Yin and Yang

I am glad that the kids are disagreeable at different times.  Peanut is just coming out of a stage where she acts rude and ignores me.  Now she is being this sweet little girl who wants to talk endlessly about this or  that.  She said to me today, "You are the aunt to my two kids.  My two stuff animals."  "Well," I said, "I think I am the grandma"  "No, you aren't old like a grandma."  The kid calls it as she sees it.

She is learning to ride her bike with no training wheals.  And just like walking, just because she had done it, doesn't mean she can.  She can ride a pretty long stretch, but once she realizes that i am no longer holding on, she gets pretty squirrelly.  She doesn't fall because I am right there with her, but she is REALLY scared of falling.  I think that is funny because she falls on her bike with the training wheels and doesn't get hurt.  I don't know why she would think it was any different.  I told her today, that she should take the cruise bike and go down the hill in the back.  Her eyes lit up all excited.  She is willing to barrel down the hill on a bike with no pedals, but lordy lordy, don't let go of the back when she is riding!

She started swim lessons this week.  She loved them and asked to go back every day.  I don't think that one day a week is enough for her.  I saw improvement from the beginning to end of the class.  I told her I did, and she said "I guess that lady is just a better teacher than you."  Well, you can't argue with that!

Sweet Baby P on the other hand, dude, that boy is going to make me a crazy person.  Man, everything ends in either NO or giant sets of tears.  He is SO NEEDY too.  So, if he isn't hanging on me, he is either telling me no or screaming.  He is NOT fun to be around.  I think we need a little more of the terrific and a little less of the terrible around here.

It is hard too because I don't know if I am telling him way too much.  I tell him he isn't fun to be around when he acts that way.  It isn't fun when he is hitting or attacking his sister with a plastic shovel.  People don't like that.  His sister really wants to make life easier for him, so she will clean up whatever it is that he has messed up so he won't be in trouble anymore.  It is hard to explain to a 5 year old that I don't care if the toys are everywhere, I do care that when BabyP has an outburst that he realizes that behavior is not acceptable.

I am trying different tactics with him to avoid power struggles.  It is really hard though because he makes me so angry.  I tell him I love him a lot, just so he doesn't think I am starting to not like him.  Yesterday was awful, but today was much better.  I know he is two.  He has just gone through a big development phase where he is much more imaginative.  He is much more articulate than he was a month ago.  I know all these things make him a crazy person, but man... it is hard to be around someone who needs you so much that putting them down for a minute causes a meltdown.

That being said, he is still very charming.  He LOVES to ride bikes.  For his birthday, we are getting him a bigger bike.  Even though it can be hard, it makes me feel good that he loves me so much.  It does make me feel like I get through to him on some level.  I tell myself ALOT that he wouldn't be so naughty if he didn't feel comfortable expressing his emotions or desires.  And he is two.  At least for a month.  He is two.

He put on probably 3 or 4 pounds while we were in Australia.  I hope the weather changes to short weather soon because his stringy little legs are hanging out of the bottom of his 3T pants.  I don't want to get the 4's out yet.  i want to save them for next year.  He just outgrew all of his shoes.  We have to hide his favorite "black boots".  Luckily, i talked him into another pair of black shoes today that he didn't take off until it was time to get into his bed.  Hopefully tomorrow, Mr. T. will have a smooth transition and BabyP will let him put on shoes that aren't his too big sandals or his too small black boots.