No--I'm not in labor. I mean it's my time for the terrible twos. They're here. I think this latest round of sickness somehow triggered the switch that turned my reasonable, easy-going, pleasant child into a fit-throwing, demanding, whiney, and completely unreasonable 2-year-old. Just in time for the new baby, just as I predicted!
My fellow May moms--feel free to laugh at me now and say, "Ha ha!" I knew it was coming. But I do have to admit I was clinging to the hope that William was just not that kind of kid. But alas, he is. My patience has been severely tested these last couple of days. I better get a plan, because I'm going to lose it when I'm TOTALLY sleep deprived and emotional dealing with a newborn. I need to remember the lessons from my blogging friends, Jill, Laura, Megan, and Bridget, and many many others I've read along the way. This too shall pass. Keep your sense of humor. Walk away. Be consistent and firm, but calm and composed. Keep your sense of humor. Choose your battles. (Because EVERYTHING is a battle.)
I'm very afraid for the next couple of months. But I'm also so excited to meet this baby, and to see how William develops as a big brother. I have no idea what's in store for us, but I know that Ed and I will do the best we can.
I'll end this entry with a funny story that made me feel much better today. One of our daily battles has become changing William's shirt in the morning. He insists on keeping on his pajama shirt, or refuses to put on a new shirt if I've managed to take off his pajamas. This is not a battle I want to fight every morning, so I tend to let him wear his pajama top downstairs, and eventually, I'll get him to change it--whether it's downstairs before we leave, or in the car before we get to daycare, or at daycare. Yesterday, I decided he could wear his pajama top to daycare. What do I care? The other kids certainly don't care. Ed, however, feels like this is something that should be non-negotiable, and that we have to show William who is in charge. I see his point, so this morning, I fought the battle and won. When we got to William's daycare, his friend Jude had just arrived, and when he took off his jacket, his mom said, "Jude, do you want to put on your shirt now?" I looked over, and sure enough, Jude was wearing his pajama top. It seems that Jude is fighting the same battle as William and his mom and I shared a good laugh about it. As soon as I got to work, I called Ed to let him know we weren't the only ones. There's so much comfort in knowing that someone else is going through the exact same thing!
6 comments:
I think you forgot the biggest lesson of all from reading other May mom blogs:
It could be worse, you could have twin two year olds doing this!!!
haha.
Seriously, all good lessons, and to me the most important one is picking your battles. My boys watch Backyardigans every morning while I change their clothes bc they love it and it stops them from protesting clothing changes. I don't need a battle before my precious coffee.
Beth - Robert was born having tantrums and by 2 yo they were pretty much done. So I *hoped* that Matthew might skip that phase since he is always so happy and laid back. Well, the tantrums started a few weeks ago but I will say this week is much better. I think we'll have our good days and bad days and good weeks and bad weeks, unlike Robert who was consistenlty difficult for about 1 year (note the age difference between my 2 boys - LOL!).
You know what to do and it seems you are keeping your humor which is so important. When baby #2 arrives try to keep William in the same schedule he's use to. That helped a lot with Robert - he still went to daycare and had the same friends and when he came home I gave him extra attention since I'd been with Matthew all day. I still do that with both and it helps - they get their alone time with DH and I and it cuts down on tantrums and bad moods.
I will try to post a BBC link to the thread I started last week so you know you aren't alone: http://boards.babycenter.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?tsn=1&nav=messages&webtag=bcus1418520&tid=39388
Beth,
Hi, I am a visitor from Cathy's Blog. I live in Maryland and pop in on your Blog every once in a while. I just wanted to give you a helpful website, they have really changed my family! It is for PEP, www.pepparent.org. I recommend these classes to anyone who has children, they are LIFE SAVERS!!
Best of Luck with William and I can't wait to see who is cooking in there!
Dawn
Oh, it definitely gets better with two, just you wait! (evil grin)
http://balancingtheballs.blogspot.com/2008/04/you-couldnt-pay-me-to-try-that-again.html
As far as the clothes go, I have a battle with Reagan often too. I let her pick one thing of her outfit each day. That may result in her wearing a giant Christmas hairbow in March, but like you said, choose your battles. There used to be a kid in the neighborhood I lived in that I would see walking with his family every day. He was always wearing a batman costume complete with cape. I guess they too, decided to choose their battles.
What a cute story, Beth. I love your strategy of changing the shirt at some point. It's better than no shirt at all. :)
I love learning about all these challenges before I get to them from a great mom!
Beth - Henry is doing the PJ top thing too! I almost let him wear it today, but won the small battle for today. Too Funny. Heck I know I don't like to get up in the morning and have to get changed out of PJ's. So I can't really blame Henry for not wanting to. :)
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