This Job is Tough

I have been contemplating a whiny blog post for about a week now, but can't quite come up with the words because when we have a bad day with Holden or a bad couple days in a row, then he seems to snap out of it. And despite my complaining below, it is still awesome to see him explore his environment and watch how much he is learning both in his speech and motor skills. It's sweet to see how exciting little things are to him, like putting his shoes on (the highlight of his morning).

But I will say, that sometimes its really tough being a mom. I think we are in the beginnings of the "terrible twos". He has had a language explosion but we still only understand about 1/2 of what he tries to tell us. So, when we don't understand he has a fit and gets frustrated and we try to stay calm but the whole situation tends to melt down for a bit.

Secondly, he is really starting to assert his independence and we are having to do some disciplining and its hard to explain to a bawling 21 month old why he can't have a cookie for dinner. And timeouts are more of a nightmare than the initial reason for the timeout. Someone explain to me why putting a bawling toddler in timeout and trying to keep him there for a minute is a good idea. Because right now, the minute is just as long for us as it is for him.

I'm not giving up because I don't want a poorly mannered, terror of a kid. But man is it tough sometimes to not give in just to stop the crying and whining. I will say I'm still lucky not to have a kid that holds his breath and throws a kicking screaming writhing on the floor temper tantrum (yet).

On a lighter note, here are some Santa photos. I will say that going to see Santa is a total racket, you stand in line for 1 hour minimum and then dish out at least $20 for the smallest photo package and Santa didn't even say anything to Holden while he was on his lap. But the photos are cute and I will be visiting Santa every year and dishing out the $20 plus bucks until Holden thinks its stupid (which I suspect will be somewhere between the ages of 11 and 13).

Santa 2009

Santa 2010