Terrible Three's

I had to balance out my Happy post of the day with this Grumpy one! If you want something to read that is more uplifting, skip this post.

Who's the grumpy one? Why Sir Isaak! Ever since we cut off his hair, he's turned into more of a punk! HA I know that's not why. It's just a coincidence.

Isaak's a major bear when it's time to wake up from a nap and in the morning time.

When Mica went through this at Isaak's age I just yanked his clothes off and dressed him as quick as possible, while he screamed in my ears. I also put him to bed at 7. So early, but hey he woke up GRUMPY! When none of the above worked out I put Mica in bed with us for 15 minutes for cuddle time and he was much better about getting up. Daddy didn't like it, but it seemed to work with Mica not being in a FUNK. I'm not sure if I'll do this with Isaak or not. I have mixed feelings about it. Sure it made him less grumpy, but it also allowed him to think it was ok to come in our room to cuddle every morning.

Advice? Please don't say, "Beat your child to control him!" That's the advice I got from my co-worker, and I wanted to beat his face in. Not really, I just shrugged it off; thinking I won't do that. To make his advice worse, he mentioned, "That's the only way to control children. Isaak needs to know who's boss!" Oh and his kids never acted that way because he spanked them to control them. Two parenting polar opposites! Ya we kind of clashed.

To us, kids and parents need to respect each other. I'm not going to spank my child for not wanting to get out of bed. I don't even want to get out of bed. There has to be another reasonable answer to fix Isaak's grumpy stage, or at least get through it. Mica went through it, he got over it. Isaak will to. It's just a matter of how to deal with this stage, while it's present.

I even remember my sister, Aunt Terra going through this stage. She's 5 years younger than me. I used to have to get her up on days that my mom was at work once or twice a week. Terra would not get out of bed! This is crazy, but worked: I pretended that we were trapped in an episode of She Ra. You know, "The princess of power." I was belittled to that! HA Hey like I said, it worked! Princess Terra otherwise known as She Ra got up to get ready to save the castle.

Sometimes I puppy bark to get Isaak to smile when he wakes up. Silly again, but he likes puppies. Reverse psychology works on him to. Daddy says, "Isaak don't smile!" Generally he does.

It's not just about getting out of bed. Isaak's determined to let his punk side show through at other times to. Thanksgiving weekend at Grandma and Grandpa Apel's: Grandma Apel offered them many different things to drink all weekend. At home it's water or milk. For breakfast it's juice and on the weekends it's homemade juice. They aren't allowed to have juice at any other time of the day. He thought he could have Limeade for breakfast. Daddy bent a bit by pouring in 1/4 limeade and 1/4 water. NOPE! Isaak had a melt down! He cried in the back room with Daddy for 1/2 an hour over the deal. Sure we could have let him have his way. We wouldn't. He doesn't get his way all the time. Melt down it was. Daddy stayed with him, so he wouldn't feel abandon. We were at someone else's house other than our own. I was wondering what Grandma and Grandpa Apel were thinking? Were they thinking like my co-worker? A different generation, a different outlook. I'm not sure. It doesn't really matter. We didn't let him have his way, but we weren't spanking him either. He got a giant Super Nanny time out until he cooled down enough to have breakfast.

Other Punk Experiences:

• Yesterday Isaak wanted to wear his new short sleeve t-shirt without a long sleeve shirt under it. 
• That evening he refused to let me button up his jammies at night. He had to do it. It took twice as long, but he has to learn sometime.
• Today was a day where he didn't want to get up out of bed. 
• Grandpa Spiehs took cousin Elijah and Isaak for a walk. Elijah refused to wear his gloves and hat, so Isaak did to; just because Elijah wouldn't. They were freezing, but wouldn't wear their extra gear.

It's a Terrible Three stage! I can't wait to get past it.

It's a stage where they want to figure things out on their own. They don't have the coordination to do everything just yet. They are unreasonable and strong headed. Isaak's gone through this stage once already; it left and now it's back again with a vengeance.

Three Year Old Tears

Isaak's been difficult lately!

The other night we went out to dinner. Daddy took the boys to the restroom to go potty, they washed their hands and Daddy tore off the paper towel for Isaak to dry off his hands. Isaak had a melt down. He was honestly really upset that Daddy tore off the paper towel off the dispenser and he did not! Usually I take Isaak potty and Mica goes with Daddy. I knew Isaak was like this about paper towels. How was Daddy supposed to know Isaak was going to be so dramatic over something so non important to us?

The boys came back to the table. Everyone seemed happy enough. Then Isaak started crying again because the waiter brought the boy's drinks. The waiter happened to take the paper off the straws before serving them. I knew right away why Isaak was crying. So crazy, but I knew! Isaak loves tearing the paper off his straw at restaurants. How do I know this? Because I once tried to help him with his straw and he freaked out at me. After he got done crying; I told the waiter why Isaak freaked out because really it's kind of funny! He laughed.

When we got home Isaak went number 2. He got mad because I didn't tell his potty "Bye Bye" when he flushed it! He was practically throwing himself on the ground over it.

Isaak's particular about things. Lately it's been really bad. It could be a stage, from the weather switching, because it's getting dark earlier, because he's finishing up a cold, or all the above.

Today Was a Grumpy Day

The day started out where Isaak wouldn't stop crying. He wouldn't tell us what was wrong. He had a deep cough, so I assumed that he just didn't feel good. He didn't feel warm. Isaak's one of those kids who milks crying for as long as he can get attention for it. I try to block it out. I feel like sometimes he feeds off negative attention. Daddy on the other hand tries to reason with him. When he gets no where with Isaak, Isaak ends up in timeout to cool off. Then he gets more upset and cries even harder. Luckily this behavior is RARE!

Isaak was starting to break free from whatever was bothering him. I was about ready to make juice with the juicer. Isaak wanted to help. I told him that he could as long as he went potty and washed his hands. He wouldn't, so I started making juice. Isaak always considers dropping the fruit into the juicer, "his job." Since I took over his job, he lost it. He was now in a full blown tantrum. Things let up as we all sat down to eat.

At breakfast Daddy told me that TV is pretty much off limits this weekend. He doesn't want Mica and Isaak watching anything from 911. I understand. It's too deep for them to understand. When he told me that, it was a reminder of that day long ago and close at the same time. We had just moved from Atlanta, Georgia to Omaha, Nebraska just to be near family. We were living in my parent's basement until we could find work. Neither of us could have predicted the economy taking a dive! Daddy really wasn't a Daddy then, but started his job at the dental lab that very day. It was surreal for him. I was still looking for work. My day was glued to the TV. The stories that made me cry the most was anything to do with children not being able to find their mommies and daddies! I've always had a soft spot for kids! The next day I had a mint making party at my friends house. She was getting married that Saturday. I remember crying just because her day was supposed to be a happy day. A day planned out for her and her soon to be husband to enjoy. I felt bad for her. Some of her relatives couldn't make the wedding. Yes it was a happy time, it was also mixed with sadness. Silly that I was crying because I longed for her to be happy. I should have been laughing to make her happy. That is pretty much what I was doing during that time. My students are getting to the point where they barely remember that day. Most of them were around the age of 8 years old. TV was probably turned off, on their behalf. Just like we are leaving it off this weekend for Mica and Isaak to not see.

That grumpy mood carried on all day for Mica, Isaak and I. I broke up fights. Isaak wanted to play in Mica's room. He's not allowed to play in there while Mica is playing with little Lego sets.

I cleaned all our bedding and drapes. A lot of trips to the basement! One boy would always follow me downstairs. They wanted to take old toys upstairs to play with. Mica told me that he was really mad at me for trying to get rid of some blocks that he never played with.

Then I was annoyed about our mail. I've noticed a pattern, on Husker football playing day our mail is delivered super late. It annoys me! Just saying. I'd rather be watching fooseball then football. Daddy is out all evening at a friends house watching the game. 

That's how our day went. BLAH! We're all allowed to have a crappy day every now and then.

It wasn't all bad. Here are the highlights: Mica dressed up like Indiana Jones. I'll have photo's  shown on Wednesday. ;) He told me I couldn't call him, "Mica." I had to call him, "Indiana Jones." Isaak said this about a photo of Ronald McDonald, "Hey that's Burger King!" Can you tell that we don't go out to eat all the time? Mica used a really BIG word "Executively" at breakfast. He even used it right. Daddy and I were both laughing at that one! :) The way Mica starts talking to Grandma Spiehs on the phone is funny. He doesn't say, "Hi." He just starts talking. It's as if she's right there in the room. I suppose I should talk to him about phone etiquette; but then I wouldn't be laughing anymore.

Yesterday I laughed because a student turned in her idea on her next assignment. It had Elvis on each and every sketch. You might be thinking, "Elvis isn't funny!" You are right. He's not. He is when you have a story to go with one of his songs! In Kung Fu Panda, the Panda gets hit in his private parts. He says, "OH MY TENDERS!" Whenever Mica gets hurt, or hit in that general area he says, "OH MY TENDERS!" This is much better then a little boy saying something else. Elvis' song Love Me Tender came on a year or so ago and Mica said, "LOVE MY TENDERS?!? WHY WOULD I WANT TO LOVE MY TENDERS?!?!" Anyhow I thought about that story when looking at the girls artwork and could not stop laughing! I'll never think of the song the same way again! It will forever be funny to me. I of course had to tell my student the story, or she would of thought I was laughing at her sketches.