The terrible two's

Unfortunately the terrible two's are rearing their ugly head. And when I say "their" I mean his. And when I saw ugly head, I mean stubborn little blond headed boy. I am not sure a soon-to-be third birthday is going to help any either.

Evan has started having tantrums. Knock down, hitting, crying, screaming, tantrums. He has them in stores now (lovely) when he doesn't get his way, at home when he doesn't get his way, and pretty much anytime when he doesn't get his way. Not cool.

The first time that was really noticeable was at Target a few weeks back. I, unfortunately, was there to see a physicians assistant at the Target Clinic as I suspected I had an ear infection. And yes, lo and behold, I did. So, while I was already sick, I had to put up with two whiny children who didn't want to be there. While I was filling out the paperwork with my back turned for maybe a minute, Evan conveniently covered his body with hand sanitizer. Gross. So, I went to the bathroom and attempted to clean it up with the little boy running away from me and hollering that I wasn't being nice and "NO MAMA!" Great fun with a pounding headache and ear, let me tell you.

Once that debacle was done, we went back to see the P.A. in record time if you ask me. The receptionist gave the kids colors and paper to color on and make pictures. Great, right? Well, for maybe 2 minutes. While I was describing symptoms and answering more questions for a completely thorough pre-exam, the kids were whining that they were bored. Fine, so I get out my iPod and continuously apologize to the PA for the interruptions, while giving glaring looks to the children. The iPod works as a distraction for maybe 3 minutes while they fight over who has more room on their chair, what to watch, what to play, etc. I give warnings, threaten to take it away, give more glaring looks and finally take the damn thing away as it was not doing its purpose. Then, the tantrum. The PA (probably in horror at my children) looks in my ears hurriedly, writes the prescription and ushers us out, while Evan is screaming "No FAIR MAMA! I want the iPod MAMA! No FAIR!" Grrrr...

I rush to the pharmacy while receiving both horrified and sympathetic looks from people as they observe the obvious tantrum that is boiling out of my son. He stops in the aisle, cries, and screams "MAMA! MY iPOD. I want my iPOD." continuously... over and over and over. I am sure I am red-faced, I don't meet eyes, I am furious and embarrassed all at the same time. Emma is observing this as well and does the "Mom, I am not having a tantrum, I am being a good girl now, right?" AND of course the pharmacy is going to take 15-20 minutes to get my prescription. Evan is still in the midst of a tantrum (it has probably been about 10 minutes for the full-blown tantrum) and I have reached my maximum level of every kind of emotion. And still, I refuse to give him the iPod. I waiver on this at times, but I know that I cannot give in to this little creature at the moment. So, I call my husband and tell him to get the kids on his way home from work because I am done.

I take the kids outside to wait the long 10 minutes for Tim to get there and I usher them to him so I can have a few minutes to calm down. Evan had calmed down while outside however, which was a nice reprieve. They were climbing on the big red balls that Target now has in their entrance to the store, which was a treat for them as I never let them do that.

And, of course, Tim has to tell me later that night that as he was walking Evan to his car after they left me, Evan asked, "Daddy, why doesn't Mama love me anymore?" Of course, I start crying now (because by now my emotions have decided to come to the surface) and tell Evan that I do love him, etc. He looks at me like I am out of my mind and runs off to play

He has had a few tantrums since then as well. I do not give in and I walk away, but that doesn't make them any easier. I know we went through these with Emma, but definitely not as frequent. He can be so cute and loveable at times, but little crazy creature at other times. It makes for interesting days, that is for sure.