Nicholas remains a very sweet little boy. But there are signs of a wind shift rapidly approaching (dare I say, the "terrible twos?").
Since the start of the new year, Nicholas has started to assert himself just a little bit more. He says "no" more to requests for him to do things, like cleaning up or brushing his teeth. He will push my hand away (or Sarah's) if we're trying to clean him up and he doesn't want to be. He fights getting dressed in the morning, putting on his pajamas at night, and getting his diaper changed in between. This evening he even tried to take his diaper off while I reached for his pajamas.
Now, in fairness, he was almost too agreeable before; I didn't quite believe that it was possible, and that makes his shift back to the mean seem worse than it is. Plus, in his defense we spent a great deal of the month in motion and commotion: we were only home together on 12 of the 31 days of January. The rest of the month at least one of the adults (and sometimes Nicholas too) was traveling. That put a lot of strain on me, I know, and on Sarah, and so it must have on him.
But the transition is undeniable, and I get the feeling it's not just a temporary response to the tumult. We are still lucky, though, that most of the time he's good-natured and happy to be cooperative. In other words, not so much like his father.
Abby was in and out of that a bit - but she's a happy camper now. They have to learn to assert in order to know the boundaries later. Or some mumbo jumbo parenting stuff. Yes, it does suck when you are in the middle of it, though!
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