Progress...maybe??

I think I've shared with most of you that Gray is going through an annoying two year old stage of screaming at whatever he doesn't like. So typically, our day goes like this--I leave the boys playing together to go clean/sew/check email/cook/etc. I get all ready to proceed with my task and I hear Gray screaming in the other room. I stop and go figure out what's going on, usually reprimanding both boys, as Joshua really enjoys aggravating Gray. I tell Gray for the hundredth time that day that he must talk to Joshua when he doesn't like what he's doing. He tells me he should say, "Joshua, please don't do dat." I leave them to play and get back to my task. Now repeat that whole process in (not kidding!) intervals of 1 to 3 minutes until I can't take it anymore and send them to room time or we all go play outside or something. It's been like this for more than 3 weeks (some days better than others, of course) and even with me being totally consistent with Gray (okay, well sometimes if I'm not nearby Gray and I know he doesn't know I hear him screaming, I pretend I didn't hear!...otherwise, I'm consistent!!) I haven't seen one bit of progress. Frustrating! Until yesterday.

During a gloriously short grocery store trip, Joshua was patting Gray on the back, which he does to annoy him, and Gray calmly said, "Please don't do dat." Talk about music to my ears! There is light at the end of the tunnel and I'm hopeful that soon the screaming will be a distant memory...and probably replaced with another difficult stage, but I'm not going to think about that now!