Spitting Stool

Ezra is a spitter. I've tried to ignore it. But he keeps spitting. I tried telling him not to spit. He spit more. I've tried walking away from him. He follows. My mom suggested I spit back. I might try that next.

Honestly, it doesn't really bother me all that much at this point. The spit doesn't protrude far from his lips yet. Most of it just drips down his chin and onto his shirt. He really is just experimenting with his mouth and saliva. He likes the noise it makes, as well as the bubbles and probably the fact that the spit resembles water...and he loves to play with water. The problem is that it really bothers Esperanza, and he knows it. At first, he was spitting just because it was a new discovery and to entertain himself. Then he discovered that he got a huge response from Esperanza whenever he spit near her. So now he does it to get a reaction. He chases her, laughing and spitting while she runs away, wailing and crying. He has so much fun and says "Funny" when I tell him not to spit on her. Finally, I decided I'd try to protect her, but also insisted she has to stop reacting to it the way she does. I gave Ezra a spitting stool. Anytime he spits, in a way that is bothering someone, I tell him to sit on the stool and spit all he wants while he sits there. So far, it kind of works. He likes his spitting stool. It hasn't come across to him as a punishment of any kind, so he's happy to sit on it. He sits, spits for awhile then stands on the bottom step, jumps off and forgets about the spitting for awhile. Over time, the stool may become a time out stool. Not sure. Time outs never worked for Esperanza. She responds better to cold showers. Ezra is different.