Supernanny was right....

If you get down on a child's level and talk to them, authoritatively but respectfully, they actually respond well to you. I've been working on "Maya, are you upset?" instead of "Maya, quit the whining!" and it actually works. She stops whining and says "Yes, I'm frustrated." and then tells me why. We either then talk about how she can not be frustrated or try to get through what is frustrating her. Admitedly I have only been doing this sporadically until today when I made a concerted effort to be patient with her after a rough morning. She looked something like this..



but then after being calm and taking my time with her, she was more like this..

We even did ok with the drive to and from Morgan's gymnastics practice tonight. They kids even ate all their dinner! (insert gasping noise here) without complaining!
Now if we could only work out bedtime, that would be the perfect day.