The title of this blog shows my frustration with Axel's behavior this past week. He is much better today, but this is after hours of shedding unnecessary tears. I do have to say that Axel's stubbornness is quite impressive. I knew he would be stubborn because Keith and I are both stubborn, but I had no idea how bad it was going to be.
Okay, what am I talking about. Well, the past two days I had to do one of the hardest things thus far as a parent.........I had to hold my child's door shut for nearly an hour as my two year old screamed his head off. The funny thing is I can't even remember why he was so upset or what the tantrum was about. All I do remember is that I had to keep my word and in the battle of wills I had to win to keep my respect as a parent. While I was sitting there feeling my blood boil and wishing my child would just give up and shut up, I realized that over the past week or two I had not followed through or had given in to choices that I had given him because I haven't been feeling well. And my blood boiled more because this was all MY fault. If I hadn't let him push the boundaries he wouldn't be testing me by trying to push the boundaries further. As agonizing as it is to hear your child scream, I prevailed by telling myself, I love him too much to let him win. And with God on my side I was able to show him who is boss, and that my word is my word. This was done without yelling, without lectures and without put downs. It was done by sticking to my word and following through. Why is that so hard? Why do we have such little backbones when it comes to those cute little things that we reproduce?
At any rate, I am proud to say that my sweet child is slowly returning. The yelling and hitting has almost completely subsided. He is also realizing that he has to make a decision out of the choices I give him and that I will not back down and give in to what he wants. Mostly because it is not good to have ice cream or crackers for lunch.
I forgot to mention last week about the potty training situation. Of course, I am like everyone else and forget when things are good. He has not had any accidents, day or night for two weeks, hence my forgetfulness. I think he was testing me by peeing during dinner the few times he did. Luckily, by not making a big deal about it, I believe he decided it is nicer to stay dry and go in the potty.
Now onto fun stuff this week. A co worker of mine has been passing down a two wheel pedal-less bike and it was my lucky turn to purchase it for Axel. I was so excited that he is finally big enough to "ride" one. I thought it would be really easy for him since he has a three wheeler with no pedals, but he was more afraid and timid then I expected.
Leave it up to daddy to get things started and Axel excited about something. Keith is so good about making everything fun. I have finally come to terms that I am officially boring compared to my counterpart :)
After having fun on the new bike, Axel jumped onto his old bike and started pedaling like he had been riding it his whole life. The cool thing was his feet finally touched and the bad thing was after just a few pedals his feet starting going in different directions. We were advised to tape his feet to the pedal to help him understand the importance of maintaining contact with the pedals. I think we are going to try that sometime in the next week or two.
Axel continues to grow founder and founder of daddy. Today he actually cried for daddy when I wouldn't let him have crackers for lunch. I reminded him that daddy would definitely not let him have crackers and that he should be excited that I am letting him have waffles with his hummus. Luckily, he realized I was right and we had a nice picnic on his picnic table in the backyard.
As Axel grows closer to daddy, he also is becoming more and more boyish. He absolutely loves his trucks. He also loves crashing his trucks and playing rough with tackles and all.
Axel also loves looking at himself and taking pictures of himself. The picture above is one that was taken with my reverse camera so he can see himself. He loves seeing his different facial expressions, "live".
Night times have also been rough with Axel not wanting to go to bed and having to go "poop" after his bed time routine is done. I think it is getting better and a phase that will pass shortly, so Keith and I are going to try to stay calm and sweet ourselves. Hopefully, the next post will only have good news of a child who eats what he is given and who sleeps when put to bed. It has been two nights in a row Axel has fallen asleep on the floor. Let's hope tonight he chooses to put himself in bed before falling asleep!
Until next time....have a great long rest of your weekend!
