You know, as The Geej steadily marches toward her third birthday (it's only 6 weeks away...hard to believe), I've realized that, really, two has not been terrible in the least. In fact, it's been fun. So many firsts, so many transitions, all handled with relative grace and ease. Two was the year of potty training and moving out of the crib. Two was the year she started Montessori school. Two was the year she really REALLY started talking. Two was the year she reached 3 ft. tall and started wearing clothes with "T" on the size tag. Two was the year her eyes turned from blue to green, she started talking a lot about her friends, and understood that--when she was a little baby--she lived in Russia.
But I'm fearful about three. I've had more than a few mothers tell me three is horrible, challenging, and anything but fun. I got a glimpse of it yesterday at Annie O's fourth birthday party. Things were going well: The Geej rode all of the rides (except for the "ponytails" i.e., the ponies, despite the fact that that's all she could talk about on the way to the party), and she seemed happy and content. But then I said no to her demand for a second piece of birthday cake, and all Hell broke loose. Seriously ya'll, I have never EVER seen her throw a tantrum like this. She was screaming and kicking me and scratching my face and neck and pulling my hair. It was horrifying. It was like she'd suddenly been possessed by Satan. She was so out of control, it was scary. Of course, everyone at the party was staring at us with a mixture of pity, horror and surprise. The Geej is normally so well-behaved, that I think most of the parents there were just as shocked as I was by what was going on. I managed to pick her thrashing body up and take her to a corner of the park to talk with her, and as soon as I let go of her, she ran away from me, screaming "No Mommy!! No! No! No!" When I finally caught up with her, she practically collapsed in my arms and said, "I'm tired. I want to go home." That made two of us. The rest of the day was challenging as well--lots of whining and major attitude when she didn't get her way. What the hell, people? It's like she's changed overnight. Today was a wee bit better, but there was still plenty of brattitude and whining. I just can't stand whining.
As of right this second, I must say, I'm not looking very forward to three. But if Annie O. and her parentals made it through alive, I guess The Geej and I can too.
7 comments:
For my two children, three was - is - the hardest age, no question. But, I forsee you getting lucky with The Geej...the generally well-behaved ones seem to go through it more easily.
Okay, (1) my boy child was a DELIGHTFUL two and a HORRID three whereas my girl was just the opposite, which you can take for what it's worth, and (2) when my kids were that age and they pulled a Linda Blair like that, it usually preceded some nasty fever/barf illness of some sort.
But if she's better today, it's probably just the age thing.
And now my work of spreading joy throughout the internets is done.
Wow. Is she REALLY already almost three? Damn time flies.
I remember so vividly you saying to me "I've had an epiphany and I have this crazy idea..." which was the first hatchings in the plan of what is now The Geej.....
Wow.
Now I'm really looking forward to Camp CoCo ...
NAH! I like to think of it this way - at 3, they discover that they actually have opinions about things, but they don't quite have the skills to express those opinions in a way that gets them their way everytime. Which equals lots of frustration and tears. Hang in there.
In my experience, 3 is harder than 2. But 4 makes up for ALL of it.
Hang in there.
With my kids it was always the 'half-years' that were hard. Two was great -- two and a half? Not so much. Every year they hit a great period of 'cruise', where everything felt good to them. Then six months later their bodies/brains/spirits would feel frustrated as they came up against the next learning barrier. Couple months later? Everybody's happy again.
p.s. For a couple of years I 'couldn't hear' whining. Just didn't register. Of course it drove me NUTS pretending not to hear -- but it did work eventually.
Yikes. Just when I was getting used to the idea of the twins turning 2, I need to start preparing for 3???? It's funny how that works.
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