Turtle's First Official TimeOut

As the Terrible Two's loom on the horizon, we've definitely been noticing a bit of willfulness about Turtle.

He is still an easy-going child, but he is absolutely starting to assert his opinions and test his boundaries. Sometimes, he pushes too hard.

He's great at responding to us when we tell him no, or explain why he shouldn't do something. But this morning was a "Rough Morning."

I'm not sure what started it, exactly, but MacGyver did something that reduced Turtle to tears. He attempted to pick Turtle up to comfort him, and Turtle started flailing. He made contact with MacGyver's arm. And then, emboldened by the sound or maybe by the surprised look on MacGyver's face, he aimed and struck again.

MacGyver kept his cool. He got Turtle calmed down and gently explained to him that hitting wasn't nice, and we don't do it. And that if he did it again, he would have to go into time out.

And so we continued on with our morning, and not five minutes later, Turtle got frustrated again, and this time lashed out at me. Again, there was the accidental contact, followed by the deliberate hit.

Well, boo.

MacGyver, on the spot, came up with The Naughty Wall, where Turtle needed to sit/stand. We have since agreed that we need a better spot, but it was the right idea. I set 60 seconds on the microwave timer and MacGyver explained to Turtle that he was in time out for hitting, and had to stay put for one minute.

It took a few tries, but we got just about the full 60 seconds out of him. He put up a tearful protest at first, but MacGyver kept putting him right back on The Naughty Wall until he stayed.

When the timer rang, Turtle declared "Uh oh!" and he was free. He doesn't say "sorry" yet, but he got one more explanation that hitting isn't nice, and that mommy and daddy love him very much. Family hug.

It was particularly heart-melting when MacGyver came out of his office 20 minutes after "going to work" to ask Turtle to sit his lap and watch Shrek.

I thought something was wrong and asked him if everything was OK.

He mouthed, over Turtle's head "I feel bad for the time out."

We're not softies. Not at all.