I think we can consider having created this habit. I can’t say we were reading a lot about it, but we kind of started using common sense and it works pretty well.

Now the biggest problem is saying NO to our little fellow. People say you have to learn to say NO. It’s easy to say NO to the kid but the problem is you actually have to say “Yes man!”. Or not? We’re about to learn that soon.

One thing I’ve noticed is I got used to replacing my “praises” with questions. Like instead of suggesting how great he should feel about something I would ask how is he feeling or If he’s feeling great. Yeah, he does not answer my questions so far but I think in general it’s a good practice and it’s really way better than forcing him to feel in a certain way. I can only help him understand how he should call what he feels, but does it really matter all that much? I guess not.

If that doesn’t make any sense, it’s probably because I was working late today. See the time of the post.

Even though all goes pretty well, I’m still feeling bad for not reading more on the subject. Not only that doesn’t help to create the habit but that way I don’t question the praising itself and how it turns out for the baby in the long term. We’ll see.

It all went pretty well today- I had couple temptations to do some praising together with his grandparents but resisted and noticed, so I guess it’s on my mind anyway. As for my wife- I think she has the habit in control way better than I do, even though she also mention she rarely ever thinks about it.

Quite all-right, I think. I think!? Yeah, I feel we didn’t do a very good job with the no-praising challenge. Not that we’re over praising, no. But it’s just that we’re not thinking about it, not reading about it, well we’re not trying to improve.

But you know, what is the weirdest thing about it? When I really think of it, I don’t remember us over-praising our kid in a while.. And if I try to remember some speicifc situations- I do remember actually thinking about it, about our reaction etc. So maybe we are trying and doing that successfully, just unconsciously ? Let’s see for another few days.

I’ll be honest- thoese were very busy days. It was a weekend and it should not have been that busy, but well it was. I’ve spent little time next to computer and decided to not do daily updates during the weekend- we were mostly running around, sleeping and then doing some reading.

When it comes to baby praises, as far as I remember it went pretty good. I think I’m thinking what I’m talking about much more often now that I speak to my son, though it’s hard to measure based on last couple days since Grandpa actually spent most of the time with Eliyahu.

But overall when I look at it, I think the single-tasking challenge was much easier than this one. Maybe because I’m spending more time at work or maybe those were not so busy days (or maybe they were less busy because I was extremely concentrated on single-tasking which made me more efficient anyway?), I’m not so sure. That said, in the end of the 15 days challenge I think I’ll take a better look at whether the period should be extended or not.

I feel bad about it, but I truly don’t remember.. Seems like I wasn’t thinking a lot about it. I didn’t even spend enough time with the kid today. It is a weird day actually- it seems as if I haven’t done anything worthwhile. We are visiting our parents today, that mut be related, but still.. It’s a good example of a day when your focus is spread so thin that even most important things are forgotten.

We did speak about saying NO with my wife though- it seems it is a bad habbit we should have gone after in the first place, but we’re still hesitating- I’ll hunt for something to read about it tomorrow as I’m not very sure if we should not be saying NO so much, how should we put things then and so on. I’m not saying we are going to switch to a new habit, but it’s something to look at in the future.

Today I had some time to think about the praising and even forced myself to do some reading (!). But I think I praised him once by accident- while mother was putting on a hat (he hates that) on our way out- I was cheering him up and I think I said something like “oh, look how cool- you are laughing!” and then tried to change the subject.. One of the “whoops!”.

Anyway go read “Five reasons to stop saying “Good Job!” (in lithuanian) to see what we’re trying to do here.

The solution is quite simple – he never actually gets to see all his toys at once. In fact, he has a tiny box in a living room and a big box in the bedroom (which he is not aware of). Whenever we bring a “new” toy from the big box – we check if all current toys fit into the tiny box. If they don’t- most boring toy from the living room goes back to the big box where he waits long and hard in the queue to be picked up again.

Not only that keeps our living room relatively unculttered but it also makes the baby much happier- he’s no longer feeling hopeless thinking which toy to play with- there’s just 3 or 4 toys to pick from and every once in a while he gets a “new” toy- a toy from the big box he has forgotten about long time ago.

I realize this is only a temporary solution for now, while he is big enough to sit and play with his toolbox yet too small to walk into the bedroom and find the big box. But we’re all happy with what we have now and time will tell what we’re gonna do when he grows up.

I’ll be laconic today and just mention it all went w/o any praising today.