Timeout

Travel

It seems that neither my travel nor my incoming visitors have slowed much in 2010. I always think, "Now it will slow down."  Then something else comes up and it doesn't. I like it that way, though, so it's all good.

• My mom is visiting for a week almost immediately when we get back from Mexico.  That'll be a huge help.  They were having good airfare deals and she wanted to come out in February, so this works out very well. 
• My best friend from HS, Jen, is visiting for a couple of days.  She arrives less than a week after my mom leaves. 
• My dad is (tentatively) coming for a quick visit at the end of February. 
• I am (tentatively) planning to take a cheap flight somewhere for a weekend away sometimes before March 15.  This serves as a weekend away and a way to ensure I make status.  If anyone is up for a girls' weekend away, let me know!  Right now, the cheapest flight seems to be to Bend and I've never been there and they have an awesome cupcake place, so I am leaning that way.  I'd love to have company, so if anyone is up for it, let me know!  I'm targeting the weekend of March 6 & 7.
  
• In April, Avery and I are heading out to Colorado for a week.  D will join us over the weekend in Denver.  The purpose of this trip is twofold: see my family and a reunion/baby-meet in Denver with friends who have moved away.  The G's will be heading out there at the same time (though we're not on the same flights).
• In May, Mom is back out to Portland, then we fly down to Mexico with Christie & Henry!  We'll be borrowing our friend's car, so that takes care of transportation and saves money.  

After that, we have no plans for the rest of the year ... so far.  It seems something always comes up.

Timeout Conundrum - Advice Sought

OK, those of you who use timeouts, what would you do in the following situation. We are following the method in 1-2-3 Magic.  Since she's under 3*, when we put Avery in timeout, we let her continue to cry or whatever while she's in timeout.  My area of uncertainty comes at the end of timeout.  When we open the door and tell her timeout is over, she screams, "No!" and then either closes the door and cries, or just screams much louder.  If I look at her, she screams louder.  If I try to engage in any way, she screams louder.

While down here, we've been ignoring the crying behavior following the end of timeout.   Back in Portland, I tried putting her back in timeout over and over until she calmed down, but this can cycle well over an hour.  Down here, we are ignoring the crying afterwards (not trying to soothe it away, but not giving her another timeout because of it).  I believe what she's trying to do is take back some control.  I've tried offering various choices to give her some sense of control back, but this doesn't work.  She just screams louder and louder if I (or D) try to engage in any way other than a "do you want milk?" way.  Giving her milk is like giving other kids chocolate.

So my conundrum is do we keep doing timeout over and over until she stops, with the over-and-over timeouts being because she's having a fit vs. anything to do with the original transgression?  Or, do we do what we've been doing and just ignore the fit as long as it doesn't come with an additional transgression (throwing toys, screaming AT us, etc)?  I guess there's a third option and that is extending the time of the timeout until the time is long enough that she stops crying.  However, I think this time is probably in the hours not the minutes and that seems very over the top to me.  Am I being too sensitive?  Do you think if we extended the timeout time a few times that she'd then dial it back and we wouldn't need such a long timeout? 

* The books says that once they're 3yo, then you wait for them to finish their fit, then start the timeout.