I'm not sure who I thought I was tonight, but I didn't like her. I swore I was never going to be the parent that demanded my kids eat all their dinner before leaving the dinner table. I learned a lot of great parenting tips from my parents, but dinner rules are one I disagree with them on and have chosen to go my own (maybe at times unsuccessful) route (sorry mom and dad). I remember many, many, many evenings when my parents would make my (rotten, I mean stubborn) brother sit at the table for what seemed like hours (probably not, but it felt like that) because he refused to eat his vegetables, or meat, or whatever. I thought this was such a ridiculous waste of everyones time and energy and I vowed never to do this to my kids. And to my memory, until tonight, I never have. Note..I never was made to stay at the table long because I was a "clean plate kid" or just a fatty depending on whom you're talking to.
Joey's behavior has been very...very...2 year oldish for the past several weeks. He seriously is driving me crazy. It makes me so sad (and confused) that he can go from being the sweetest little man on the planet to being my worst nightmare in the blink of an eye. This week alone we had the following lovely experiences: a meltdown in the checkout at the grocery store, numerous bedtime fits, a swell little "discussion" that resulted in Joe slapping me across the face, and then today, the food fight.
Dean had a Pacers game tonight and mom and dad were watching Brookie so the boys and I headed over to hang out with them (and Mal Mal too, bonus). We had a great time playing with bubbles, giggling with Brookie, and even made pinecone bird feeders. The boys wanted to stay for dinner so Nana graciously prepared us a feast (hamburger helper, we're easy to please!) and we sat down at the table to break bread together. Joe was being really good but didn't want to eat. I instituted the "eat your age" rule, which dictates that at 2 years old, Joey simply has to have 2 bites and then he can be excused. Well this didn't go over well with the Bug. We had a 15 minute standoff before Joey pitifully choked down his first bite and then the meltdown was knocking on the door as he REFUSED to have another bite. I attempted to remain patient as I issued threat after threat "nothing else to eat later, no dessert, no raffie, no milk, etc." but at this point I really didn't even care if he had another bite, I just felt like I couldn't back down and let him "win" the war. I would say we were both out of control at this point.
I finally relented and let him down from the highchair and stormed into the kitchen. Meanwhile he climbed into a kitchen chair and got his foot stuck (literally) and that is when the waterworks started. He was so hysterical at this point that my mom kindly suggested that I needn't do the dishes and should just take the boys home. Really. Just. Go. Home.
At home things went from bad to worse as Joey realized that I really didn't intend to let him eat anything. and that included goldfish ("just a couple?" he pleaded "a yittle bit?"). I finally calmed him down, got him into his jammies, popped a paci in his mouth and the boys and I snuggled on the couch to watch a movie. Shortly thereafter it was time for bed and Joey very sweetly walked into his room and said night night. We read a book, sang a song, and prayed for a better day tomorrow and Lord help us we could use it!
Darn that kid for being so much like his mom at times, over emotional and high strung. I already have one high maintenance kid, Joey was supposed to stay like his mellow daddy. Come on! But even at his worst, it's impossibe to forget how sweet he is at his best. Like last night, when I was washing dinner dishes and looked out the window and saw this:
Sweet Joey "helping" his daddy mow the lawn.
And this morning I was getting dressed and Joey was being suspiciously quiet so I went to check on him and found him sitting on his marble tower box watching TV. What a clever little monster he is! By the way, I'm going to go ahead and make the prediction here and now that this kid is going to be an engineer. He LOVES building things; marble towers, train tracks, amazing structures with blocks, you name it.
I love you sweet, Joe. I know you will get a grip on your emotions at some point and just pray that I can as well. We're a volatile pair buddy, hang in there and we'll get each other through this terrible twos thing we've got going. I love you bug bug...if I didn't love you I would have strangled you by now! xoxo
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