amelia's first christmas.... part two: presents!

remember how lovely our tree looked when we first decorated it and posted pictures in part one of amelia's first christmas adventures?  well, it took amelia longer than we expected to find the presents.  after about two or three days of undisturbed, beautifully wrapped gifts, amelia crawled her little, fluffy butt over and realized she was in "trash" heaven.  "trash" being paper, which is in close contention with used plastic straws for her all-time favorite chew thing.

at her nine month well-baby, the doctor told us that it was ok to start introducing very brief sessions of "timeout" should amelia continue to be naughty after we tell her no several times and redirect her.  here you can see that caleb decided amelia needed a "stern" talking to before timeout.

amelia has responded really well to her minute-long timeout sessions in her crib.  we haven't had timeout in several days now.  she is becoming extremely receptive to the word "no" and can now redirect herself.  i feel like this has been a good time to introduce timeout, not so much as a form of punishment, but as a teaching tool.  amelia is such a smart, yet rambunctious, little almost-toddler, and i have loved seeing her look slyly over her shoulder to see if we were watching before maneuvering herself under the tree to see what all she could get into.  but i am thrilled with her response to the role reversal in our house - where we are more in charge of her than she of us*!!


*um, hello - on demand bottle feedings alone can make your child your boss, don't act like you're above this..... you've been there, too!!!