Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Gabe's new personality

Yesterday my wonderful little guy turned into a tantruming machine, and boy can he freak out...Scott calls his new tantrums death throws because that's what it seems like. He acts like something has crawled under his skin and is eating him from the inside out, he throws whatever hes holding, pounds the floor, and wails like someone has just brutally beat him...I have to wonder what the neighbours think...

His tantrums were compounded yesterday by having to grocery shop. In an attempt to not have all of Costco staring at us I took Gabe out of the cart and let Scott shop with Edie while I chased Gabriel all over the store (I can't imagine grocery shopping alone). He loved it but had a death throw tantrum when we had to leave, apparently Costco is a toddlers dream playground. So Scott had to carry his kicking, screaming frame out the door while I pretended I didn't know them!

By the time we got home Gabe was exhausted so he went down for a nap. We woke him up at 5pm to eat his dinner which he refused to do in his high chair. After giving up and setting his plate next to mine on the table he finally decided (after he received a big person fork and knife) that he would eat his chicken, spit out his carrots, and not even bother trying his side kick. At this point Gabe lives off of protein, fruits, and vitamins. He HATES everything else. I'm lucky if he eats his dinner at all anymore.

Then he decided he wanted to play with Henry, his potty doll, but he was much more interested in putting Henry on the potty than sitting on his own. After crossing his legs, grabbing himself, and jumping around I knew he needed to go, I bribed, cajoled, begged for him to sit on the potty, he refused. He decided it would be much more fun to jump on my couch. I told him that if he had to go pee he wasn't allowed on the couch in case he had an accident...no sooner were the words out of my mouth... After cleaning up his pee off of my 1800 dollar, 6 month old couch (don't buy nice things if you have kids)I glance over to see him throw a toy at Edie's head, I yell at him to stop, he looks back at me smiles and jumps as hard as he can on Edie's leg. At this point I lose it. I tell him he's acting like a brat (which I feel enormously guilty about), that I cant take his crap anymore, and I tell him its bedtime. Then he proceeds to throw three more tantrums before I finally get him into his bed.

I huff up to my bedroom where Edie is screaming for me and I tell Scott that having three is lunacy.Edie finally falls asleep, all is quiet, and Scott and I promise to be more patient with Gabriel tomorrow.

I gotta say, if there's any person who has the power to make me feel like a crappy mom, it's a tantruming two year old.

When does this stage end? And am I really going to go through it three times?

3 comments:

Jess said...

Hmmm.... Yes, it looks like you will go through it 3 times, and in a row. Bright side, you are getting all the hard stuff over in one bang, and they will all have their own seperate personalities, so it may not be as tough when the "terrible twos" begin for each. Now, my only tip is to keep it so that either parent can put any kid down. Avery only wants me, as does Rowan, so there's a ton of crying going on here every night.
Love. xx

carrie said...

Gabe will go down with either of us, but Edie will only go down with me at night, but daddy does it during nap time, so hopefully when I wean her she will adapt to both of us.

But man, it was like a switch, one day Gabe was my sweet little guy and now hes crazy. he yells at me now...I shouldnt laugh but I do...its amusing watching a little person scream indecipherable words at you...probably doesnt help with the intensity of his tantrum...but sometimes...all you can do it laugh at the absurdity of it.

Anonymous said...

lol...I know it's crazy honey and there are times that you are just ready to kill but you are doing great. Stand your ground and let Scott be the bad guy too so you can have a break. Sometimes all it takes to keep your sanity is to put him in his room...turn up the tunes and dance...it works off the energy and makes you happy. That was my way of dealing when it got to be too much. By the time you go back in hopefully you are both in more control.