More Choices

As I was looking at Annabelle's toothbrush yesterday, I realized something that I've been doing that I think has made Annabelle more agreeable to doing things that she might not want to do otherwise... I've been giving her choices. I remember reading a few months ago, that it's a good time to start giving toddlers choices and that reinforced what I'd already been doing. Annabelle loves accessorizing now (even if she doesn't keep them on during a whole outing) and I think it has a lot to do with me allowing her to choose her shoes, bows, sunglasses, hats, etc. I started out just letting her pick something out of many items, but now I usually narrow it down to a couple of choices (ex. a red or pink bow, dotted tennis shoes or sandals... I learned that from the article/tip that I read and it also keeps her from choosing things that really don't match at all). Also, I've never had a problem with her wanting to brush her teeth, but I think that the fact that she gets to choose between her "Blue" (Blue's Clues) and "Cat" (Hello Kitty) toothbrush makes her even more excited about it and makes brushing her teeth even more like a reward rather than a chore. This also works to my advantage when allowing Belle to choose what she wants to watch on TV, what book to read, which stuffed animal to sleep with, which Sesame Street character she wants on her diaper, and sometimes giving Belle choices of food makes her more likely to actually eat the food, but unfortunately this isn't always the case.

Pictures of Kelly & Jason's Baby Shower for Kelson have been posted, and now that I'm up here in AL I was finally able to corner my sister into giving me her pictures from our weekend in Jacksonville last March/April so I've added 11 cute pictures at the end of that photo album.