Learning to Share

Dorian is now in her Toddler "ME" stage, or getting rather close to it. Everything is "mine" or "me". She gets a toy she is content with and claims it as her own. No one is allowed to take that toy because it is hers!!! Well.....this is something we need to work on, and we do on a day-to-day basis. Sissy (Addeline) has now developed a sense of "want". She sees something she likes and grabs for it. She can maneuver herself around the house now, pull herself up to reach for things higher up, and most of the time wants what Dorian has.

On most occasions Dorian knows that she has the higher ground and jumps on the couch so Addeline can't have what she has. On other occasions they have a pulling competition for that particular toy/item.

So our game plan. Dorian needs to learn how to share. She won't learn over night. It won't be a pretty battle with her. We expect tantrums from her, and anticipate "the time out spot" being used frequently! But we are starting with if she has a toy that Sissy wants, she must give sissy something else to play with until she is finished with the popular item at hand. This is working well for now. Soon Sissy will know that a replacement item is NOT what she wants and then we will work on each of them having the certain item for a period of time that is acceptable (5 minutes each?)

But this is our battle at hand...not a huge one...but it is what my life consists of right now! If this is the worst thing I have to battle each day, then life is pretty good for us right now!

On the upper-end our life, Dorian takes fantastic care of her sister! She now loves to put bibs on her to make sure she is clean. Dorian loves to wipe Sissy's face after eating, and feed her crackers when she misses her mouth. Occasionally she will run off with a handful of crackers so she can have more than her Sissy, but all in the process of sharing.

Dorian has become a fantastic, loving, and helpful big sister! Addeline loves her so much, she watches her closely and you can see the light in her eyes when she sees her big sister each morning! It is so great to see them together playing and laughing!!! It makes me so happy that they are close in age and love each other so much!!! The future is so bright for their relationship!!!