Obedience and Disobedience

Auggie has recently developed an interesting mannerism–shaking his head no! And he always does it in context, albeit loosely. And I have no idea where this came from! When I say no to him I don't ever shake my head. (Maybe Dan..?) It goes something like this..

Me: Auggie, do not pound on the glass doors in front of the fireplace.

Auggie shakes his head no and then finds something else to do.

Me: Auggie, do not put your hands in the [gross, disgusting, festering water in our backyard] fountain [left by the former owners of our house.]

Auggie shakes his head no and continues playing with the water.

Me: Auggie, no!

Auggie shakes his head, removes his hands from the water and thinks about it. And then proceeds to keep playing with the water.

As you can see, shaking his head no seems to be Auggie's way of acknowledging my admonishment. He understands! Now to work on that 50/50 obedience... :)

...

In anticipation of needing to discipline Auggie sometime in the near future I bought two books: The Discipline Book by William and Martha Sears, and On Becoming Babywise: Book II by Gary Ezzo. I will soon be returning On Becoming Babywise Book Two because it seems to be full of authoritarian bs, but am looking forward to reading The Discipline Book. (As a side note I've heard that the first Babywise book is actually quite good.)

Any recommendations?

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Edit:

I found this web site questioning the Ezzo's parenting philosophy. I completely agree with the following three concerns, among others, on the Issues of Child Development page regarding the Ezzo's discipline philosophy:

"Lack of age appropriateness. Requirements of child behavior do not consider age appropriateness or basic principles of child development."

"Limited interpretation of behavior. Behavior is viewed through the lens of obedience/disobedience without adequate consideration of factors such as teething, illness, developmental stages, and emotions such as fear, loneliness, etc, that might cause or influence the behavior."

"Undermines the developing relationship between parent and child. The level of control required by the program tends to create an adversarial relationship between parents and child, which may interfere with attachment. Experts regard attachment as the foundation of mental health and say it develops as parents respond to the baby's cues, rather than in the context of parental control."

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Edit 2:

Whoa.. Read the whole web site: www.ezzo.info .. I'm so glad I didn't end up going this route.... All the failure to thrive stories on the 'voices' page, and the 'character counts' page about Ezzo's awful character.. Yikes.