Oinkey's Voice

We've been struggling recently with C's desire to say "No!" or be resistant to requests to go potty or wash hands or help clean up. This can be very frustrating. I didn't have any recollection of A doing this when she was C's age. Then I found this while reading the 'blog books' to the girls (something that, much to my great pleasure, they actually request to have read to them).

Wow! What a brilliant idea! ;) I discussed this with C and asked her if she thought it would help. She said "yes"! I asked whose voice she thought I should pretend to be. She said "Penelope" (our cat). Ok. 'A' protested saying that that didn't make any sense because "why would a cat want to know how to use the potty?!" I countered by showing them this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C4pzEgncFY.

So this is how the first attempt went:

Penelope (being held in my arms, while squirming) "Calla, I really want to learn how to use the potty! Will you show me?"

C: "Sure Penelope! Watch me!"

Penelope: "I'm really very interested, even though I'm not looking at you. Ok, I'm running out of the bathroom now, I really want to see what this sounds like from the hallway!"

We clearly needed a new "voice".  We picked C's animal friend Oinkey Jingle Bells or just "Oinkey" for short.

Oinkey has worked wonders. She's like the toddler whisperer. She can get C to do ANYTHING willingly and happily. And Oinkey is hilarious. My girls crack up at her jokes and she's just so much fun to be around.

I absolutely love "being" Oinkey's voice. I find that I have infinitely more patience and really can appreciate the little things much more than I usually do. I wish that my own voice were able to elicit the same response from the girls, but I have to say there is something pretty special about an alter-ego who can work such magic, even if she is just a rabbit named "Oinkey" with a jingle bell stuck in her head.