Nuh Nuh

Growing up, my sisters and I got a lot of bumps and bruises. We weren't exactly the most graceful of kids. Quite frankly, we were clumsy and ran into things or fell down often. My mom was brilliant and created a way to put us in control of the situation by having us tell it "no-no". If we fell off the swing and got hurt, we'd cry, of course, and then say, "no no. don't hurt me, swing." Sounds silly, but it worked well for our family. :)

Michael and I have started it with Bryson in the last few months and it's great!!

I always make sure to help him say "no no (insert item here), don't hurt Bryson" so he knows WHY we're saying it. He knows when to say it and actually never (not yet anyway) says it to Michael or Me, only objects.

A few examples....

He hit his head on his train table pretty hard and after a few seconds of tears, he turned around and said through tears, (while shaking his finger) "nuh nuh. nuh nuh."

He was wildly running though the house a while back and ran smack dab into the door frame. He cried, shook his finger and said "nuh nuh." Later that day he was playing and walked past the same door frame, turned on a dime, remembered what had happened earlier, shook his finger and said, "nuh nuh" and then continued playing :)  

Earlier this week, this no-no thing even saved me from getting bitten. Bryson is not a biter at all, like never, but after he tripped and hit his head on the wall, he was crying really hard and very upset. I was on the floor with my arms wrapped around him and he had his bruised head buried in my shoulder. He lifted his head and looked me in the eye like he wanted to tell me how badly it hurt, but just couldn't get out the words and opened his mouth and was leaning in to bite my shoulder. About 2 inches away from my shoulder, he pulled his head back (completely on his own), turned to the wall and whipped out his pointer finger. With rain drop sized tears streaming down his face and his quivering bottom lip pushed out, he said, "nuh nuh. nuh nuh". Mommy joined in and we both "punished" the wall for hurting Bryson. Mommy also praise the heck out of Bryson for not biting!! :)

Then, today, in the middle of playing hoops with Michael, he started pooping. We always know when he's pooping because his legs wiggle, he hunches over slightly and gets an adoarble "serious look" on his face which usually passes after 10 seconds or so. Well, that look never went away tonight. 5 minutes later, he was getting to the point of making childbirth noises. He was pushing so hard, he even made himself throw up. :( 

I won't go into details about how we relieved this problem but let's just say it wasn't my crowning moment. A mom's gotta do what a mom's got to do, right!? Anyway, after he was poop-free, he was sitting on my lap on the floor and saw his diaper. I told him that was the poopoo and he immediately whipped out his finger and said the magic words. I kid you not, he said, "nuh nuh nuh nuh" about 55 times. Michael and I were sitting on the floor trying so so hard not to laugh because he was so serious and stern, but he was adamant about saying nuh nuh and didn't care that we were giggling at him!! :)