Communication

Susannna is one of those toddlers who knows exactly what she wants and is dead set on getting her way. Most of the time her requests are reasonable the problem comes in her ability to communicate that request. She gets so confused. Off is On, Open is shut, up is down and so forth. She knows what she wants but can't find the right words to tell me. Sometimes she gets it right but even then I still get it wrong. For example this morning's conversation when Susanna brought me her Aerial doll fully dressed...

Susanna "Aerial dress on!!!"
Mommy " How do you talk to mommy"
Susanna "Please"
Mommy " The dress is already on do you want me to take it off?"
Susanna " "On" so I take the dress off anyway and hand her the naked doll.
Susanna crying " No dress off ! No dress off!!!
Mommy" Susanna how do you ask me"
Susanna Sniffling "Please"
So I put the dress back on and she still keeps crying. Now she goes to time out for throwing a temper tantrum. I take away Aerial and her purse and then I see that in the purse is a different dress. Yep she wanted me to change her dress. Too late now. After time out I can help her explain to me what she wants. It dawns on me that everything she said was right just lacking a key piece of information. If I could just read her mind we could avoid a lot of time outs.

Susnna also changes her mind a lot. I am not used to this. Jennah has to have everything the same way all the time. She is extremely predictable. Susanna is anything but. For example at she always changes her mind about the door. At nap she said she wanted it open so I leave it open and she gets mad so close it and she is happy. So at night I ask her if she wants the door closed and she says yes. So I close it and she cries so I open it and she is fine. Go figure. Well i will keep working to try and figure her out. Wish me luck!