the terrible twos...

OH.MY.GOD.
Who took our usually chipper, sweet, sometimes bad (not too bad), easy going two year old??? I'm not trying to sound naive here, but James has had his moments..sheesh...since he turned 18 months old even. He has and has had times where if he didn't get his own way he'd thrash his arms and legs, kick things, go crazy and have a full blown totally wigged out tantrum. Even then though his tantrums were few and far between. But once he turned about 25 months and as we learned to understand his language more, things seemed to level out entirely. I even told people "wow this isn't so bad..James has been pretty easy". And maybe he still is. But wow.... this evening we made a run to get dinner at good ol Chik Fil A and then Best Buy then Target and it was the worst evening EEEEEVAAAH.
He refused to eat his dinner. In all fairness I should explain, here is the deal with James and his eating habits..he will eat two huge meals a day. He still eats two snacks in between meals and it's always either lunch or dinner that he isn't too crazy about and just doesn't seem to need that day. Well, of course this happened to be the day we go out to eat and he refused dinner. We had to hightail it outta there after throwing the food down our own throats because he knew we weren't letting him into the playroom since he didn't eat. He screamed very very very loudly while I got his jacket on and managed to quickly get him out of the highchair and all the way out the door...with him still screaming. Target wasn't as bad (I think he exhausted himself by this time) but at Best Buy...the same thing happened again just like at dinner and all because he wanted to climb onto one of the coffee tables in the tv department. He even said outloud "climb?" And I responded with a calm "no climbing James".
There we go again..pulling him outta there..loud screaming from inside to the outside of the store..feeling the impatient stares. In the restaurant though there were many families there with toddlers and school-age kids..so I didn't feel as embarrassed because I knew that each of those parents can relate. Doesn't mean I enjoy feeling like James is ruining their dinner though..lol Nothing like some kid screaming while you eat your sandwich, eh?
Here is the thing, minus the usually screaming we get now when I announce it's nap time..James is usually very well-behaved. If I say "no" he listens..he listens to his daddy..he's very sharp and knows when not to do things (and even when to do them). He's a very smart kid. He even says "thank you", "bless you"when you sneeze, and says "I'm sorry".
When we plan trips to run errands we actually plan it days in advance. LOL When you have one child or two or more it doesn't matter. You have to time your day from sunrise to sunset and even when you do those tantrums and pure unhappiness erupt. And I can totally relate to how he must feel. He didn't want to go anywhere today from the start. Neither did I. LOL
There are days that we try so hard to get the grocery store even, and it takes all day long to plan. Here's an example of a typical day:
8:30am- kids wake up
9:00am- breakfast
9:30am to 10:30am-playtime for both
10:30am- Natalie lays down for first nap
11:30am or 12pm- Natalie wakes up
12pm- play outside/some sort of activities goin' on
1pm- lunchtime
1:30pm- naptime for James
2pm or 2:30pm- naptime for Natalie
4:30pm-both wake up/snacktime
6pm-dinner
...you get the idea.
LOL So there are only like snippets of time in between the whole day to get anything done. And alot of the time if one or both of them are extra crabby I can't get anything done until Ricky is home so we can both tame them while out running errands or whatnot.
And now, when I say to myself while James acts up, "it's the terrible twos..here we go again" he repeats me with "tawible twooos" very enthusiastically.
My son is too smart.
Way too smart.