Time-Out!

I knew the day would surely come when I would find it necessary to send my little angel to time-out. For the last couple of weeks Tate has been hitting a little bit...it is the softest hit you've ever seen, but he is hitting none the less. At first we were able to get away with a firm "no" and then telling him to apologize, and so he would quickly say "sorry", smile, and hug the person he hit. Recently, however, he just keeps hitting with this weird blank stare, like he is just waiting to see how we will react so we have resorted to using the good old time-out method. We use the bottom step on the stairs as our time-out spot and he is good about staying there for about a minute until we tell him to be nice and say sorry, which is nice!

Last night Uncle Jeff came over to our house to get help with his homework and I went out to dinner with some of my girlfriends. While I was gone, I guess Tate was just being so much fun and cracking them up the whole time. At one point, Tate didn't like something that Andy had done so Tate hit him. Andy told him to stop but of course he tests the water and hits him again! Andy says, "Tate, do you want to go to time-out? (trying to get him to stop by threatening punishment.) Tate gets this big smile on his face, says "YES!" and runs over to the time-out spot all on his own. From the other room, daddy and Uncle Jeff here Tate count to three which sounds like this, "Neh, neh, NEH!" Then he comes running around the corner with a big grin and says, "DADDY, sorry!" and gives Andy a huge hug. I am really starting to think he hits just to say sorry and give someone a hug.