we are eyeball deep in the t3rr0r!st threes. oh. my. goodness. the turkey is seriously breaking me. zero respect. zero obedience. total attitude.
he’s doing hunger strikes… even his favorite foods, he’ll just refuse to eat on the basic principle that i’ve served it to him. of course, we don’t just roll over for that so if he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t get anything else until he does. we’ve gone up to four meals on the same plate of food before he finally decided he was hungry enough to comply. you would think that would be enough to bring him back in line but you’d be so wrong. the next meal, here we go again.
then there’s sleep… we had moved them into the same room a few months ago so that we could have a nice playroom. we quickly discovered that they absolutely could not nap together so the turkey’s been having to do his naps in his tent in the playroom. some days he does alright, a lot of days he just spends the whole time talking or singing at the top of his lungs. nights were going pretty well until recently. either the sequel will be trying to entertain his brother by jumping in his crib which, naturally, gets the turkey jumping too. or the sequel will be trying to settle down and the turkey will goad him until he gets up and starts the party. most nights, the turkey doesn’t fall asleep until almost 21:00 but now the sequel is getting pulled into that sleep deprivation and so we’ve had to start putting the turkey in his tent in the other room at night too. i suspect that we’ll just undo the playroom soon and be done with it but it’s so disappointing. i know that millions of kids around this world share rooms but we just can’t seem to make it work. epic fail on our part.
sharing… ha! our super sweet little boy who loved his baby brother and couldn’t get enough of holding him and playing with him has turned into such an ugly little green-eyed monster. the sequel can’t play with anything without the turkey pitching a fit and trying to grab it from him. it doesn’t even matter whose it is. the turkey can’t have any fun because he’s so worried about what his brother is doing. his frustration has turned to kicking toys or walls, punching furniture, and sometimes trying to strike out at brother himself. i swear, we have tried all of the psychology to get him over his jealousy and get him expressing his feelings in more constructive ways but no luck. we get the same kinds of reactions to basic requests and calls to clean, eat, or sleep.
he is seriously wearing me down. it’s a good thing that we wanted the kids to be close together because if this behavior had started before having the sequel, he’d be an only child for sure. i’m praying that my sweet little boy is still in there somewhere and that we’ll see him again soon. and i’m praying that the sequel goes easier on us because i don’t know if i can go through this again. i am most certainly not mom enough.
i just keep praying and reminding myself… he was a super easy baby… he was a super easy toddler… we had to pay the price somewhere along the way, didn’t we?
the turkey has had an educational resurgence here lately. he’s reading simple books, drawing shapes, writing letters (he wrote his name all on his own today!), and drawing stick people. he’s even dabbling in reading a clock and counting money. i’m so stinking proud of that boy! and the crowning moment of the week? one of the snowbirds has grandchildren visiting this week so she brought her granddaughter over for a play date this morning. while they were playing kitchen, the turkey made her stop to say a prayer before sitting down to “eat”. we can’t be messing up too badly, right?
we officially started potty training with the turkey this week. i have no illusions that we won’t have accidents but, so far, i am amazed at how well he is doing. we’ve had five days of no accidents. i’m so proud of my turkey!
the turkey has taken to flattery as a means to trying to get out of trouble. when i’m upset with him, he puts on his sweetest smile and says things like “i like your hair” and “you’re so beautiful”. i’m not too proud to admit that the first two or three times, i just reveled in the compliments and didn’t really notice the manipulation. if he had been more prudent in his usage, i may have stayed blissfully ignorant for quite some time. alas, a three year old doesn’t have the sense to look at the big picture and ration out his get-out-of-jail-free cards. i quickly became savvy to his charming wiles. but, oh, it was so nice to hear such lovely words!
after cancelling last week due to fever and vomiting, the turkey had surgery yesterday to remove his tubes. although we did consider cancelling again because of last minute croupiness. it went well but they did find a lot more infection than they were expecting so that actually made me feel better about going ahead and getting it done. i’m just hopeful that when it all heals up, we’ll be done with the stupid ears forever. i seriously regret letting them do the tubes in the first place last year.
before we left yesterday morning, he made my day by saying “mommy, you’re so beautiful. you’re hair is so beautiful.” seriously, my heart exploded into a gush of weeping joy.
yesterday afternoon, he started calling me “mom”. i very much noticed it but i let it slide because i figured it was a passing fluke. this morning, while i was out running around town trying to find a last minute costume (thanks for the epic fail, amazon prime!), hubby texted me and said that he was calling him “dad”. what the junk?! i thought we had another 3 years or so before “mommy” and “daddy” went out the window. it’s heartbreaking. and, for whatever reason, hubby has been downright angry about it. i am trying my best to ignore it, continuing to use the preferred monikers, and hoping that this is all just a fleeting phase.
on the other side of the coin, the sequel’s 5th and 6th teeth have finally broken through so we’re hoping his attitude straightens up for a little while. he’s very proud of his “hi”s and “bye”s lately. he tries to mimic a lot of words so we’ve heard “hola”, “baby”, “granddaddy”, “dog”, and other random parroting. he throws epic tantrums… like full-on throw himself on the floor screaming and kicking and the works. where did that come from? but then he also loves to “sing” and dance. and he’s a heck of a harmonica player. he keeps us on our toes constantly and, while it is exhausting, i’m loving it about him.
we moved the boys into the same room over the weekend so that we could use the other room as a play room. naps are still pretty rough but the nights are actually going much better than i anticipated. and they love spending time in the play room. we have big plans for it to make it a super cool place!
the turkey got up with a burning desire to wear big boy pants today. not only did he wear them without any accidents while playing around the house, but we also spent most of the morning volunteering at the church and he used the potty and had no problems. i was so proud of him!
the sequel is all over the place. he’s running and climbing and loves picking up big and/or heavy things and carrying them around. he’s a hoot. his third tooth (top right) broke through this week with the fourth right behind it so he’s been full of the grumps. which i’m afraid isn’t the whole reason for his insane temper. oh. em. gee. that boy throws a full-on tantrum at the drop of a hat. he will growl-scream, sit down hard, and start kicking and punching he floor. it’s hilarious in a good-gravy-we-are-in-for-it kind of way.
i don’t know how three years have already flown by. it’s been an amazing journey and has taught me so much about God’s love for us. i am so honored that i was chosen to be the turkey’s mom. he’s a very special little boy and i couldn’t be more proud of him.
at three years old, the turkey is fully conversational. he can read about 100 sight words and can sound out even four-syllable phonetic words. his favorite books are his assortment of children’s bibles. he can count to one hundred singly or by tens. he can count to ten in french and german. he can count to twenty in spanish. he knows the alphabet in french and spanish. he’s learning more and more spansish daily, including all of the colors and many animals. he can do simple addition and subtraction. he loves singing and can sing the fifty states. he is a wonderful, loving big brother and is caring and compassionate to everyone. he is joyful and spreads smiles wherever he goes.
this morning, i asked him if he felt older. his response: “a little, mommy. <raising arm> do you see a hair?” i nearly fell on the floor laughing.
hubby has been doing a great job of keeping up with flash cards for the turkey the last few months. today, we saw the payoff. the turkey successfully read a page of “green eggs and ham” with no assistance. he also started sounding out “big words” today. i’m so proud of my little turkey.
the turkey made my day at dinner when i gave him his “salad” (spinach/okra puree) and he said “this is so good. thank you, mommy, for making me a salad!”
and then there was the bedtime debacle where he wouldn’t settle down and i ended up taking both lovies away but then hubby made me feel bad so i went in and laid with him (like it wasn’t already tugging my heartstrings to hear him shouting “momma, come snuggle with me!”). i spent an hour snuggling him. he finally fell asleep but as soon as i started to get up, he croaked out a measly “don’t leave me, momma.” i laid down for another two songs, got up, and he must have woken up as soon as i left the room because suddenly he was having a total meltdown. mind, it’s now 21:00 and i’ve been in there and hour so i’m ticked that he’s not sleeping and that he’s crying and pitching a fit when he’s been such a good solo sleep all his life. i tried to sooth him and then i threatened to spank and then i had to deliver. now i’m just fuming at always having to be the bad guy and all i want to do is go back in there and snuggle my baby boy for the rest of the night because i know there’ll come a day when he won’t ask that anymore. i try my best not to be crazy stringent about schedule and rules but i don’t want him to be dependent on us to go to sleep either. when we wake him up in the morning or from nap, we always snuggle and that’s great but the snuggling to sleep thing is a very different thing. *sigh*
the turkey didn’t want to put a diaper back on when he got up and got dressed this morning so we decided to let him do n3kk!d time. he wound up spending the entire morning diaperless and didn’t have any real accidents. the only issue we ran into was a reluctance to p00p in the potty, which i didn’t fully understand since he’s done that a few times in the past but he just wasn’t having it this morning. this meant that he needed to go but when he realized he had to sit on the potty for it, he’d sit there and read books and hold it. naturally, when he got a diaper on for nap time, he wasn’t laying down 15 minutes before he was calling us to come change him. all in all, though, i felt like it was a wildly successful half day of pre-potty training… especially since we’ve really never tried to push the topic at all.
Our nightly routine is to pray together as a family and then we split the boys to their respective rooms for bedtime stories and songs. Sometimes I say the prayer but usually it’s hubby. Tonight, as we gathered together, the turkey started in on a prayer of his own for the first time. “Jesus, please watch over the sequel, the turkey, mommy, and daddy. I love you Jesus. Amen.” And just like that, an exhausting and stressful day turned into a beautiful and uplifting evening.
We finally found someone to come in and help out with the kids a few hours a day while we’re working. It’s been about a month and she’s been wonderful. This morning, however, the turkey ripped my heart out with a wooden spoon when he said “my other mommy is miss nanny.” I nearly cried. Maybe I need to quit my job after all 🙁
Because we didn’t know when we would be coming home from AL, we asked to be left off the schedule for church this week (good thing since our “We should be able to easily make it home by 19:30” became rolling in at 22:00). Normally, we serve every week and wear a church shirt. It’s rare that we wear “real clothes” to church. Add to that the fact that I’m nursing so my wardrobe consists of nothing but easy access tops, and it’s a true treat indeed when I get to dress nice and feel good about my appearance. This morning, I wore my beautiful “new” dress that i only ever wore for my maternity photos. I felt good. But when the turkey came out of his room and saw me, he came running up to me shouting “mommy, you look so pretty!” My heart stopped, my eyes welled up, and I felt truly gorgeous! What a great start to the day. I love that boy like mad.
this weekend, i noticed that the turkey had pulled the edge pieces off all the mats in his room. i walked in and found him waving them around in both hands. “what are you doing, lovebug?” said i. “i’m waving palm branches for Jesus!”
i seriously love that boy.