"Mommy, I had no biting today!"

The only slips I used to dread seeing in Ben's folder at school were the ones telling me Ben had gotten hurt in one way or another - either he fell, bumped his head, or another child had bitten or scratched him. Now I know, those yellow slips don't compare to the worry, stress, frustration, and tears involved with seeing these little white pieces of paper in Ben's folder. We get these when Ben has hurt another child and in our case, from biting. It started a few weeks ago when a teacher would mention here or there that Ben had bitten another child, but they never made a big deal out of it. Then, all of a sudden, we had about 4 slips in Ben's folder from the previous 2 weeks and when Ben decided to bite 2 kids in the same day, I got the dreaded phone call from the Director of the school. I was never asked to come pick Ben up from school or told that we would be asked to leave, but they made it clear this was now becoming an issue and needed to be "fixed". I can't tell you how horrible it feels to hear something like this about your child, especially when you know he is the sweetest boy with the kindest heart. You feel the need to apologize for him and think of reasons why this is happening (aka excuses). But then I remembered, "Oh yeah, he's 2." Thank goodness for my less-emotional husband who put things into perspective and my sister, who had gone through the exact same thing with her son for their advice, opinions, and suggestions. Of course we could chalk it up to our recent vacation, moving, the fact he has had 2 teachers leave from his class in the last 5 months, but really it just comes down to us accepting he is 2 and doesn't have all of his words yet to express himself when he is frustrated. We are doing everything we can think of to try and "fix" this problem, but trying to do so without added stress or anymore tears from Mommy. :)

Some of the things were are doing:
- reading the "Teeth Are Not For Biting" book
- REWARD SYSTEM: Ben gets to put a sticker on his chart, 2 M&M's and chocolate milk every evening if he hasn't bitten that day
- we tell him how proud of him we are every night before bed when he hasn't bitten
- I remind him of his reward and what teeth are for (eating) every morning when I drop him off at school

We seem to be making progress! In the last 3 weeks, Ben has only had 2 biting incidents! I'm sure this journey is far from over, but we are all learning along the way...

Ben showing his chocolate milk (ignore the wet shirt, still mastering drinking fountains!) Putting on his daily sticker
Our reward system - check out all of the stickers! :)