At first she thought it was funny, as if Mommy was playing a game or something but I tried to show no emotion and stay calm. I decided to use the bottom of the staircase as our timeout location. I got the idea from an episode of the Super Nanny and the family she was working with used the bottom step of the staircase as their timeout location.
I realized I could not place her in timeout, walk away, and expect her to stay put. Instead I had to stand as a barrier with my back turned away. She tried several times to escape and with my back turned it was difficult to prevent that. I decided I needed to sit her down and hold her there with one hand, with my head turned away. After a minute it no longer became "fun" to her so she started getting upset. After her 2 minutes were up I got down to her level, looked her in the eyes and told her that Mommy put her in timeout because she hit Mommy and hitting is a NO NO. I asked her to apologize but of course that wasn't going to happen because of her speech delay so I asked her for a hug instead and I told her I loved her.
I am very sure it will take close to 1000 time outs before Juliette begins to realize that a "time out" is not a game and Mommy means business.
