Terrible Two's

We have officially made it. The time has come.

Destination: Terrible Twos.

Yup. Here we are. In full force.

Let me give you a glimpse into the nightmare that I live and breathe daily. (Okay, so not EVERY day is a nightmare... just lots of hours of lots of days.)

It all started about a month ago when I drove down to the Community Center and took AB3 swimming. We stopped by the office on our way in and I picked up a pamphlet with the class listings and times. I had perfect timing because sign up for the new fall session was less than a day away! After looking through and making some calls to Kristin (AB3's bff's mom), we chose two classes to sign the boys up for.

Tiny Tots Sports on Wednesdays from 9:00-10:00 and Alphabet Art on Thursdays from 9:00-9:50.

I told AB3 we would be starting to go to "school", and he woke up everyday asking to go. He was so eager and excited and it was hard to contain him some days!

So the big day arrives and we show up to Tiny Tots Sports. All goes well for the first 10 minutes when it's open gym and play time. Once class begins, there is structure. *Enter tantrum.*

AB3 does not like structure. He is 2 and a half... therefore he doesn't listen very well. AB3 does what he wants (within reason). When I pull him away from the "unstructured" activities, his tantrums escalate. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I was *that* mom on Wednesday....AND Thursday!

I will give him the benefit of the doubt... gym class was busy! They started off by running tons of laps back and forth and the Irish in him came out within minutes. This was obvious by the bright red in his cheeks! Then they tried to practice playing kickball. AB3 preferred to pick the ball up and throw it, and wanted nothing to do with kicking it. I re-directed him to do what he was being told to do. *Enter tantrum.* This continued for the rest of class. All he wanted to do was everything he wasn't supposed to do.

Although Wednesday was frustrating, Thursday was even worse.

Alphabet Art! I was so excited to do some fun crafts with my little guy. And so was he... until the "structure" came back. He went and got his supplies like he was asked to do, but wouldn't stop playing (dangerously) with the scissors. So mommy stepped in and took them away. *Enter trantrum.* This tantrum was by far one of the worst because we are in a small room with about 15 moms and 15 kids. His tantrum includes lots of high pitched screams, proceeded by whining and crying. When he is in this mode, it's so hard to bring him back down to calmness.

Finally it was time to make an Angel (for the letter A) and it was a super cute craft. We had to trace his foot and hands and of course, AB3 wanted to do it his own way. *Enter tantrum.* This tantrum lasted the longest and left me in tears. Nobody said a single thing to me, but I could tell the judgmental eyes were all on me. The teacher told us at the beginning of class that if the child misbehaves or gets upset, the right thing to do is ignore them, stay calm, and NOT to remove them from the room. By keeping them in the room, they need to learn to deal with it. When you remove them, they feel like they've won, and the cycle will repeat.

So as I'm sitting there with the high-pitched-screaming-bloody-murder-whiny kid, my own eyes well up with tears and I nearly lose it. I felt beat up, and defeated.

Here is my little AB3, who only days before, was so excited and ready to go to school... and he's throwing the biggest fit. There were kids in there way younger than him, and some way older than him. NOBODY made a single sound, except for him.

Somehow we ended up making it through the 50 minute class. We will go back and try it again next week.

I'm not quite sure what these tantrums are stemming from. The odd thing is that his extreme tantrums are only like this in public places. It's as if he tries to stick it to me in public because he knows I won't be able to punish him as easily somewhere outside of the house. It could be that he wasn't feeling well this week (the bug has been going around...) It could be that he isn't used to structure like that. It could be that he's the first child and spoiled (but I'm admitting to this and cracking down on it hardcore). Or it could just be the fact that he's in his terrible two's and doesn't know how to handle them.

Either way, our first two days of school were rough. I'm hoping next week is easier and more enjoyable for both of us. Wake me up when the two's are over!

Until Next Time,
Mama Brown(ie)