Terribly Cute Twos

Getting him dressed is the worst part of the day. This is as far as we got on Saturday.

Yes, we've officially entered the terrible twos. At first, I assumed his bad behavior had to do with the fact that Sean and I are basically switching off days with Aiden, as I go to school M/W/F and Sean works T/TH. I thought maybe the back and forth was confusing him, or maybe he was just better for Sean. It wasn't until Sean asked me "So....does he act up all the time for you?" that we finally realized this wasn't our parenting styles clashing, this was a new phase for Aiden.

Its tough because we never know how to react to his behavior. At first, there was a strict pattern we had to follow to prevent meltdowns. For example, at bedtime it was always : brush teeth, drink a cup of water, he'll wipe his mouth, he'll shut the bedroom door, he'll turn on the humidifier, and then we sit and read stories. If you did one thing out of order there would be a tantrum. I recognize that he probably gets this penchant for order from me, and I always tried to make sure things went as planned, but I started to see that no matter how carefully we followed his lead, there would still be a tantrum.

We still try to let him determine how little things, like the bedtime routine, will go, but we've stopped walking on eggshells around him now that we realize the tantrums are going to happen no matter what. He is so independant and refuses to hold our hands, always wants to climb the stairs and get into and out of chairs all by himself, and it's hard when we have to step in for safety's sake. However, I think we've found small ways to let him be independant and still keep rules in place.