My child is advanced for his age. That’s the only explanation. Because according to the Gesell book, Your Two-Year-Old: Terrible or Tender (duh! terrible!), the terrible twos don’t start until 2 1/2. Doodles is only 2 1/3. But we’ve hit the terrible part head on. Oh, be still my heart, he must be gifted.
Today, for instance, we had some friends over for a playdate. Everything they touched was not just “No, mine!” but it was bloody murder crying, screaming, “No no no no no!” When J. took the C magnet from the fridge, Doodles chased her hysterically. So she gave him the C and took the W (which apparently is a letter she likes better anyway). But then the W became the letter to be, and the tears streamed down his face as he–gasping–demanded the W. Getting dressed or changing a diaper has become next to impossible. Everything is “self! Do it self!” unless of course we’re holding Sweetie Pie, in which case it’s “Mommy do it!” He knows he’s not allowed to touch Sweetie Pie’s bouncy chair, so he pulled that all time famous big brother move of slowly moving his finger closer and closer to the chair until it was about a centimeter away. He looked at me and gave a big grin. If he had known how to say, “I’m not touching it! I’m not touching it!” I’m sure he would have.
Foods that he had been eating he will no longer eat. The one sippy cup that he drank his milk from is no longer the right sippy cup and we need to play a guessing game to figure out which cup is the acceptable cup. He whines. Nonstop. He doesn’t want to put on his shoes. He doesn’t want to go to the singalong. He doesn’t want to say home. He doesn’t want to have lunch.
Sigh. But he’s still my sweet, wonderful, beautiful Doodles and I know that this will pass. I just wish it would pass a little faster.
I so hear you…my sweet boy is so in this stage that the other night we were walking down the street and as two other children walked up, he shrieked “MY SIDEWALK! MY SIDEWALK!” Horrifying, just horrifying. I think we’ve all met the 4-5 year old that is still like this, which is what scares the hell out of me!
In solidarity (and patience…),
Fran
Fran, that cracked me up! All I can say is I hope our kids never meet up on a sidewalk! I can only imagine the shriekfest. 🙂