Terrible Two's

I have always heard about “the terrible two’s” but didn’t think my sweet Dominic would ever be close to terrible. And thankfully, he’s not. But I have to say, he has been testing my patience a lot these past couple of months, especially the past week or so. He doesn’t listen when I tell him to pick up his toys. He runs away (shrieking with laughter) when I try and grab him for bath time. The worst is when we’re playing outside and the starts walking down the sidewalk. I tell him to stop and come back to our yard and he keeps going. Then I tell him again, “Dominic Marcus McCool, get your butt back over here right now.” He looks over his shoulder, smirks and keeps on walking. I keep waiting for him to turn around and am kind of biding time because I know once I walk towards him, he’ll run. Finally he’s 4 hourses down and I have no choice put to run after him. Of course, as soon as I take two steps, he takes off running too. Now I’m not only trying to get to him before he runs around the corner, but I’m trying to grab him so he doesn’t trip and fall. His head is bigger than his body and sometimes he get’s a little top heavy. When I finally get him he gets annoyed and says “stop it Mommy” and will sometimes even give a little hit. Yes! My precious boy raised his hand to me!

This past weekend Rob was in AZ and I found it pretty overwhelming to be alone dealing with Dom’s new attitude. For some reason, as soon as he gets all sassy pants, so does Sophie. So then I have Dom yelling, Sophie barking, and Mommy about to lose her cool. Getting up at 6am with him and then having a full day of doing the opposite of what I ask him without being able to step out of the situation for five minutes and take a “cool down” breath was tough. He got at least 5 times out over the weekend, and that is the most he’s ever had. He knows they are coming too. He’ll do something naughty and then say “Mommy, time out.” Once he’s done with his time out, he comes over to me and says “sorry Mommy. Hug?” and wraps his tiny little arms around me. I’m sorry, why was I annoyed? I forget. All that I care about right now is my sweet son hugging me.

For some reason, the one day of the month Rob isn’t there, he was on a roll. There were a few times that I got overwhelmed and lost my temper a bit. I raised my voice at him when I should have remained calm. That night, after I put him to bed, I felt bad. I looked at his angelic little face on the video monitor and wondered how I could ever be frustrated at such a wonderful kid.

I am so lucky to have Rob around most of the time because he’s really good about helping me in that way. He’ll take Dom outside to play or take Sophie for a walk. He’ll have him help garden or ride bikes. It gives me a second to pull myself together.

I get it. He’s exploring his boundaries and testing his limits. And to be honest, I want to encourage that. I want him to feel it all out, find his sense of independence. I try not to react when he does something like drop all his raisins on the floor when I told him not to, because he’s obviously looking for a reaction from me. But the not listening to me is a hard one to swallow. I don’t want to raise one of that kid that does whatever they want and pays no mind to their parents. I don’t want my child to be rude or selfish. I want him to be well behaved and respectful and listen to me when I ask him to do something. I guess this behavior comes with the territory of having a toddler, and I’m just thankful he’s not exploding in screaming fits and throwing himself down on the floor in a tantrum.