bennett is definitely entering into the "terrible two's"....i think weve only hit the tip of the iceberg. a few times recently he has just broken out in heaving tears and screams and nothing will make him happy. honestly i dont think he even knows what he wants. he sounds like a dying prehistoric bird, and his face turns so red he might just burst.
usually he will start a tantrum when it involves food {surprise surprise}...like "dede! dede! deeee deeee! " {meaning cookie - which is what i call these little gerber arrowroot things, we dont reallly give him cookies unless daddy sneaks in a nilla wafer every now and then - and yes he calls those "deedee's" too}. or he wants another banana. or something. like i said, half the time i dont think he even knows WHAT he wants.
its really hard to try and decide how to treat or react to these tantrums, when youve never done it before...do you discipline? do you ignore? do you pick them up and cuddle them until they stop crying? {all you parenting experts out there would say "DEFINITELY NOT MAM" to the latter im sure}.
usually, i am laughing so hard at his crazy un-bennett reactions that i am at a lost of exactly what to do. so, stephen and i try a couple times to get him to tell us what he wants, or ask him "do you want some ___?" and he of course repeats "nuh!! {no}" during tantrum times. so then, i just tell him not to cry and to tell me what he wants, and then he just starts fussing about everything so i just walk away!
i thought i was being a terrible mom at the beginning, but boy, the second i stop paying him attention when he is acting like that, the second he starts to get over whatever he was going crazy about and all of a sudden he is back to happy carefree bennett.
below, i didnt get to the camera fast enough, but he was shrieking and freaking out bc "color time" was over {we were coloring for father's day} {and we had been coloring for as long as i could handle - b was starting to want to color the chair and the table and himself and me and thats when i say "color time is over!!!"}. anyway, i dont capture the full tantrum effect in this video, but you do get to hear a little bit of his stubborn "NUH!!!!" 's.
as you can see he likes to dress himself {already-usually consists of a shirt, diaper, and SHOES}
hey! we are going through the same thing! Will's favorite word is no! and he yells it at Ross and I! yesterday, Ross picked him up and had him all afternoon and he said that he was great,didn't throw any tantrums at all, and played all afternoon while Ross did work in the kitchen! i was thinking maybe he just acts that way for me! i've tried ignoring him, but that just makes hime madder! lately i've been trying to remove hime from whatever the situation is and calm him down. sometimes it works, sometimes not! i definitely think terrible twos start before two!!!
ReplyDeletelet me know if there is something that works for yall.
millie
welcome to my world my dear friend. it was a bit of a jarring experience for me when fits and "no's" started out of nowhere. even though we all know they will come it is just strange to see them out of YOUR baby! they are in FULL force now for sure...pretty funny, kinda intriguing and eventually pretty exhausting if you ask me! i have a great book called the Emotional Life of the Toddler if you want to get all developmental with me :-)
ReplyDeletebeach this weekend??
Beeeeeeeeeeeeee! He's just so dang cute, even while acting like a crazed teradactle. :)
ReplyDeletethose are the screams, no's, and wails i keep hearing in the background every time i try to call & talk to u! :) silly boy
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to this! Carter has been stomping his feet and throwing an all out fit. I haven't known how to handle it. I have tried ignoring it. I've tried "talking" him through it. I don't think anything is working yet! :)
ReplyDeleteOh, and I read your comment...I'd bet Bennett has just as many words as Carter. I never would have thought he had so many words if I hadn't started writing them down. And to help know what to include on the list, we only record his "real" words, which we define as being used independent of him repeating them back to us and being said on more than 3 occasions. :)
Hope ya'll are staying COOL this summer! This heat is unbearable!