Looking for a Solution

At my wits end and looking for a solution. I absolutely love you but you test my patience every day more and more. Yet there are moments where you absolutely melt my heart! Yesterday was a good evening with you. We cuddled and watched TV together and I love how you talk to me sometimes…I understand maybe 40% of what you’re saying but the way you say it, Is so sweet…I could tell you miss me while I’m at work…moments like that make all the bad and crazy get washed away and I’m refreshed for the next challenge with you.

I am at the point where instead of letting my frustrations get the best of me, I am trying to find better ways to deal with it all. From what I’ve read, your behavior is perfectly normal for you age which actually is quite a relief! It’s nice to know I’m not alone dealing with this. I read a few articles that were really helpful. A few things I’ve learned: Patience is key, choose your battles (don’t make every little thing an issue, if it causes no harm, don’t worry about it), enforce rules and be consistent, and use positive reinforcement. I put these things to the test yesterday which is why I think it was a better evening for us. I have to admit that daddy and I haven’t been following these guidelines at all…we are very laid back and not strict at all. We don’t have many rules, we don’t eat dinner as a family every night in the kitchen…instead we just eat when we are hungry, we feed you when we think you should eat, let you take your food in the living room to eat as you watch Yo Gabba Gabba, let you eat foods you choose (you’re a picky eater), and don’t put much restriction on your liquid intake throughout the day and I know all of these things have so much to do with your behavior problems. Another thing that I am trying to work on, is getting your play area situated for you. As of now, we just have 2 big bins with all your toys just stacked up in there which gives you very little access to them and instead of struggling to get things out, I notice that you just look for other things around the house to keep you busy, which ends up being something you shouldn’t be doing, then we have to discipline and take that item away or clean up a mess you made etc…and then temper tantrums are inevitable when you are being curious and we say no. I’m starting to see the problem lies in us quite a bit. I will be making some serious changes! I want to be friends with my you, I’m not digging this love/hate relationship we have right now. I’m afraid that if I don’t make the corrections now, I will be in for some serious problems later. You really are a sweetheart though, and listen…it’s just that when you get in tantrum mode, no one can reason with you, I pretty much just have to step away and let you finish your fit before being able to deal with you again. So the obvious remedy to this isn’t how to calm you during a tantrum, but how to avoid tantrums from even happening. And this is where we are and will be working very hard at getting under control. I really hope this blog some day helps you when you have a child and are dealing with similar issues.

Running in flip flops…

So this weekend was interesting and busy! Saturday we had our family reunion and the day was great, you were on your best behavior UNTIL you wanted to ride Emilio’s scooter. There you were trying so hard to get this thing moving on grass and I felt bad so I told Vivi to come with me to take you on the sidewalk. You was having a good time ridding it but since it’s a lean-steer scooter you were leaning to your right the whole time and we had to help you stay straight, but you wanted none of our help, you kept saying “I want do it”. So we let you do it and you’d get so upset because you kept ridding into the grass every few minutes, so finally Vivi and I were over it and decided to go back to the grass with the family…however this didn’t go over well with the you at all…you started having one of your tantrums. So there you were rolling around in the ground, crying your butt off, then you get up and run in one direction then throw yourself on the floor, roll around a little more and keep at it for a good 5-10 minutes. I had just spent the day telling my cousins how crazy you’ve been with your tantrums lately and they didn’t believe me since you seemed so calm and “cute”. Well they got a taste of it and here is Kurtis with the video camera just following your crazy butt around while other families within the reunion are looking a bit concerned…I just let you cry it out. This seems hilarious as I type it, and I know we will get good laughs from it, but let me tell you something, as a mom who only wants to make her child happy, these tantrums really give me major anxiety. I needed a drink right then…
So then comes Sunday, we went to the Freestyle Session in LA, I didn’t want to bother your grandma or the girls to babysit since it was an all day thing and we’d be getting home around 12 or 1 am. So there we are at the event and you were being pretty good! I was having a great time with you, Emilio and daddy. There was loud music, people break dancing all over the place, you seemed very entertained by this yet at some point I could tell you were getting bored because you started testing limits and boundaries. You would start walking away from me without looking back trying to see how far you could get. I stopped you a few times and looked you right in the eye to tell you to stay close to me.
Later we went to this awesome little spot up some stairs in the very back of the building where we could see everything and still keep you in a more confined area, we were doing good up there since there wasn’t too much chance for you to wander off, then out of nowhere you caught me off guard and RAN down the stairs, to the door of the building, out where all the people were and here Emilio and I are running after you (mind you I am wearing flip flops!), at one point I seriously thought I was going to lose you because you are so little and were easily getting through people and small spaces that I couldn’t…the distance between us was becoming longer. I finally reached you, feet away from the exit of the event, CLOSE TO THE STREET, and grabbed your little arm and dragged you back to where we were, I was completely out of breath trying to explain to you why that WAS NOT OK! You just looked like you didn’t even care to listen. That was the buzz kill to my night right there. After that it was all down hill, my patience was shattered and I was just ready for the day to be done. Right then I wanted to throw my own temper tantrum and just cry my head off, but I tried REALLY hard to keep my cool and enjoy the rest of the day. I never thought I would have these kind of problems with my kid. I always thought I’d have more control over a little 2 year old…I gotta say, you my dear are a whole lot of work and you are making it official that I don’t want any more kids. I love you to death but with a kid like this, how could anyone even imagine taking on any more!!! It’s obvious that you need my UNDIVIDED attention at all times, Dr Perez was dead on when she told me at your 3 month appointment that you would be a “high maintenance” kid.

Fits & Tantrums

Lately you have been overly needy and when you don’t get what you want all hell breaks loose. You had a record breaking day of tantrums on Wednesday. It started with one earlier in the day leaving the Mercedes junkyard with daddy when you couldn’t have another lollipop, then you had a few smaller ones that afternoon when I was home. Then the biggest one was at 2:00am that night when you woke up asking for milk & tv…no way was I giving in to that at those hours at night! So we just let you have your fit and eventually after causing so much frustration you got tired and fell asleep. I knew about terrible twos but this is ridiculous! I’m so ready for you to be three! It does get easier or better right? You sure test my patience, one day when you are older, we will laugh about this but right now… 😦 not so much! haha.

You want EVERYTHING!!!

So you are definitely in the “I want” stage…everything that comes out of your mouth starts with I want!
A few of your latest wants would include ice cream, tv, soymilk, night night, bubo (bubble) bath, shoes, gum, juice, and too many more to name!

“Dum”

Emy, you are too cute for words, I know one day only a few things will stand out in my memory so I’m making sure that through this blog my memories of you will be fresh as if it happened yesterday, I also want you to see what you were like growing up, no pictures will or videos will do justice! You are officially 2yrs and 5 months old and quite the character. Your favorite thing at the moment is chew “dum” (gum), all day, every day! You just walk around saying “I want dum!” thanks to Nina for teaching you how to chew it and not swallow it…and thanks to daddy for letting you have as much dum as you want… It’s a bad obsession especially when you play with it, drop it on the ground, pick it up and back in your mouth it goes. Oh and you’ve fallen asleep with it in your mouth numerous times to where I had to pry your mouth open (not an easy task) trying to get it out and then you wake up crying “dum!” “I want dum!” My silly baby!!!