Montana Monday

I introduced Montana to "quiet time" today. It is not a time out, but a set amount of time that you have a child sit quietly and listen to some nice music. It helps them to be able to sit quietly in places like church, and prepare them for time when teachers ask them to be quiet at school. I've had a few mom's tell me about it, but my friend Samantha told me she had been successful with her little Kami, Montana's friend and basically twin separated from birth, and I figured if it was working for Kami, I could try with Montana.

So after a long afternoon of errand running, we all got home a little high strung. It was hot out, so I came in, turned on the A/C, shut the blinds and declared it "QUIET TIME". I set the timer for 20 min, told her to pick out her quiet spot, explained to her that she was absolutely not in trouble and turned on the iTunes playlist. It happened to be my labor mix. Lots of piano solos, church music and Enya. Perfect quiet time music. It wasn't exactly silent. We had our moments, but I declare the first one a success. My favorite part wasn't the quiet, and it wasn't even the fact that she was such a good girl (although both of those things pleased me immensely). My favorite part was when towards the last five minutes I'd hear her mumble, "I can't take it anymore...". I couldn't help but think that this little girl gets that from me. Silence and stillness when there is so much to say, see and do, is a hard thing. Hard enough for this 26 year old mama---so I had compassion for my little 3 year old, but also had a little laugh as I heard her say those words.

Then, after the timer went off, we discussed again the purpose of quiet time and I told her what a good girl she was and how happy she made me, she walked away triumphantly and confidently. I then asked her what she wanted to do, to which she boldly declared, "I'm going to find a loud spot now..."

Love my little witty girl.

The above picture is her reading one of library books, the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" collection. It came with a narrative CD which she follows along with. I highly recommend books like this---she prefers them even over me reading them to her. She's been glued to it since we picked it up on Friday. And yes, she's wearing a dress up dress...