The Trixie Update

Take a look at today’s TPOD and then tell us what happens in your household. (Poll is on your left under Latest TTU Comments on the Trixie Update homepage.)

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How do you get a toddler to do the things they are supposed to do? I’m happy to report that we have long been able to influence Trixie by not so subtle use of behavior modification techniques.

On the positive reinforcement side we have our 2005 Potty Incentive Program. This is the program that doles out out stickers for good bathroom behavior. It was extremely successful in the beginning, but then stickers begin to lose their appeal. So we had to move up to temporary tattoos, and wow, we got a great response rate. You combine that with 2.9% APR financing, and the potty training sells itself. But like stickers, the tattoos are slowly losing their power. The next step is piercings — but that’s only going to be for extremely impressive potty behavior. Like maybe holding it for a cross-country trip.

On the negative reinforcement side, we have learned that the hand that controls the TV remote, controls the world. In Trixie’s worldview, threatening to turn off Sesame Street is the worst thing that could ever possibly happen. Ever. The best part is that the TV doesn’t have to be on. Matter of fact, we don’t have to be anywhere near a TV; we can simply threaten to not turn it on at some indeterminate point later in her life. This is the most powerful force in Trixie’s universe.

What causes us to resort to this nuclear option of behavior modification? It’s usually simple things that we know Trixie would agree to — if she could only get over the initial hump. Case in point: her favorite food. We’ll set out something that we know she loves, like vanilla yogurt, and she will scream, tears streaming down her face, like it’s the end of world. Fortunately, the end of Sesame Street trumps the end of the world, after one good “Do you want to see Batty Bat?”, she’ll acquiesce and take one bite. The anguish melts away to confusion, and she rediscovers her favorite kind of yogurt. She’ll then eat the rest of the bowl herself without any more outside influence. I don’t get too excited though; so far we’ve had to reintroduce Trixie to vanilla yogurt about 35 times.

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I don’t know whether it was the socialization and daily exposure to other talking children in daycare or if it just happened to coincide with her natural pace of development, but Trixie vocalizes all the time now.

We’re relieved. When Trixie turned one year old without talking we were a little worried. But over the past 7 months, our concerns about her language skills diminished because she’s doing most of the other stuff she’s supposed to, and, well, life goes on. Even though it’s not ‘normal’ for her to talk so late, there are plenty of anecdotal accounts about how so-and-so’s child didn’t talk until he was 11, and he turned out fine. He’s down at the docks, go ask him yourself.

In the meantime, we’re enjoying a daily barrage of words like “dog”, “woof”, “bat” (courtesy Sesame Street’s the Count) and her all time favorite, “baby.” Trixie loves babies to no end, and there’s no end to the number of times she’ll chant “Bay BEE!” over and over again while wildly rocking her arms back and forth.

However, the most interesting development happened yesterday when I realized Trixie was identifying herself for the first time. She doesn’t grab hold of her name the way she does the word baby, and drive it into the ground. It’s a more cautious, quiet embrace of the word, as if she’s pretty sure she’s Trixie — but not totally 100% sure.

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In case you missed it, the site was unavailable for a couple of hours as we upgraded to a better, (seemingly faster), more secure installation of Movable Type. We are back and everything seems to be running smoothly. If you find any bugs or unexpected behavior, please let me know. Who’s going to test out comments first?

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It took a while, but the poll is back. Let’s hear about the security objects in your household. (Poll is to your left under Latest TTU Comments)

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Trixie isn’t a kid anymore. I always figured I wouldn’t realize it until she started kindergarten or maybe college. Instead, it happened Tuesday.

I was dropping her off at daycare, unpacking her stuff for the day and her teacher told me that I didn’t need to leave her Silky. Really? Maybe she doesn’t needs pants either. Or her kidneys. But then I realized that she was right. Trixie doesn’t need Silky anymore.

It’s quite a shock. She used to drag that thing everywhere. Now we have to coerce her to take it. And she’ll only accept when she’s tired. Sometimes.

From a managing point of view, it’s a loss. Silky was a means of control and comfort. What am I supposed to throw at her when the server is down and she’s cranky? Raisins?

Not only has Trixie given up Silky, she’s not sucking her thumb anymore either. She had to cut back on that after the raging skin infection she had last month. The infection, of course, was caused by her sucking her thumb so much that the callous split open. That definitely threw cold water on the whole comfort factor. She’s better now, but appears to given up the habit for good.

So in the course of a short month, Silky and thumb-sucking are history. It’s funny, because I always figured we were going to face some kind of security object/activity showdown as Trixie got older. Poor kid, she never even had the chance to figure out that we were spelling S-I-L-K-Y when a certain pink blanket was sopping wet in the washing machine.

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Who knows what “emergency clothes” are? Before daycare I would have assumed a hazmat suit would qualify. Now I know it’s the backup outfit for when your child makes some kind of ungodly mess at daycare. The last time it happened, Trixie had puked all over herself, and I think, maybe one of the teachers. (Are you supposed to send an apology gift for something like that? Just for the record, Hallmark does not make a “I’m sorry my child threw up on you” card.)

Yesterday, I picked Trixie up and she was decked out in orange. Our back-up clothes consist of Target Halloween department-wear that Trixie hasn’t quite grown out of — orange “The Thing” pants and an orange shirt with a kitty cat on it. We did not include the pumpkin. After thinking about it, I wish I had included her cape.

Even more so than being concerned about what had happened, I was embarrassed that I didn’t know in advance of picking her up. I hadn’t been watching the web-cams that morning, which isn’t that unusual. I don’t normally spend a lot of time viewing Trixie on the computer because it’s either insanely addictive or an exercise in total frustration.

The former because it’s like the Sims Toddlin’ Expansion Pack without the little green crystals floating above the avatars. All the tiny characters are either hungry or sleepy or have to go the bathroom. Social relationships form, grow, and break down. Add more toys to make everyone happy. The only difference is that everything is jerky and somewhat fish-eyed, instead of smoothly rendered in axiometric perfection.

If you aren’t lucky enough to find a happening scene, then you can waste a lot of time playing a futile game of search with the dozen plus cameras set up throughout the daycare. The problem is that the cameras don’t provide complete coverage, and since each video stream takes a few seconds to load, it can take a few minutes to search the daycare. By the time you’re done you might have missed an area. Plus, they could be outside, or in the password-restricted nursery area.

To avoid these two extremes, I don’t check in as much as you might expect, although I’m going to do more in the future. And as for what I didn’t see on camera yesterday? There’s a play oven set out on the playground that fills with water when it rains. She dumped it all over herself somehow. It would probably have been pretty refreshing if it weren’t 50 degrees outside.

The good news is that this incident solves a daycare mystery. Jenn and I already knew that Trixie is a little bit of a packrat and she likes to hide things when she discovers a good spot. The play oven is apparently a good spot. Trixie’s sippy cup, missing since last week, has been recovered.

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