Discipline

Anya is creeping towards the phase of boundaries-testing. This is something that has been forewarned by experienced Daddies and Mommies we know, and also by parenting books.

Despite all the insightful prep work that The Husband and I were given, we are still finding our ways around amidst thick fog. Here are the top 3 scenarios that we find having to deal with on a day-to-day basis and are currently still learning to manage:

1. Anya smacking or kicking us. The kicking part usually happens when she is on the bed while we are sitting beside her. At this point, we tried restraining her impending attacks / telling her 'no', explaining to her that it hurts, leaving the room. The results that we reap varies from escalating meltdowns, her attacking herself by pulling hair or smacking her face, cry until forcefully threw up, or (this one really tests our patience - I often find myself praying when this happens) laughing and thinking it is funny. 
2. Anya wanting something (e.g. juice) and throwing a fit after not getting what she wants. Okay, this is more manageable. Often, we get by using distraction method or explaining to her why she is not getting it. She usually reacts to the latter by fussing a bit but gets over it quickly. 
3. Since she started sleeping on the bed at night, she has somehow regressed to having one of us in the room with her till she falls asleep. Then, she wakes up in the middle of the night and climbs onto our bed instead. As you can see, there are two parts to this issue. Regarding the first part, we will give in to her for now. The priority is to get her to sleep in her bed instead of crying till she throws up (very trying for us, having to clean up the place, ourselves and her till 2am in the morning). Then, we'll slowly move out of her room as she falls asleep. Prayerfully. Now the second part is the trickier one. We do not wish to compromise her safety by closing all the doors at night such that she has no access to us should she be unwell. Yet, she keeps coming to us, night after night. So, we are gonna get our hands onto another set of baby monitors (ours is spoilt). Then hopefully, we can close the doors and see what happens from there. Of course, this is only the logistical aspect. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, chances are she will cry and plead to come over. Well, we are still praying for a solution. Any suggestions?

It will be interesting to see how the above three get resolved (surely they will be resolved!) in time to come. May I also add a little testimony of God coming to my aide during one of those trying moments where Anya was kicking and smacking me, and laughing it off when I tried to stop her. I knew that I was close to snapping when I started praying in my heart. Immediately, I was overwhelmed with love for my child, and the anger melted away gradually, replaced by renewed patience. Wisdom - we may still lack in managing our child at this point (in fact, it is a moving target, isn't it?), but we are certainly assured and reminded at times like this that there is no need to fret for He is with us.