We're heading into a new stage of parenting. The "I Don't Recognize My Son" stage where he sounds like a squeaky violin scrapping across a chalk board and acts like a starving, needy kitten that hasn't slept in years.

At first, I thought he was just a little cranky because of the disjointed sleep he gets in his big boy bed - getting up to go to the bathroom and then settling back down again. Unfortunately, even when he has a great sleep, he's a cranky. He is having a couple of outbursts in daycare and it doesn't help that his best friend in the whole wide world and forever and ever into infinity is moving to an older toddler centre and leaving him behind with girls who play with dolls and toddlers who don't speak more than two or three words clearly.

However, even at home he's not all sunshine and roses. He has always had moments of frustration, but these days the emotional outbursts seem extreme. Even the daycare feels they are becoming inappropriate for his age. He's screaming at children when he's frustrated, but when told he could be taken away from the situation, he calms right down and uses his language skills to communicate his displeasure. It's almost that he knows the right response, but he's choosing the more effective route, which elicits an immediate response from everyone within a 2-mile vicinity.

Could he be a late bloomer - emotionally? Perhaps he just doesn't actually have the capability to handle frustration without first getting so worked up he explodes.
Could he only now be starting the "terrible twos"? He's still awesome to hang around with, but the whining, OH GOD THE WHINING.

Actually, the whining is making all the rest of the typical challenges harder for me. I'm trying to be understanding, but now the usual bossy directions of "Mom, you hold this car, you put your car here, you drive your car over to my car, your car says this and now it goes away, go away Mom, goawaygoaway, come here come here" have become playtimes I resent a bit. I know this is normal toddler play but since he doesn't seem willing to play with D in this way I'm his little playmate ALL THE TIME.
In fact, I find myself breathing deeply and counting to ten about 5 to 6 times a day.
I also find myself wanting to jump D and start making another baby so that I get a little reprieve from the tyrant - you know, create a little sacrificial lamb so-to-speak...

Even D, the emergent "Good Cop" in our household is losing patience.

A part of me thinks he needs me more than ever right now and that just when he seems the most challenging, he needs to be shown that I love him and that I want to be with him... but Lordy Lordy it's difficult.
Another part of me feels like he's gotten it too good lately. D and I are among the most laid-back parents we know and what if this isn't a good thing? I certainly don't intend to become a hard-ass, but maybe things need to get a little stricter?

I'm heading down to the bookstore this evening, because that's what I do when I need more information. I've also talked it over with my Mother and I think it's time to not only teach him that frustrations need to be handled differently, but that there are consequences for choosing to scream bloody murder when an 18 month old girl innocently decides she wants to see what your playing with...

However, I've been assured by the daycare that we aren't raising a psycho-killer (Qu'est-ce que c'est) so all in all, we're doing okay. Still, I'm sizing him up and wondering if I can stuff him back in somehow so that we can have a kind of "do-over"...

You know?

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