No thank you, mommy

Rachel's latest trick: Shaking her head vigorously when she means "no." She started doing that Monday night and has kept it up ever since. I hold the food out to her, she shakes her head and lowers her eyes, and sometimes turns away.

No, I haven't seen the nod for "yes" yet.

We are trying to teach her not to throw her food on the floor and we have made some progress. When she doesn't like what I hold out to her, she puts it in my hand. Sometimes she's fickle -- if I leave my hand open, she'll sometimes take the morsel back and eat it. Most of the time, though, she means business. If she thinks I'm not getting the message, THEN she'll throw her food on the floor.

I think that's fair.

She also tends to throw her sippy cup on the floor - hurls it, really. But I've noticed an improvement this week. Now she'll hand it over nicely.

Whenever she behaves well, I'm always sure to say, "thank you, Rachel!" We are doing that to reinforce the behavior we approve of. When she has temper tantrums or does things we don't like (short of seriously injuring herself), we try to ignore the behavior or, at least, respond with a firm "no."

So far, it seems to be working.