There's always one...and sometimes both

I think we've been very lucky with the boys so far. Very rarely do they both go through a difficult stage at the same time. Right now, they are. Just once, I'd like some drama-free time. Just once…and a week of calm is all I ask. Is that too much?

As you may recall, Iain went thru his "getting into everything" stage in the fall. He's pretty much over that now. He still gets into some stuff and will throw a mini fit (throws himself on the floor crying…its pretty funny as long as we're not in public) if I take it away, but if I ignore him long enough, he gets up off the floor and goes to play. At least he's not going from one thing to another like he was before Christmas. But the terrible two's have started with a vengeance and the next 18 months or so are not going to be fun.

Ever since he was sick and waking up to crap himself several times a night, he's been waking up crying. At least once, if not 2-3 times. We thought maybe night terrors or nightmares, but now we're leaning more towards him being used to us going in and comforting him. On Friday night, he was awake from midnight until 3 a.m. Screaming. We tried to be patient, going in every 15 minutes or so. But after two hours of that, we'd had enough. I put in my earplugs (thought I could still hear him) and Jon tried his best to ignore his screeching. He cried for an hour. And by the time he finally passed out, Jon and I were so stressed and on edge that we didn't really sleep the rest of the night. On Saturday night Iain woke up crying and we ignored it, thinking that if he continued for 20 minutes we'd go check on him. He cried for maybe two minutes and went back to sleep. Last night, he didn't wake up at all. Progress? I hope so…its like having a newborn all over again. Except I have to get up and go to work the next day and I'm knackered.

And Cael. My sweet little boy who was such an angel while he was two. Well, look out, 'cuz he's three now. The little darling has decided that "son uv a bits!" (thank you daddy!) is the perfect thing to say in many circumstances.* While I was home with them last week, he had his teeth brushed with mandarin orange and patchouli hand soap twice. I don't know if that approach actually works, but he really hated it, which gave me some perverse pleasure. They started back with Gail today (do I hear a YEEHAW!! from the audience?) and she will do the same. And STUBBORN. Oh man… He's started refusing to pick up his toys, so I told him whenever I have to pick them up, they are going in the "garbage". He's decided that he'd rather help me put toys in garbage bags than put them in the toybox. Including his beloved dinky cars and his one and only TtFTE. He helped me close the door after I went out and ceremoniously dropped the bag by the garbage can. He doesn't seem to care…I wouldn’t be surprised if he somehow knows that I snuck the bags back inside while they were sleeping. He's not stupid. So I have two full bags of toys in the basement. I'm hoping the stubborness is a result of being mixed up. Home for a few weeks, then at another sitter who wasn't fabulous. He really likes routine and his has been seriously screwed with lately.

The fourteen (yep…fourteen. It was supposed to be eight, remember…) weeks of wierdness has really hurt in the potty training department too. The same sweet boy mentioned above has also decided to start hiding and peeing himself instead of using the Dora seat (we got a padded Dora seat for toilet that he's always liked). I'm refusing to put diapers on him during the day (not brave enough to start at night tho…) and have been bribing him with all sorts of stuff if he'd just tell me before he pees and goes in the toilet instead of his pants. Gummy bears sometimes work, but not always.** Gail called me just now and said that she's gone through THREE pairs of clean underwear with him so far today. THREE. And he had already peed himself when we dropped him off…we took off his coat and saw that his pants were soaked. What gets me is that he only had a couple of sips of juice at breakfast this morning and she gave him a small glass of milk (maybe half a cup) mid-morning. wth is all of the liquid coming from?? Is the child getting up in the middle of the night and sneaking out to drink gallons of water?

A couple of weeks ago I found TtFTE undies at Zellers. I snagged the last two packages of size threes (it was the smallest they had) and hoped to god they'd shrink in the wash so they'd fit. They did...just a little. I'll cinch up the adjustable waist on his pants to hold them up if we ever get to that stage... We told him that he can't wear the Thomas undies until he stops peeing in his pants because being peed on makes Thomas sad. Hey, that's feasible, don't you think? Who likes to be peed on? Certainly not a useful engine... Anyway, I've caught him sitting at his dresser with the drawer open, holding his undies and talking to them. How sad...

Anyway, I know it won't last forever…it probably won't take long to get him back on track (haha...on track...little Thomas play on words there...). At least I hope...

* Thing is, he's usually bang on. He uses the phrase in PERFECT context every time…its very hard not to laugh and praise him for proper usage.

** Maybe I'll offer his favourite toys back if he starts telling us? Hmmm…