Trouble

Ali has been getting into trouble quite a bit lately. Over the weekend he opened a bunch of apple sauces and only ate a little of each one. Then on Sunday he said he wanted yogurt- he always tells me he's hungry when he wants something. I told him he had to eat all of it if he opened it and he promised he would. Of course, a couple of bites in, he abandoned it. I decided to stick to my guns in the hopes that this might actually teach him to not waste food. He had a choice of going to his room or eating the yogurt. He went to his room, crying and fussing and banging his door. A loooong time later we decided he would eat five bites and so he finally got out of his room.
I think it was the same day he hit me about something, so I sent him to his room. He hit me again when I said this, and then banged the door again and hit it with something he had. There was, again, much crying and screaming. The time out got longer.
Yesterday when Leila got home from school she discovered that Ali had finished off the chocolate bunny her grandparents had brought her from See's Candies. (This is a very special chocolate bunny). She was NOT happy, and neither was he. However, she did a pretty good job of expressing herself with words. He started to cry.
When I asked him why, he said "Leila yelled at me." But she hadn't. And even if she had, it would have been justified, because greedy little boys shouldn't steal their sister's chocolate bunnies.
So, I told him to go to his room. "I said I was sorry," he wailed. Then, "I have a lot of time outs lately," he said mournfully. I agreed. He did a little crying, but he wasn't fighting me, so I walked him to his room gently holding his hand, and he went sadly inside while I closed the door.
Later I was careful to praise him for how well he did his time out, with no hitting and no door banging. For all my disappointment that he'd taken the bunny, I was proud of how he peacefully took the punishment he got.