Resorting to bribery

Yesterday afternoon, I was talking on the phone with Erin, and the subject of negotiation/bribery came up. I told her that Elizabeth was starting to get the hang of this - i.e., I'll tell her she can get up from the table if she eats one more bite, and she'll usually eat it, or I'll tell her we'll read her book after she picks up her toys, and she'll put all her toys away. Basically, she's learned that she gets things she wants if she does what I ask her to. Right then, it hit me that we needed to try more of this with her walking. She'd only taken a single step twice on two different occasions, and she'd shown no inclination of wanting to walk alone, no matter what tricks we'd tried. We knew she *could* walk, but she'd just seen no reason to up to that point.

We started trying the bribery with her Barney book...I told her that I'd read it to her if she'd take some steps to me. No doing - she wouldn't budge. So, after dinner, we upped the ante. I pulled a lollipop out of the Halloween candy and told her she could have it after she tried taking some steps. Lo and behold - she went for it!

Here's her first attempt:



And, here's the next try - she walked right across the room!



She caught on very quickly - although I couldn't pry the lollipop back out of her hands and her shoelaces were untied! I told David we'd get turned into child services for that one for sure!

Of course, today wasn't quite so easy. She waved "bye-bye" to the cookies David tried to bribe her with, rather than actually trying to walk...little stinker! But, we took her to the mall playground tonight, and she took about 5 steps altogether at one point, so I think she'll get there eventually! We're on our way to having a full-fledged toddler!