Delay Tactics

New York, 2014

A year or so ago, when we told some old friends we were expecting our second, the husband (a father of two) laughed (or was it cackled?) and said something along the lines of, 'And you haven't even gotten to the terrible twos yet!'

Mostly, we haven't, but of course as Axel becomes more expressive and more verbal, he has more toddlerish moments. 'No way' and 'Mine' are things we hear a lot around these parts. 90% of the time he's cheerful and amenable, but the other ten percent...well...

Last night, for whatever reason, he decided he didn't want to go to bed and pitched some major screaming fits from his crib, calming down immediately when we walked into the room and demanding that one of us sing 'Twinkle, Twinkle' on repeat. 'Again!' he'd demand, like a tiny tyrant. It was 9 p.m. by the time he went down and all the while Oscar was mewling and demanding attention too.

It's easy to be exasperated with Axel, because we take for granted that we've cracked the sleep thing with him or can at least reason with him or get a sense of what he needs. And we absolutely need those few mellow hours before we crash at the end of the day, so when we don't get them, everything feels off kilter.

But sometimes an almost two year old is going to be maddening and emotional and wild and exhausting and mess with all the little routines you've come to depend upon. And I have a feeling it will get worse before it gets better. Good thing we like him so much.

Glee

Williamsburg, 2014

Ha, I love this photo so much! I took Axel to a trial class at Miss J's Gymnastics this week (we've done the open play sessions there, and he loves it.) It's basically a converted garage full of amazing padded equipment, like a giant obstacle course for children. We had mixed results with the class, by which I mean epic highs and epic lows.

Since he's used to going there when there are no classes on, it was a real struggle when he saw other classes of older children using the big trampoline or the rings and was told he had to wait for his turn. He wanted to roam free and couldn't figure out why I had to curtail his adventures.

To be fair, I can see why it was confusing (and the older kids were doing stuff that looked much more interesting to him)...but it led to some major tantrum-y moments. We almost had to leave, but he kind of pulled it together towards the end of the class and started to understand that he had to stay with the little kids.

Anyway, it's funny when you make the effort to have quality mama-toddler time and it sort of backfires. It reminded me of this article...sometimes a structured activity can be overkill, even if it does lead to insane smiles like this one.

We'll definitely go back for open play, but I think this is one class that might have to wait until he's a bit more used to coloring within the lines.