Ups and Downs...

I think that grandparents have selective memories. I can't believe that I was a perfectly well behaved 3 year old all the time. Not with the stories I've repeatedly heard about myself. Sometimes I will vent about M's behavior to my mom and she says "He's three." Well, DUH, I know that. I don't expect him to be perfect all of the time, but I do expect him to listen to me and be good MOST of the time. I think lowering your expectations and standards with behavior only leads to one thing -- worse behavior because there's nothing to reign them in.

I was talking to her the other day on the phone while I was filling the tub for him and was telling her about him having a COMPLETE meltdown leaving the park, dumping (not spilling) his milk all over the kitchen table, turning the sprinkler on FULL blast in the back yard, running down the sidewalk from dh (thinking it was a fun game) -- all that day. Oh -- I forgot -- that was also the day that he asked for a drink of water while I was making dinner (fish). I filled up his glass at the sink and when I turned around, he had the trash can lid open, a horribly pained look on his face, and was spitting something weird looking into the trash. When I was filling up his water glass, my child had reached up on the counter and taken a bite of RAW TILAPIA!!!! Are you kidding me?? In the 3-4 min. I was on the phone with my mom and filling the tub and gathering his pj's, he managed to turn on the tub in MY bathroom full blast, climb on his sister's crib, and pull the "screeching streaker" move. Gee -- wonder why I was frustrated with him that day?

I don't want to make him sound like a brat -- he's not. He's a really good boy, but that day is a good example of a day where they ONLY times he'd do what he was told were when we'd raise our voices or take toys away from him for the day. That makes me sad because those are the days where I feel like all I do is say "No", "Quit it", "Please stop", "Put that down", "Get back here", "Calm down", "Get off of there", "Don't touch that", etc. It's exhausting and just doesn't feel good in general.

What's the alternative? Let him go, touch, play with, climb on, throw, eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and for however long he wants. I don't think so.

Most days are NOT like that, but the days that are give me grey hairs and it seems like he just laughs all day long because he's just getting a kick out of pushing Mommy's buttons or something.

Okay -- as I type this -- he took a break from dancing with The Wiggles to come over and tell me "Mommy, I love you. Let's have hugs." **melt** See, not all days are like that! (Thankfully, or I'd be writing this on a coconut shell from Hawaii.)