Starting to Crawl

Declan is beginning to crawl. It was a few days after New Years Day that Declan first stayed put when we put him in a crawling position. Over the last month he would gradually make progress . . . first, staying in the crawling position, then swaying back and forth, next, getting into the crawling position himself, then pushing himself up into a bridge, then attempting to crawl backwards, then trying to crawl forwards but falling to his stomach. Yesterday he made 2 or 3 little crawl movements forward. Today he did it again. It is so cute, but really, I think we are just going to be more frustrated!! I'm sure he'll get into everything. We can no longer just leave him in the living room while in the kitchen. We'll always be wondering . . . what is he getting into?

We've caught him doing a few things already (and that is before he is crawling): pulling down on a plant and breaking the little branch, pulling DVD's off a shelf, grabbing for the remotes, gettting stuck between the couch and the speaker, throwing laundry all over his bedroom floor, opening the dresser drawers and climbing up to a stand and pulling clothes out of the drawer, getting the book basket and dumping the books all over the floor. I know this is JUST the beginning. Our little nephew (compared to a lot of kids) was quite the rascal. He was just so curious and would touch, pull, rip everything. I'm worried that Declan will be the same.

The problem that I am having is how to deal with this type of behaviour. I am trying to figure this out before he starts doing this on purpose knowing that it is wrong. People deal with this young rascalness in so many different ways. He needs to be taught that some things cannot be touched. Some different ways people handle this: just keep repeating 'no' and pull away his hand, tell him once that he can't touch and the second time slap his hand, just remove him from where he is (over and over), remove the thing he is touching. I still need to figure out what will work for us and I know we'll need to be consistent. Since he is only just about 9 months we are still wondering what we do when he touches our face with love and then starts pulling and scratching us. Something I know I'll watch for: if he is doing it on purpose, knowing it is wrong vs. is he doing it out of curiosity. At this young age, he is still doing everything out of curiosity. We've had one instant where he kept pulling off his bib before we were finished feeding him. I wanted him to keep it on. Even after we said no he kept doing it. We would pull his hand down and say 'no' a little louder. I think during this time, it started becoming the fight of the wills. I know that is one thing that never works when dealing with little kids. I still don't know the best way to handle the situation. Do I just distract him in this situation (I was trying). Hopefully I'll be wise in these decisions. I want to have 'obedient' kids, but I also have seen some parents go too extreme on this and only focus on obedience and they forget about having fun with them, and playing with them. Every interaction becomes and watchful look to see if they are bad. I don't think that is how it should bed. Also, I think I really want to make consequences fit the crime. (rather than just jump to one form of discipline . . . however, I know every child is different as well. What works for one, may not work for the other. Some options: 'time-out for their age', spoken boldly to and I don't mean yelling), remove something (e.g. if standing on chair at the table, take away the chair), quiet time in room/crib (more for the sake of me and losing patience). I do think that if the child disobeys over and over, or does something really bad, that he/she can be spanked. It should be a rare occurence, rather than a common one. I"m still not sure about how often you should slap a kids hand. The reason why I am unsure is because I can see how it can become a habit. Everytime they do something wrong, they'd get slapped. Logically, it actually makes some sense to me. But i just see how it would become too common. Then how would you deal with it in public when you shouldn't slap their hand. I think it would require a lot of self control to not overuse this method. Maybe if you've tired everything else, the last resort at a young age would be slapping their hand. You shouldn't spank a young child.

Anyways . . . Declan and I were going to go into London to do a few errands - home depot to check a few things, pick up his birthday gift, go swimming . . . but the roads aren't great, so I might wait until tomorrow.