Listen To What I Say

The words of "Do You Hear What I Hear" are going through my head over and over tonight, not only because the all Christmas music radio station has played it over and over and over, but because some of those words epitomize what is going on in our house lately. Joey and I are both struggling with Nathan and his listening skills, or the lack thereof. Because he seems to be lacking in the listening department, Joey and I are getting louder and louder. Actually, I have been loud with him for a while, but Joey is joining me and the yelling is not changing anything. I hear the way that we sound when we are "talking" to him (actually we do talk some, but mostly yell) and I think how ridiculous we sound. We are yelling at him to be respectful and demanding him to do exactly what we want, but modeling the behavior we don't want him to exhibit. Ugh! What other choices are there? We do try and point out when he is doing what he should be doing and praise him for good behavior, but probably not often enough. He did say to me today very proudly, "Momma, I'm looking out the window next to Hannah and I'm not pushing her down!"
That's great, Buddy. Do I really need to point out that he is a good boy when he's not torturing his sister? It appears that he thinks so.
Is it too late to ask Santa for something? I'd like to have either all of the answers to my parenting questions or a completely agreeable three-year-old, whichever is easiest. Thanks. I've been a good girl this year for the most part.
Love,

Nicci

I must have been pretty tired last night because I called "Do You Hear What I Hear" "The Little Drummer Boy"...They are all running together since I've been listening to Christmas music since right after Halloween!