A few weeks ago Lex officially entered
toddler-hood. I say this because it was that day he learned the
fine art of throwing himself on the floor and kicking and
screaming. It was a fun few days :/ I think we did a good job
of handling it and it lasted for less than a week, though he
did have an impressive performance at playgroup one day.
Now he has moved on to the more defiant act of
throwing other things, instead of himself. He is being very
scientific about this whole process and is learning that it’s
ok to throw his bouncy balls around the house, but not ok to
throw his milk cup in anger. These extremes are easy. The
exhausting part is when he’s annoyed and throws something
unrelated. You can watch his little questioning face as he
picks up a boot, looks right at you, and throws it (never at a
person, so far, thankfully!) Of course he gets a “so sad” and
goes to his room for a few minutes. But then what if he throws
something (his truck, for example) when he’s not really angry?
Or throws something in his room after I’ve put him there for
throwing things. It’s like every day he thinks of new “what
ifs” to test out and I have to decide, on the spot, whether
it’s ok or not. Very tiring. I was getting a little lax about
putting him in his room (it’s not easy carrying a squirmy
toddler up stairs twelve times a day when you’re bursting in
the belly!) but I think that was part of the problem, so the
past few days I’ve been much more consistent and he’s
definitely catching on. It’s interesting to watch him
experiment on me. I know he’s just testing out his boundaries,
but I feel like I’m always just one step behind in making the
boundaries! It’s like he’s always running and I’m always
running right along side, trying to install the fence before he
gets too far, but always just one fence post ahead… never any
time to stop, think, plan, etc. Geesh! I’m going to take a nap
now!
He went down for a very early nap
today. Every time I put him in his room this morning (lots of
throwing) he grabbed his blanket and climbed in bed. Finally I
just closed the shade, turned on the fan, and left him there.
Silly boy. Testing the boundaries is probably just as
exhausting for him as it is for me. It would be nice to get
past this little game before new baby arrives though… nice,
but not likely :)
