Guess I’ve been working on positive reinforcement recently. Isabella drops her Cheerios on the floor and I ask her to pick them up and put them in the bowl. When she cheerfully complies, I say: “Thank you, very much for picking them up. Good girl.” When she puts the lids back in the drawer or returns the holy cards to me after playing with them: “Good girl. Thank you.”
Then tonight for the first time she didn’t fight me over brushing her teeth. I finally figured out that it works much better if I let her hold the tooth brush and I just manipulate her hand. She cheerfully opened her mouth and we brushed all her teeth. “Very good. Brush, brush, brush those teeth. Good girl.”
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when after the toothbrush had been replaced she sat there smiling and repeating: “Good, good girl. I good girl.” This was the first time I’ve heard her use “I” to refer to herself, by the way.
Dom and I both laughed and encouraged her. “Yes, you are a very good girl.”
