I would have to say that the hardest part of having a toddler is navigating the tricky slope of meltdowns and tantrums.  Things have actually been fairly good for a while.  We would have your random little meltdown that would generally end in a reasonable amount of time, and we could handle it.  We bought a book called ‘Calm Down Time‘ and even made Enzo a calm down place that he actually used… for a while.

Every once in a while, though, we go through a stage where the tantrums and meltdowns are of epic proportions.  The last time this happened was when Josh was traveling for business and when he got back the intense tantrums started up and lasted for a few weeks.  It was exhausting for all of us and honestly?  We didn’t know what the best way to handle them was. We’ve tried so many suggestions and are still trying to find a method that shortens the outbursts, or better yet, stops them from happening.

The past weeks our beloved toddler has been a bit of a bear, and we’re not really sure what set it off. The only thing that has changed is that about a week ago he developed a canker sore in his mouth (who knew they could be hereditary??), which was really painful for him and he didn’t sleep well for probably 3 nights and didn’t nap well either.  He’d wake up crying a few times a night despite giving him Tylenol.  He was obviously grumpy, but the pain started getting better and he started sleeping better, so we figured things would be good.  Not so much.  My hernia surgery hasn’t affected life all that much.  I’ve been doing as much as I can with him and only pick him up if necessary (even though I shouldn’t be lifting him at all).  The only other thing we can think of is that Phoebe is becoming more mobile and that while he usually loves her and enjoys her, he’s experiencing some jealousy.

I suppose it’s only natural, really.  He woke up happy as a lark this morning, but his attitude immediately changed when he realized that Phoebe was already in our room. We are beginning to realize that we may need to change how we do a few things. Because Phoebe is starting to move around more, she can be grabby and curious, but doesn’t understand sharing or otherwise, so we need to be more proactive about moving her instead of always expecting Enzo to move and making sure that we tell Phoebe to share as well if only so that Enzo sees that we aren’t playing favorites.  He’s also going to have to learn that some toys he needs to play with in his room and that if he she is somewhere first and he brings a toy next to her, she’s just going to grab it and we can’t always be there to referee.  Josh and I may have to start switching up the bedtime routine as well… so far I’ve been mostly handling Phoebe’s bath and bedtime (mostly because Enzo wanted Josh for so long), but I think I may need to ask him if he wants me.  Maybe he is jealous of me spending so much time with Phoebe and I never even realized it because we just got into a new routine.

It’s not easy being a toddler… or the parent of a toddler, for that matter.  If anyone has any great advice or references for toddler tantrums and jealousy, though… send them my way!

Ah, toddlers and repetition.  Whether it be movies, books, songs or games, they want to do them over and over and over again.  Surprisingly, it hasn’t bothered me as much as I would have thought. I’ve seen the same movies and shows more times than I count, and have several books pretty much memorized, but I’ve come to terms with it.

Granted, there are some nights where you can only read the same book so many times in a row before you just want to hit your head against a wall. I get it, though, he enjoys it and is working on memorizing it and perhaps understanding it better.  There’s nothing more adorable than when you have him “read” a book to you.

As far as movies go, we thankfully aren’t asked to watch ‘Frozen’ every single evening (not that we gave in every night… okay, almost). He’s got several films on rotation, and more recently has been enjoying ‘Tangled’ when we decide to let him watch some TV.  We’re cutting back because he gets really into it (hence the series of photos for this post).  He doesn’t always sit through an entire movie, but sometimes the level of intensity as he zones out is a bit much.

Because he’s been getting up early, we’ve also gotten into a bad habit of letting him watch an episode of something in our bed while we try and get everything ready for the day.  For a while it was ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse’, sometimes ‘Daniel Tiger’, and now ‘Super Why!’  I kind of don’t mind all that much, though, because he fully interacts with ‘Super Why!’ and points out different letters, so at least he’s learning.  That’s what we tell ourselves anyway.

Much to his dismay, though, we really are doing our best to cut back on TV time. He doesn’t watch more than the recommended amount for his age, but that also means that Phoebe ends up watching a lot more TV than we’d like since they hang out in the same areas. Sure, she’ll still play while the TV is on, but more often than not she finds the screen a little too fascinating.  The trick is just finding something terribly interesting to grab his attention so he doesn’t even ask for a movie.  So far we’ve discovered that surprise balloons work great, as does giving him his own purse (so that he stopped dragging mine around).  I’ll have to think of something creative for tonight, however…