I'm sorry to report that Delphinium is not perfect. In fact, she's becoming quite willful at times, and it takes all of my creativity to find ways around her, um, difficulties. Mostly I just try to ignore the silly stuff (oh I can see you are screaming because you only got two dried berries in your cereal today) and I still do a fair amount of distraction and redirection (you cannot paint Mommy's purse, but you can paint this cardboard box).
The real trouble comes when she does something that absolutely must stop NOW. Running away in public is not common, but occasionally the whim catches her. I catch her up and make her stick right next to me (how does one accomplish that at nine months pregnant?). The other sticky one we are facing is hurting the cats. She can be incredibly sweet to them, and I find her giving them kisses and patting them carefully. Then, out of the blue, she will pull their tails enough to make them yowl.
This is where I'm trying to use time-outs, and I make her sit on the step for a minute followed by a kitty apollogy. We've talked and talked about how hurting is not nice, we don't hurt our friends, etc. but it does not seem to be helping much. Any great ideas, oh parents, or should I just give the time-out more time to work?
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