cold turkey

both eamon and otis are at really nice ages right now. otis is getting really interactive, and is starting to feed himself finger foods. plus, he's past that stage when a baby can cry and cry for no clear reason. eamon is capable of more and more, and is understanding a lot. much more like a kid than a toddler. i find that things are going especially smooth since i've been implementing what i've learned through the peaceful parenting book.

the family i grew up in yelled a lot. we yelled when we were angry, but also just to communicate. my mom hated it, even though she did it too. brendan's family was not like that. the peaceful parenting approach has inspired me not to yell or be loud when communicating. not only has it not been as hard as i expected, i feel like it's really changed our atmosphere. sure, sometimes it feels like i'm still ineffective at getting eamon to cooperate, but at least now i'm calm and ineffective rather than loud/angry and ineffective.

tonight eamon was simply not tired, and i couldn't get him to stay in bed. b was at a band practice, so i just stayed calm and just tried to wait him out. there was no point in getting mad. i knew he wasn't purposely "disobeying". he just couldn't sleep, and that happens to everyone sometimes. so eventually, he did nod off at 9:30. and i was able to carry on with my evening as planned.