The terrible twos…

I think the terrible twos have arrived. Frustration of wanting to communicate, but not quite being able to has started to see tantrums being thrown by my youngest child. It feels as though he has gone from baby to toddler in the blink of an eye. Suddenly he is harder to entertain and fiercely independent. The pushchair is now redundant – he must walk everywhere. When he tires he simply sits down on the floor wherever he is – and will shriek when he is gathered up to be carried.

Toddler Climbing..

Today has been a challenge, he has discovered he can climb with ease up the radiator onto the windowsill. The radiator thankfully was cold, but he had scaled it within moments while I vacuumed the rug in the same room. I swung round to see him attempting to stand on the windowsill. Pointing with delight at the hen who was watching him from the garden. Having told him off, and distracted him with a toy car, the next attempt at climbing was over a stair-gate. I have never experienced a toddler attempting to clamber over the stair-gate, and he’s not even age 2 yet…he is 22months!

There’s also the biting, hitting and kicking. N has taken to hitting and kicking everyone when he gets told off. He has also started to try to bite. It’s horrible! I was hoping we might miss this stage! I’ve had to explain to my 8 year old that he can’t hit back, as it reinforces the idea that it’s ok! Currently, when N hits out the children will tell him to stop, and if he does it again then they will walk away from him. This usually results in N crying – but it does stop the hitting out.

Communication

I think, once N starts to talk a little more, the terrible twos may start to be easier to handle. I try to take a breath and talk to him asking him what he needs. One of the tantrums this week, was as he wanted to watch a certain thing on the television again. I spent a few minutes trying to work out what the problem was, then he started to point and say “Gen” ohhh he means “again?” he looked and excitedly replied “Yea” – iPlayer on and problem solved! But sometimes the tantrums are not so easy to resolve – especially when they are over someone elses LEGO car or a school book. But, they’re lessons which he needs to learn – not everything is his. I think though, Christmas may be very interesting!