Sunday, January 25, 2009

Earplugs...the perfect treatment for the Terrible Two's

So Bryce is going through his Terrible Two's six months early. He's always gone through the difficult things early or for a long time (or shall I say, I've gone through the difficult things early). He was teething at 10 weeks old, reflux-y for a long 15 months, and now he's a terrible two-er at 18 months old. Is this the red-hair in him or is he just so excited to grow up he wants to skip ahead to the next stage? The funny thing is, he isn't that early on the good things...he's a early on talking, but he's been right on schedule for everything else that's good and exciting.

So, this week has been especially Two-ey. He's thrown absolute fits EVERY night this week. I mean, screaming, throwing himself on the floor, out-of-control fits. To use my favorite college Kim-ism, he was SWOOC - So WAY out of control! We tried time-out, but it didn't always work. He wouldn't eat, play, nothing. They really come out of nowhere - he has quite the red-headed temper! (All I ask, God, is please give me a break from redheads...let my next child be a calm brunette or blonde PLEASE)

I've read to not get emotionally involved at all. Well that's hard to do when he's trying to rip my beautiful Korean artwork off the wall or I can't even enjoy a nice dinner with my husband. So our solution Thursday night...EARPLUGS! We put our trusty earplugs in and just ignored him in the other room (of course he's far away from any of my artwork). We actually enjoyed a nice, pleasant conversation!

On a positive note, we did have a breakthrough on Friday night. Instead of getting Bryce out of time-out after 5-10 minutes, in which he was still upset, I waited until he had really calmed himself down. In Friday's case, it took him 20-25 minutes of SCREAMING to calm down. But he did, and then he wanted to be held. The funny math equation there is, when he was in timeout for 5 minutes, he'd want to be held for 10 minutes, when it was 20 minutes, I had to hold him for 40 minutes! Funny I know, but I guess it helped remind him that he's still loved. But he was darling after that. He ate great, was so sweet, and has been sweet and fun ever since.

So I'm hoping that the blessing here is, that he's done being a terrible two-er in 6 months when I have another baby. Until then, we'll keep an extra set of earplugs downstairs, just for sanity insurance :)

5 comments:

Harris Family said...

Way to go Bryce... Reaching those milestones one at a time. J/k

Luckly they were at home and not in a public location.

Anonymous said...

This is what I have to look forward to. :) Although, I don't think I will have a red head. LOL. I am sure God will give you all (give us all) the patience we need to deal with the situations he gives us. When times get tough, remember you have a beautiful family and are very blessed.
Love, Laura

Anonymous said...

Wow!
You're good.
Sound like you came up with great solutions and they worked!

Fatha

Cassie Lee said...

Kim, I like the earplugs idea. He'll learn to calm himself down, probably. That's tough though. I read it and wonder what I'll do. I want to see how bug Bryce has gotten!

Sorry again about missing the party! I'm sure it rocked! We both wanted to come but late church just makes juggling all the errands and chores harder. We should get together in the near future! Hopefully I'll get this baby out of me in the next week!

Cassie Lee said...

Ok, "Big" came out "bug". Weird. I meant big.