18 March 2011

Of Rewarding Experiences

Our daughter, surprisingly enough, is still not perfectly potty-trained. As such, she still receives rewards for doing her duty. Cookies and candy seem to do the trick quite nicely.

Therefore, today, when she finished in the potty, she declared, "I want two M&M's, three M&M's.". And my teachable-moment Mommy brain went on high alert. I decided she could have as many pieces of cocolate as she could count. Was I ever surprised when she made it to nine with no hesitation!

We didn't do this trick every time and even when we did, she wasn't always perfect (once she only earned herself one M&M, but, while disappointed, she seemed to understand and didn't even cry), but for her last reward of the day she earned herself a whopping thirteen pieces of candy. We didn't even know she was aware of twelve or thirteen, let alone their order!

Just goes to show: never under-estimate a motivated two-year-old.

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