Miracles DO happen!

For some reason the last two days have been blissful, at least when it comes to the boys playing together. They seem to be working together a lot, and Aaron seems to be listening to what Connor wants him to do (which I think is the big breakthrough). Either Aaron is getting better at listening, or Connor realized he has his own personal slave at his fingertips! Connor says jump and Aaron asks how high?

One other parenting breakthrough I had, that I think has helped contribute to this blissfulness came about because I was getting tired of raising my voice to the kids. I kept having to yell to get them to quiet down, and I soon realized that it wasn't really working as well as I wanted, it was just making me sad (and I'm sure the boys too).

Since Connor was 2 I've been using the Corner as a "Time Out" to punish him, which has seemed pretty affective. But lately he has been kicking and screaming in it, and never really calming down, even when he knows how long he has to be there. So this was actually pretty draining, and by the end he wasn't really calmed down.

After doing some research on different discipline techniques I decided to try calling the Corner, the "Cool-down-zone", and instead of dragging him there kicking and screaming, I showed him the comfy spot I made him with a lot of pillows and blankets, and told him that this is the "Cool down zone", whenever he needs a break from Aaron or anything that is bothering him he could go to his cool down zone. I made a separate one for Aaron, so that they know their "Cool Down Zones" are for them alone.

So the first time I had to use it, Connor went there with no objections at all. He sat there for 4 minutes, and came out happy and refreshed! He even said he felt bad about what happened earlier! MIRACLE!

Today he put himself in the "Cool down zone" 3 times (I didn't have to do it at all), and it was really good use of it! He was going to go off on Aaron about something, and he said, "Aaron I need to get away from you, I'm going to the Cool down zone!" Breakthrough.

It's really new, so maybe it's just a fluke thing, but I'm really hoping this will help Connor to be able to calm himself down. I know it won't work 100% of the time - but what does?