Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Oh the Joys of Toddlerhood

Don't get me wrong, I love Andrew with every fiber of my being, but lately he has been a little trying.  I don't know if it's just because I am exhausted from being pregnant and that my hormones have given my temper a hairtrigger or what.

He's not a bad kid, I know that.  I have seen bad kids and compared to them Andrew is pretty damn good.  It's just that right now he is a spazz of a toddler and it's been exhausting. Last night while he was sitting on the couch with a snack of stale fruit loops (yeah, MOTY here) he spilled half of his sippy of milk down the side of the couch.  I hurried up and cleaned it up and then walked away and shut myself in the bathroom for five minutes (he stayed out in the living room with J and amazingly didn't follow me and stand there beating on the door). I sat there, head in my hands, and took a bunch of deep breaths while telling myself to relax.  After five or so minutes I was ready to head back out for more.

My headstrong and ornery munchkin

The second I saw his sweet little smile I felt immense guilt for getting so frustrated with him.  And then the panic set in.  The panic of "How the $&#@ are we supposed to handle two kids when just one is driving me insane?  What were we thinking??".

It wasn't helping that we received an email from daycare detailing what had gone on yesterday between Andrew and another little boy, Anthony (who is 17 months). It seems that neither of them wanted to share toys with each other and there was some fighting and aggression (pushing and shirt pulling - Andrew ended up with a scratch on his neck).  So not only was I tired and frustrated, but I was feeling mommy guilt for not being good at teaching my kid to share.

I know his behavior isn't out of the norm.  He's (almost) 23 months and this is what kids at that age do.  I know he's testing his limits, seeing what he can get away with and trying to explore new things.  And I know that things will only get worse more interesting as time goes on.  I know I should be grateful that so far the tantrums have been relatively minor, that we haven't dealt with anything beyond some crying and/or pouting when he doesn't get his way.  I realize that could all change in an instant and that the "terrible two's" are rapidly approaching.  I know we aren't bad parents and we don't have a bad kid, I'm just tired and having a hard time dealing with everything right now.

And to think - we'll get to start this stage all over again with 2.0 in a few years...

3 comments:

  1. I know exactly what you're going through! (minus also being pregnant). James is 22 months today and he has been in the beginning stages of "terrible twos" for the last month. I think my patience is decent, but sometimes he can be so frustrating, especially when he's in tantrum mode. I try to take extra deep breaths, and I've been working with him to "tell mommy", "use your words", "tell mommy what James needs." .... not sure how well it's working, but I'm trying. Of course you aren't a bad mom :-) Actually, its nice to hear someone else voice their (normal) frustrations and know that I'M not alone.

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    1. Thank you! It's good to know that I'm not alone in this! I do the same thing with "Tell me what you need, I don't know what 'unnnhhhhh' is." Thankfully he had a much better day at daycare yesterday. She told me that he took a toy off of Anthony one time and when she told him that he had to share he gave it back. We had a great evening so there was no need for me to take a mommy time out. Hopefully we have a repeat of that today.

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  2. Don't feel bad, I have those moments too. I often wonder if it is from the hormones too or if it is just this age.

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