I can count to 3

I hope today is better than yesterday was with the kids, particularly Kyle. He has crossed some sort of behavioral threshold and it is icky. Every ugly toddler behavior seems to be in full force and it’s definitely hard to handle. I had no idea that my sweet little brown-eyed toddler who sprawls on top of me to watch the Backyardigans could be so openly defiant while looking me straight in the face.

At the mall play area yesterday when it was time to get back in the stroller, he wouldn’t come to me. He stood about 20 feet away looking at me saying “NO!” This wasn’t because he didn’t want to leave the play area – he’s the one who actually wanted to leave. I could tell he thought this was sort of funny and it was a major test. I did the count to 3 method but midway through I realized I didn’t know what I would do when I reached 3. I can not risk hurting my knee again so I can’t chase him too much, so the count to 3 approach was simply me demonstrating that I could indeed count to 3.

He darted back into the play area and Julie (Matthew’s mom) and I were trying to outsmart him, attempting to nab him as he snaked around one piece of equipment or another. So there we were, looking like we were desperately trying to lure a runaway kitten. Then what did the little stinker do but run up to a STRANGER and hug her leg. Finally I prevailed and got him in the stroller and then he was perfectly fine.

This is a mildly funny visual and all, but the rest of the day was as or more unpleasant. What do you do when your child isn’t phased when you take away a toy? Yesterday he even put a toy in timeout himself when he and Grant fought over it. Now, when I ask him if he wants to go to timeout, whereas he used to shake his head no, now he says yes. We’ll set up the pack-n-play today and hope that that makes the timeout more unpleasant.

I found a free festival at a local church that we’ll venture to this morning. I’m letting Dave sleep in because he’s been cleaning out the garage and when I got up this morning, he had built shelves and bought more and he’s really whipping it into shape. I don’t even want to know when he came to bed. It’s looking awesome, though!

Today will be a better day!