outwit vs- power struggle

Today I had enough.

ENOUGH I tell you.

We call him the Jace Meister for a reason. He is very meisterly in his ways. haha.

His recent 2 yr old meisterness is listed below.

1. He likes to make messes. Sometimes he goes into the play room and dumps every toy bin within 2 minutes.
2. He likes to get out of bed. 20x at night and at nap.

Today I had enough. Nothing has been working. Not the talking or the time outs or taking things away.

So I thought this morning. duh. I am not using my brain. I am trying to "win the war". I've pulled out all my guns and my son decided he would pull out all his too. And instead of entering the power struggle with him, I need to outwit him. mwhaha. This is something I have learned from my childhood book reading (see earlier posts).

So, I moved the toys. Now almost all of the bins and tubs and block holders are out of his reach. I told him as soon as he can be a big boy and not dump them we will take them down. Until then he has to ask, only can have one thing and has to pick them up when he's finished.

We also purchased 2 extra night lights and we gave them to him as a prize tonight. He was so excited. Brent & I were silently laughing. We then explained that he could do all his bed time stuff (brush teeth, pee, etc) and then his room was closed and locked for the night. We didn't want to see him until the morning. Now don't freak out, I am going to go unlock it before I go to bed. He has friends in bed with him, his cd player on, his blanket and now 3 night lights on. He has a boundary and now I don't have to run up and down the stairs 25x to remind him about it.

I outwitted the 2 year old. Go me.