do this, little ones can be anywhere in a flash and it’s just not worth it. I usually fill up containers of water and freeze them, then fill up the teapot and things like that and keep them up high so I have the water, but don’t have to worry about him getting into it.

Here’s some other things to remember:

• Make sure you have at least 2 weeks worth of formula, bottled water, milk, or any other special beverage that your little one drinks. Lil’ Duck drinks only soy milk, so I have a stash of shelf-stable containers in the pantry (make sure you drink them before they expire though ).
• Also make sure to have clean water for washing and rinsing bottles/sippy cups, as you might not have a clean water supply afterwards.
• Diapers/wipes/teething medicine/etc – even if the storm is mild and you can get to the store soon afterward, the supplies may not be there because of the shipping disruption. This can take several days or even a few weeks to resolve, so it’s just easier to keep all the baby supplies (and regular food for that matter) stocked up a few weeks ahead.
• Charge your cell phones but keep a CORDED landline phone – even if you don’t have landline service, you can still use it to call 911 if necessary. Often even if the power and cable are out, the phone lines still work. Cell phones hardly ever work anytime during or after a storm, so don’t count on being able to use them.

If you might have to evacuate, keep a suitcase around and keep the important stuff in it as much as possible. Don’t forget the fun stuff – being stuck in the house, probably without power, for a few days is going to drive everyone crazy unless you plan ahead. If you leave your home for a safer place, bring favorite toys, familiar blankets, loveys, and plenty of snacks & drinks!

I got so many great comments on my potty training post that I’m publishing them as a new post for everyone to see (and for my reference, I think I’ll need all these ideas and more, so keep them coming ).

Kelly suggested that summer is a great time for training because he can spend lots of time outside.

He can practice peeing on trees and depending on his commitment, you can offer the Spiderman undies as a reward. You can take a potty chair outside too…

Killired used bribery – one sweet tart for #1, five for #2. She let her second son pick out his candy (M&M’s) but it didn’t help. He decided that he was going to poop in his diaper for the rest of his life (LOL)! Her mom told him that she will have a potty party for him when he was trained – with a pooh cake – and it worked!

I think kids are naturally ready when they are ready and not when we are ready… becuase this is what I have experienced with my 3. I pushed #1 and also #2 and they were harder to train… #3 is loving it! He picked out the krabby patty gummy treats and gets 1 when he pees. Poop gets him 2 treats. I also printed out a really cool sheet for him to put stickers on it, it’s the best chart I’ve seen so far because it has so many squares!”

The Random Yak also advised bribery – this time with jellybeans.

“When Yak the Younger was potty training (eons ago) we kept a glass jar of jelly bellies in the bathroom. He got one for “number one” – two for “number two.” Jelly bellies are small and have few calories – not enough to matter – but boy did they have a big impact on a kid who otherwise didn’t get candy. And no, we didn’t have a problem “phasing out” once he’d learned. We let him get them until the jar was empty and that ended that.”

Hsien Lei reminded me to be patient because every kid has his or her own timeline.

Karen recommends that we get lots of extra underpants -

and when it’s over, treat yourself to something really nice, you’ll have earned it!!

JGS‘ little Okapis took a very long time -

despite our bribery attempts and demonstrations and urging (out of desperation). When they were ready it took about a week. From the moment we started showing them the potties, it took over a year. Sigh. Patience, patience, patience. You can make him do it, but it is probably not worth the effect it would have on him. If you have time, try to let him do it on his own while you try to make it easy for him to do it however he wants.

Mama G suggests patience and more wine – hee hee.

He loves to loudly announce to the world that he has “poop”, and yesterday after watching me, he decided that he wanted to sit on the big toilet himself and check it all out. So I figure it is time to get him a potty chair/seat/stepstool thing, even if we don’t do much with it for a while, at least it’s something to keep him from falling into the toilet when he sits on it . He’s not even two yet, I guess I didn’t expect him to show any interest for a while yet.

So, do you have any potty training hints/tips/tricks to share??