Threenager

It is amazing how quickly kids can switch phases and how quickly they run through them. A few weeks ago Dane was napping for hours every day and going to sleep right away at night, and was so sweet all the time and almost overly sensitive. And then now, Dane is totally in this crazy "rebellious" phase. He has started talking back to us and yelling angry things at us when he's mad, and I swear I caught him rolling his eyes at me the other day. He'll say "O-KAYuh!" when I tell him to do things and yell "NO!!!" when we tell him something he doesn't want to hear. When he's starting to melt down and I try to pick him up or help him, he yells, "OW OW OW!" like we're purposely hurting him. He cares SO MUCH about his clothes and has been having meltdowns every day about wanting to wear his "orange running clothes" every single day. He totally reminds me of an angsty teenager. 

I have not been responding appropriately, I know that. It's really frustrating and his meltdowns have been leading to my meltdowns lately. He starts yelling and I start losing my patience really quick. I'm used to a mostly reasonable toddler (weird, I know) but he has been so frustrated with me lately any time he isn't immediately getting what he wants, and I'm getting so frustrated in return. I'm trying really hard to take a deep breath first before getting too mad. I am imagining these parenting skills are going to continue to be very important when he actually is a teenager, so there's good reason to work on it now. . .

And then--two minutes after a major meltdown, the amazing sweetness of the three-year-old shines through and he wraps his arms around my neck and whispers, "Sorry, Mommy. I wuv you. I fink you're beautiful." I'm proud of him for learning about apologizing at least. He's learning a lot from my example of needing to apologize a lot lately. . .  We're working on it together.