Terrible Two's

The terrible two's are just that...TERRIBLE! (Well, not at all times. But they have their moments!) I have been awake for a whole 45 minutes this awful Saturday morning and it's a miracle that I have not managed to pull out all of my hair!! (Which, as I just learned in my abnormal psychology class, is called trichotillomania).

Before I break down our disastrous morning let me tell you that Lucas has been quite the little stinker lately. I think he is rebelling against me for his dad working out of town so much and I've really let my emotions get the best of me at times. He has been waking up EVERY night sometime between 1 and 3 and causing nothing but frustration in our house. He comes into my room each time, asks me to cuddle him with his blankies, (which simply means to tuck him back in bed) and we usually do just that. This last week he has continued to get out of bed 10-15 times requesting me to tuck him right back him. He would refuse to stay and would yell "MOM!!" at the top of his lungs as I tried to walk out of the room. Getting nowhere with this, I try to just go back to bed myself but it always leads to a disaster.

A few nights ago it took me over an hour to get him to stop this ridiculous behavior. I finally broke down in tears and he stopped crying instantly. He asked "mommy, what's wrong?" in the most sympathetic little voice. I told him I was so tired and that mommy just really wanted to go back to sleep. His response? "It's ok! Go to your room." WHAT?! I seriously fought him...and I mean fought him...for over an hour and all it took was for me to break into tears? I don't get it. Unfortunately the next night was the same ordeal. This time however, was awful. After me trying to be as patient as I could, I eventually broke and we both proceeded to yell, scream, and cry at each other for nearly 40 minutes. It was awful. I hated that he broke me to that point and felt horrible for not keeping it together, but nothing was working. Daddy's flight was late and he finally walked in the door at 4:00 a.m. Poor guy walked into a war zone and was in absolute shock at what was going down. He said he'd take it from here and he took Lucas back into his room. 10 minutes later he comes to bed. UGH! Why is he so bad for me and so good for his father? It drives me crazy!!

But this is where I broke. Levi said he was almost asleep and then just bursted into tears. He cried and said "mommy is mean to me" and Levi had to reassure him that I loved him and we were both just upset. As he was telling this to me the tears poured down my face. I couldn't believe I let our fight escalate to that point and I felt like the crappiest parent on earth. I know the unruly tantrum went on for almost an hour, but I shouldn't have yelled so much.

So here I am, laying in bed, feeling awful. I couldn't sleep and the only thing I wanted was to go kiss my baby and tell him I loved him. At that very moment I told myself that yelling is not the answer and I was not going to ever let me son feel that way against me, ever again! :(

Fast forward to this morning.

Lucas woke me up right at 7:30 as he does EVERY single morning. This boy is absolute clockwork! He was being so ridiculous and saying "mom, I'm hungry. I want breakfast" over and over again. I said ok, give me just a second and I'll come make you something. "MOM! I WANT PANCAKES!" was repeated nearly 10 times before I could even manage to make it out of my room. So off I go, straight to the kitchen. I start getting his pancakes ready and he yells "NO!! I don't want them!" I kept my mouth shut (even though I was thoroughly annoying at this point already) and asked him to just please eat the pancakes. "NO!! I don't want them!" Now, my yelling, screaming, overly dramatic child throws himself to the ground and continues to yell. I tell him to knock it off, stop crying, and tell me what he wants. He storms off into the living room crying and doesn't answer.

Oh lord. Here we go. I, trying to keep to my new promise, walk into the bathroom to put in my contacts while trying to ignore him. I figure if I don't give him a response then hopefully he'll realize he's getting no where and stop acting like a fool. Right? Wrong.

He comes into the bathroom now yelling "Mom, I want a cereal bar! Open it, open it!" Ok, fine. I ask him to go sit at the table and I'll open it for him. He goes, does what I ask and I follow him. I open it up, hand it to him, and guess what he does? He throws it back at me and yells "I DON'T WANT IT!" Here comes the loud yelling and screaming for no reason followed by his new favorite tantrum act...throwing himself on the floor. I calmly said fine and walked away. Oh, that pissed him off!

He followed me into the living room yelling and I told him to go sit down and eat. He yelled that he need a bib so I said to go and get one...you know where they are. This proceeds to more yelling and crying when he pretends that he can't put it on. He's now yelling "I can't do it! Will you help me?" and acting like a darn fool. He brings me the bib and as I try to put it on him he yanks it off, yells that he doesn't want it and starts screaming again. What in the world is wrong with my child? I let him throw his fit for a few minutes and when he asked me to put the bib on again, I gave it another shot. He screamed "I don't want it" again and ripped it off one last time. At this point, his butt is headed to time out!

He threw a fit with more yelling and screaming, attempted to get down quite a few times and finally calmed down. I told him he could get down as soon as he was done crying and we could try to eat breakfast again. This time around, he decides that he wants muffins. I didn't have it in me to argue so I open up the pack of mini blueberry muffins that he loves so much and set it on his table. This is where things get interesting. He pulls out the first muffin and begins hitting it and squishing it into the table. Not only is he squishing, he has made a fist and is beating this poor muffin into a million little crumbs. I've never seen him act so angry or violent and was almost laughing at the site. But once he was done mutilating the poor thing he started to cry...again. "My muffin is broken! I can't eat it!"


OH MY GOODNESS! I can't handle this child. And why does he only act like this when his dad isn't here to help me? AHHHHHHH!

So, I ignore. At this point I figure I've done all that I can and offered him plenty of food. If he doesn't want to eat, that's on him. I pull out the laptop because I really should be starting my psych paper that's due tomorrow (*sigh*) but I just cannot concentrate at all. So, to blogger I come. I figure the best way to laugh about this situation is to write it down so I can re-read it later.

After I managed to ignore my child's ridiculous behavior for some time I found him eating in what appeared to be a calm and content manner. There was suddenly no more crying, whining, or tantrum throwing. Instead, he was eating in silence! He finished his muffins and then grabbed a towel to clean up his mess. He wiped up his table (all of his own doing) and proceeded into the living room to play with his toys. He has been playing happily for the past 15 minutes...by himself...and you would almost never know how big of a butt he was just acting.

I love my son to death but boy does he know how to get to me! I feel like my patience and tolerance levels are lower than usual and I don't know if that's because I'm pregnant, or because he just knows how to push my buttons. He is a fantastic talker and I think that plays a large role into everything. He back talks like a darn teenager and acts like one half the time. I just told Levi the whole story and he goes..."and you wanted another one?!" Oh goodness...please help me! I pray that this terrible two phase is well and gone before the next one gets here. Otherwise, I may just loose my mind!