Enter in the “terrible two’s”

Well it is official….Elijah has entered that phase…the terrible two’s. I had a glimpse of it on Monday night. On my first day as a “single mom during the week” I got a call from Elijah’s daycare and he had a fever of over 104…so I had to leave early and go get him and bring him back up to SF to Acute Care. I know that he didn’t feel well but when we checked in at 5:45pm Elijah basically wanted to run and terrorize the place. With the number of sick people in the waiting room I wanted to keep him under control (mistake #1) so I was trying to keep him occupied in the play area and wouldn’t let him leave (mistake #2), this made him quite upset and he spent the next hour – while we waited to get in – screaming at the top of his lungs. It was fabulous. I literally stood with him facing the windows biting my tongue so that I wouldn’t lose it and cry right along with him.

Last night Elijah was, once again, into everything. He has discovered that we keep Pringles chips in one of our cupboards that he has access to. He likes Pringles..but not really for the eating. He would prefer to crunch the chip into a thousand little pieces all over the floor. So he goes for the Pringles again and I knew he wasn’t hungry so I took them away from him and told him “no”.

He proceeded to throw himself onto his belly started screaming and kicking his legs and flailing all about. At one point I asked him if he needed to go to his room. He shook his head no. He gets what is happening….he knows what he is doing and he is trying to play me. I wasn’t buying it last night. So I told him that when he was done he could come and find me and I walked away. It didn’t last much longer.

When I dropped him off this morning he was upset again – wanted to stay in the van and watch a movie. He always puts on a good show for me when I drop him off…makes me feel really guilty about leaving and then apparently stop the second I drive away. Kari at the daycare said that he threw about 4 tantrums yesterday….they don’t last long and they don’t try to control him when he does it – they try and ignore it - so hopefully he will quickly learn that these are not the method to use to get what he wants. He is a smart little turkey but he is testing the waters right now!

I just need to remember his adorable smiles and his laugh at times like this when he is acting out. He is such a fun spirited boy and I know that this too shall pass. Speaking of passing….yesterday he thought it would be fun to poop in his bath in the morning. Perfect! I took a picture of him with my phone and sent it to Dominic with the caption - This is the “I just pooped in the tub look” - He enjoyed that…shared it with several people he was sitting with at his training seminar yesterday!

So that about sums up my first week. We are surviving and are looking forward to a road trip tomorrow to go and spend Saturday afternoon and Sunday with Dominic and hopefully if the weather will cooperate, take the boy’s pictures for our Christmas cards. Maybe I can capture Elijah during one of his “moments”…wouldn’t that make a cute Christmas photo?! Anyways – have a wonderful weekend!!