Words!

Since Sam turned two, almost two months ago, his speaking has exploded. What's interesting to me is that even though he started speaking much later than Ben (who started at 14 months), he's picked up words and sentences at a much faster rate. With Ben it was a new word every week or every few days. With Sam we started out at "blue ball" and now we're getting phrases and short sentences out of him. Keeping track of how many words he's saying isn't even an option, as with Ben, because everyday he's saying so many new things. It's not like we're having intellectually stimulating conversations yet, but after waiting two years for him to speak, having him tell me he wants, "More milk" is awesome.

However, we are venturing into the terrible twos with him. It's one of those things that honestly made me pause for a second while considering having a second child. Do I really want to do that AGAIN? Well, it's here and we're doing it. Monday afternoon Sam woke up from his nap in a HORRIBLE mood. Everything made him mad. We were out of milk, so he had to drink water. Tantrum. I put that water in a straw cup instead of a sippy cup. Tantrum. I showed him the sippy cup I was going to use, and he agreed, but then I poured the water from the straw cup into the sippy cup. Tantrum. Unfortunately, we really needed to go to the grocery store, because we weren't just out of milk. I was hoping the car ride would calm Sam down. It did, but when I suggested he ride in the car cart, instead of pushing one of the small carts they have for children (curse you, Schnucks!), he flipped the fuck out. Total melt down. I could not calm him down, so we had to leave. We did not get his precious milk or anything else. Then when we got home he went right to the fridge asking for milk. Tantrum.

It was frustrating, to say the least. For some reason this week a switch was flipped in his brain and suddenly he wants to do everything himself, which is good and a very toddler thing. But of course it leads to even more frustration on both our parts when he just CAN'T do something, either because of lack of skill, or danger. It's just one of those things we have to get through and he'll emerge from it a more competent human, but I'll probably have a couple more grey hairs.

File this under, "Pandora's Box"

We only put Ben in time out for throwing toys and hitting. But this morning he was in time out four times before 8:00am. So between that and the fact that he's been gorging on sweets for the last couple weeks, when the manager of Subway gave us two free cookies (because Ben's just so cute and charming) I slipped them into the diaper bag before he could notice.

After lunch we stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things and about halfway through the store he started yelling because he wanted M&M's. This happened last time we were there, too, so I'm afraid we might be starting a pattern. I told him we weren't going to buy M&M's, but if he was quiet until we got back to the car he could have a cookie. And as if we were bathed in heavenly light, that kid was practically silent the rest of the trip. Bribing works, apparently.

But that's one of those things I swore I wouldn't do when I was a mother. I don't want to fall back on it too often... But it worked so well. Now it's going to be in the back of my head, "Just tell him he can have a cookie. Just tell him he can have a cookie. Just tell him he can have a cookie." I've given the devil on my shoulder extra ammunition.

Wow

Though Ben's birthday isn't for a few months I think we just experienced our first terrible two tantrum. It originated because he wanted to play an iPod game and I asked him to say, "Please." Most of his cohorts in playgroup say please and thank you (in some form or another), so it's past time for us to start teaching Ben. However, when I didn't immediately give him the iPod he flipped out. At first I tried getting him to just say please, but he wouldn't stop crying.

Then I went into ignoring mode. I tidied the kitchen and re-stocked his diaper bag all to the tune of screaming. When he started throwing magnets from the refrigerator I intervened, but I ignored him for a good 10 minutes. To no avail. So I tried to calm him down with hugs and singing and soft talking. Also to no avail. Obviously at some point he forgot what the tantrum was originally about and switched to insisting on having his binky. Well, that wasn't happening while he threw a fit so I tried various tactics to get him to calm down. Eventually after about 45 minutes of this he calmed down enough to read The A Book and now he's taking a nap.

Holy crap, people. I'm not even sure what to say. I'm proud that I didn't lose my cool, because I felt like I could've several times during that tirade. Now I just have a headache.

I was That Mother again

On Monday Ben and I spent some time with friends at the playground. When it was time to go home I decided to make Ben walk back to the car instead of carrying him. It's something I've been doing more of, with mixed results. Yesterday he was wasn't in the mood, but I decided to make him do it anyway. Because I'm the Mom, that's why. He'll run down the park path all the time if we're still playing, but as soon as he realizes it's time to go, he wants nothing to do with running or walking. It's not that he cares about leaving, it's that he's LAZY. So I started walking to the car and he was hugging my legs and whining and I kept saying, "We're walking to the car. I'll hold your hand." But he wasn't having it. Eventually he just went into tantrum mode.

So he's screaming and lying on the ground and that's about the time another mother walked by with two kids, pushing a stroller. She looked at him and then gave me a look that said, "I feel for you. I've been there." We shared a smile and then she was gone. And though my kid was bawling on the sidewalk it made me feel very serene and connected.