All 2, All Boy, All the time!

I'm waiting for my Mother of the Year award to arrive in the mail. I'm sure it will be a nice one with several gold stars on it, signed by President Bush, the editor of Parents Magazine, and Angelina Jolie. Roman is all 2, all boy, all the time - to sum it up. Re-direction and time-outs don't seem to work with him. He does something offensive and I ask "do you want to go to time-out?" and he nods "yes". What the heck do you do when it back-fires? When I do suddenly put him in time-out (without asking the question first), he dances, twirls the stair spindles (his time out is the bottom step of the stairs) and just gazes outside... he has a gay ol' time. When he returns from time-out, if he does the offending action again, I start taking a privilege away. When I do this though, it seems to affect me more than it does him.

Today I put him down for a nap without reading him a book due to his constant food/plate/cup-throwing. I warned him it would happen, but it continued. I don't want to be "empty-promise mom" so he headed up to his room, we changed the diaper and he went right to bed... no books and no happy dialog between mommy & son. Booktime before bed & nap is my favorite time of day because he is so sweet while he sits on my lap, pointing things out in the book, looking up at me to give me a spontaneous kiss - I love it. I know he likes it, too, and that is why I took it away today. Last week, after more meal-antics, I threatened to take away his beloved after-dinner cookie privilege. Instead of instantly whipping into shape and finishing his meal like a good-boy, he proceeded to whine "cookie, cookie, cookie...." . After about a half-hour of this whining and no progress on his plate, I proceeded to eat the cookie(s) myself right in front of him. His little bottom lip started quivering, a tear trickled down his cheek... it was pathetic, but I stuck to my guns. I thought I finally got through to him, but next meal... same antics. I can't keep eating his cookies (although I'd love to). Talk about mommy being punished more than Roman... I'd have to increase my already annoying work-out schedule. Last night, we came home from Nana & Pop's house with a balloon. Roman was so distracted by the balloon he didn't eat his meal, so bye-bye went the balloon. He whined for it, but I wouldn't give it back. I threatened to pop the balloon, but he thought I was saying "pop" as in "Pop" (a.k.a grandpa) so I knew he didn't understand what I was threatening. Then I had visions of myself viciously attacking the balloon with a knife in front of Roman's wide & scared eyes. Talk about scarring a child for life! Instead, I just relocated the balloon until it was "out-of-sight-out-of-mind".

Throwing is our #1 problem right now. My mantra that I repeat to Roman over & over again is "Throwing anything (or insert object here) inside is a no-no. Throwing balls outside is OK". Besides food, plate, cup & placemat at meals, Roman throws his shoes/snack cup/(anything he gets his hands on) at stores / in the car - out of sheer boredom & sheer glee. My daily errands are now limited to one store (and cross my fingers that they have a "car-cart"). If not... it has to be a quick trip or off go the shoes and then he reaches behind him and launches something that was in the cart. So if you run into me at a store and Roman is in the cart facing me, and I ignore you... don't take it personally, unless you want to be covered in goldfish crackers or have a croc chucked at your eye. Man, I wish Target would take cues from the grocery stores and get car-carts. Maybe this post should have the tag "petition" {joke for my mom & Rachel}. If I ever find who I need to talk to at Target about this, I'll post a new petition entry.

The books are all full of such unrealistic advice... maybe "talking it out" and "praying to St. Nicholas the Patron Saint of Children" works for a toddler girl, but not a head-strong 2 year old boy! Any advice? (This is where you click on "comments" below and write one and I take all y'all's advice, wisdom & good judgment - wrap it all into one, write a book and become Super-Mom)