Saturday, February 20, 2010
You know you have a toddler when...
Well, Marley is now movin' on towards the Terrible Two's. She'll be two on June 25, so we aren't quite there yet, but I know we are starting to get close. Get this - the other day, she wanted some water and was pointing at the fridge, saying her word for water: "wa-coo". Great! So I grab a cup and start putting water in it, but wait! I've done something to make Marley mad. She starts whining and fussing, but silly me, I keep adding water to the cup. At this point, I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong - maybe the wrong cup or maybe she wanted to do it herself, who knows - but I fill the cup and squat down to give it to her. She takes one more look at the evil cup, and just loses it! She starts flapping her arms and really crying, then she turns away from me and starts running - right into the kitchen cabinet door! BAM! She hits the cabinet door, full on face first with her arms open wide (because remember, they were flapping with anger) and totally gives herself a bloody lip. I think she smashed it between her teeth and the cabinet door. Ouch! I felt bad for her, but I also wonder if that maybe she clued in a little?!? I doubt it... But so this little incident gave me some insight as to what the future holds, and it sure is scary... I am not sure how to handle those public incidents that are bound to happen with an angry toddler! It looks like she may have gotten her mother's temper... Uh oh! Any advice??
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Hey Kell, It's Brian!
ReplyDeleteMy biggest piece of advice would be not to make empty threats. Don't say it if you won't follow through. If you say, "If you do that again, we're going to leave." and she does it again, you better leave. You should also be giving her 2 choices, one thing Violet wanted to do was walk in the parking lot by herself. I said, "You can either walk holding Daddy's hand or I'll carry you." I only had to carry her 3 times before she realized walking while holding my hand was better than being carried. But many parents won't go through the 3 times of kicking and screaming...
And don't think you're the only person that's ever had a child with the terrible twos...
Love ya,
Brian
Hey Brian!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice - I will definitely keep all that in mind. I really like the "give two choices thing". That seems very reasonable. We haven't really had any huge public temper tantrums yet, but I bet Marley has a few up her sleeve. Thanks for the advice - hope all of you are doing well!