Friday, February 18, 2005

I'M GOING INSANE

Owen knows all the words to Gwen Stefani's Love Angel Music Baby. Well, kinda. He says "Johnny, get outta here!" at the end of Bubble Pop Electric quite well, and he has "tick tock, tick tock" down cold. However, he might be singing "working so hard every night and day and now we get the Play-Doh." Haha.

So yesterday, Owen took advantage of his 1 hour "downtime" (I've given up on actual sleep taking place) to piss all over his bed, chair and toy horse. I was speechless. Literally. I was so angry with him I wanted to tear him apart. I gave him a time-out. Seems a little anti-climactic, I have to say. I could hardly even speak to him all afternoon I was so pissed.

Then he decided to throw a kicking, screaming fit when I tried to help him pee. I grabbed him by the arms and practically screamed "CUT IT OUT!!!!" into his face. It wasn't really that loud or dramatic, but emotionally, I was at DEFCON 5 aka, I would HAPPILY KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!!!!

He must have sensed it b/c he just stared at me in shock for a second and then started bawling.

This kid has just been pushing me SO FAR lately.

So today, he spent his naptime spitting water from his sippy cup all over the bedroom. JUST BECAUSE HE KNEW IT WOULD PISS ME OFF!

I took the cup away and he had a screaming fit for ten minutes, which I totally ignored. When he was calmer, I went back to have a talk with him about spitting. He apologized and said he wouldn't anymore. I explained that if he did it again he would lose the sippy cup forever. He nodded solemnly, took his cup, and laid down with his eyes closed for fifteen minutes or so.

Next time I checked on him, he had spit water all over the bookshelf and floor. WHAT THE HELL DO I DO WITH THIS MANIAC??? I gave him a long time-out, and made him clean up every drop of water, while he blubbered and whined. I took away the sippy cup and he's not allowed to have them anymore. That'll solve the problem of spitting water I guess, but what happens when he starts spitting spit?

If it's not one thing, it's another. He's just looking for any way to rebel- and he's only 3! I don't think I will make it to the teenage years- I might kill him first.

I feel like I never talk about Stewart. He's 15 months, just entering the tempermental brat phase, but he's such an easygoing guy by nature that even when he throws a fit, it's likely to last less than twenty seconds. He actually listens already- he will pick up toys when asked, will stop what he's doing when I say no, and will stay next to me and Owen when we walk together.

It's so weird- I don't feel like I've done anything different with Stewart than I did with Owen- I picked up a few tricks to use the second time around, but basically I'm the same mom. However, Owen at 15 months would walk away from me and never look back and showed no sign that he understood any English. I know some of this is probably due to his communication difficulties/light autistic spectrum or whatever. But I'm convinced that some of it HAS to be a stubborn personality.

My friend Mary Lou said he's figuring out how to get to me before I can figure out what gets to him. An accurate assessment- but what do I do until I figure it out?

2 comments:

AG said...

You guys should TOTALLY apply to be on Super Nanny. I bet Jo Jo could cure the spitting problem with her sweeping british accent alone.

Seriously, she's some kind of miracle worker.

Sarah Ford said...

i know, mary lou and i have been talking about how much we need her. some friend of mary lou's brother (or some other connection like that) is dating her, so we were saying we should use that to get da hookup.