Fun Times = Good Times!

We have had a wonderful week. I mean it has been AWESOME. No real temper tantrums, no screaming, no embarrassing moments, ahhh sweet baby jesus THANK YOU. I haven't posted about this (yet) but for a month or so our sweet boy Jack was channeling black. By that, I mean he wasn't as sweet and angelic as he was for the first, oh 19 months of his life, he was instead, channeling the dark days of an almost 2 year old.

To make it short and sweet bc really, who wants to rail on their child for public display (I mean we all have to keep our skeletons in the closet eh?), I had a real struggle with Thanksgiving and Christmas where he didnt want anything really to do with family, only mom and dad and was SOOOO WHINEY!!! So whiney that I thought I am going to have gray hairs ALL OVER. It honestly was so bad that Taylor turned to me on one joyous car ride (yes we went thru a small (thank god) phase where he wanted to only play in the car, not get in or out, just play and a multitude of meltdowns occured from being thrust unhappily into the car-seat.) anyways, and Taylor said "I think every time he screams or lets out a whine, my blood pressure shoots thru the roof and I get 2 gray hairs". I laughed and said "OH YAH". I kept thinking this is not normal. Everyone (who has kids that is) was saying "oh no, its normal". And would chuckle at our dumbfounded astonishment and the personality change and new behavior methods needing to be enforced. I think what makes it worse was the look that the family members would give you. Not that they were judging per say (some were I will warrant that) but just that look that says, "Oh dear, you must get a hold of that". Or the look that says "Wow". It was embarrassing. Now I am not saying that those days are over (I am sure I have many more ahead of me) BUT I will say that something changed for me.

I had a VERY embarrassing moment in front of my grandparents. My stoic, always in control, grandparents. The ones who are from the old school rule of thumb. You know what Im talking about. The ones whose children NEVER acted like that. Why? Bc they didn't reason with their kids. They just said this is the rule, you break it, there are consequences. Consequences being a switch broken off a bush from the backyard. How did we get so far from that? I am weaker than my grandparents. New age I guess you could say. Or maybe I can blame it all on being a school teacher and taught to reward reward reward, give give give. Mom says Im just a nice person and have a hard time being mean. (She must not hear my inner thoughts! LOL). To be completely honest here though, I will defend myself a bit by saying that I have NO, ZERO, ZILTCH of a problem disciplining my child in public or by myself. Ask anyone who was in line by me at Hobby Lobby a few weeks before Christmas. But when you throw in Taylor, or my family, or his family, I get all guilt ridden and cant bring myself to spank him, or even put him in time out really. Its so sad. And miserable. And Im working on it. After the embarrassing moment at a public restaurant with the grandparents I called mom the next day. I prayed the night before, asking God to show me what the right way to handle him was. Because obviously my way wasn't working. So mom says, "Girl, you have GOT to let him know who is boss. You have to mean what you say, you have to get mean sometimes. Because if you don't, this wont be a phase, it will be your life." Wow. That haunts me. I know that, have ALWAYS known that, but sometimes it really soaks in when you really need the advice.

So Taylor and I changed somethings. And its working. We were around family this week, and he was great. We were around friends, and he was great. We went to school after Christmas break and he was running down the hall to his teachers saying "happy happy happy", went into his classroom and did'nt look back. He no longer whines for my attention and when he does, I say "I will not talk to you until you can talk to me without whining" and turn my back. It works like a charm. He is a smart cookie and he knows now, the best way to get mom and dads attention is without being a whiney pants. We have been out to eat and it was wonderful. We had friends over and it was wonderful. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about the next week, but for right now...it is fun times which = good times. For all. I feel more in control, more self assured and confident and ready to teach my child how to be a good kid and furthermore a responsible adult.

Wow, so much for keeping it short and sweet, guess I needed to vent a bit. Ahhh don't I feel better now!

But so that you can see for yourself how funny and cute my little guy is here is a video of him opening his new toy from his Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Troy. HE WAS SO HAPPY and I would say this is probably his new favorite toy. (Ignore the jelly stain on the white shirt - was a school day ;) Thank goodness for bleach! )

I couldn't leave this post with just bad stuff :)

Stay tuned, Tuesday will be more good stuff! A recap of our week and weekend!