My son who makes me want to pull my hair out one minute, and makes me want to hug him and never let go the next.....

Wearing Mommy's shoes....look at my sweet little lady! :)Grant has given me so much angst (and probably gray hairs!) over the past month or so. Anyone who knows him (or who knows me well enough) knows how strong-willed and hard-headed he is. Some days I feel like I'm at the end of my rope with him; most kids throw fits when they're Grant's age, but I think few are as extreme as Grant (both of our sets of parents have attested to that!). One second, he's the sweetest, most charming thing you've ever seen. Then he'll get frustrated because something doesn't work the way he wants, or we'll take something away from him that he really wanted to play with (or we don't give him something he wants). And in those moments, there is no talking any sense to him; he erupts and will start hitting, head-butting, and throwing himself on the floor. The only thing he really DOESN'T do is bite (I guess I should be thankful for small blessings!).

We have tried so many things (although I admit that we're not as consistent as we should be)- spanking, time-outs, long periods in his room, removing privileges.....nothing seems to be a good enough incentive to make him stop these fits. And now one of the more frustrating things he has started doing is completely ignoring us when we ask him to do something. OH MY GOODNESS!! I have to threaten him with a spanking in order to get him to do almost anything! It's like he doesn't even hear what we're saying (although I know he does, because he gladly cooperates when we ask him to do something that sounds like fun!).

All that to say.....the past couple of weeks have made me wonder if I am better suited to be a mom of older kids.....that maybe my patience level is just not high enough to be compatible with a two-year-old's stubbornness! But of course I'm sure parents of eight-year-olds would emphatically tell me "NO!" I know it doesn't get any easier....the frustrations just change. This week has started out better; I won't go into all of this, but my problems seem much more compounded when I don't have time away from the boys during the day. And while they were both sick, their naps never seemed to time out together. Which meant that day after day, one of them was always up and needing some attention. I know it is such a privilege to stay home with them, but I completely take it for granted when I don't have any time away from them!

Anyway, like I said, when Grant is not throwing fits, he really is the most charming, affectionate little boy. He is so proud of himself for the things he's saying and learning. He's gotten great in these past two weeks of stringing thoughts together to make sentences. Here are a couple of cute examples:

- Last Friday we took a walk after Dean got home from work. On our way home, Dean was holding Grant and he saw our neighbor's hose on their lawn. He said, "You see that hose, Dada? That's not ours hose." He has heard me say "no, that's not ours" so many times!

- The other morning I brought Grant downstairs and he saw one of his pacifiers sitting on the kitchen table. He said, "there's another paci. It's yucky. I don't like it. It has cat hair on it."