Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Angels & Demons Part 1 - The Demon

No, I'm not talking about a Dan Brown novel. I'm talking about my son.
The "terrible two's" are upon us. Our doctor said that they can start at 18 mos and last until 3 years old. Looking forward to it! Monkey was so well behaved this weekend. We went shopping, played at the park, in the yard, and did all kinds of fun things. Then it was Sunday night. I think part of the problem was that he took an hour and a half nap in the middle of the day, and we figured he didn't need an afternoon nap. I mean, that's what he does at school. Apparently we were wrong.
It all started in the bathtub when he insisted on turning the water on and off and on and off after I repeatedly told him not to. Then he got mad and started to throw a fit. Have you tried to take a squirming, fit-throwing, wet naked baby out of the tub? Not easy. Once we did get him out of the tub, "squirming, fit-throwing, wet naked baby" became "squirming, fit-throwing, screaming baby in a diaper" who would not stop hitting me. He got so out of control that I finally just put him in his room and closed the door. There was no calming him down, and I figured he needed some time to get himself straight. All this did was give him the opportunity to start opening and slamming the door shut, which he knows is a no-no. You could tell he was doing it just to get me to go over there and pay him attention, controlling me! I told him "no" once and left him alone. Finally after about 30 min of his shenanigans, he flipped the switch off like none of it had ever happened.
I was spent.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ugh. Totally hear you. J was about 18 months when it hit (pun not intended) too. I do the same thing you do -- just walk away and let him figure it out. It has gotten better, actually. I think being able to talk more is helping -- he can tell us what the problem is instead of flipping out. There was a time where he wouldn't stop hitting us (me, mostly). Now he just does it when he's overtired and/or overwhelmed.

The angel part of it is too cute, though. Here's to hoping it continues ...