The Terrible 2’s – Just Smile and Pray

I had always heard people talk about the Terrible 2’s.  I thought I was SO lucky to have passed that stage with my three older kids.  They started to get hard when they turned 3, and it is way easier to reason with a 3 year old than a 2 year old. My three year olds waited until then to try to be more independent, talk back to me and even tell me they didn’t like me…but they were never hard 2 year olds.  In fact 2 year olds were my favorite!  They said cute things, they weren’t naughty yet and they stayed in their beds at night….Right?  WRONG!  Then I had baby number 4.  This cute little guy…

On the day he turned 2 he was climbing, throwing, saying he didn’t like me, and getting out of his crib. This sweet smiley guy is ALL over the place and has been SUPER grumpy lately!  We can clean up something one second and not half a second later something else is dumped out, including sugar all over the floor as we are walking out the door to church.  He is always HUNGRY (that is exactly how he says it).  He throws amazing fits (especially in the middle of Costco), and his new favorite word is “Hate”, which he got from my 5 year old who “hates” everything that I make for his 3rd food. (He will not call them Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner.  He calls them his 1st, 2nd and 3rd food, and he always “hates” his 3rd food.)  So now the 2 year old basically “hates” everything in site.  I try to tell him that it is mean to say that, but he doesn’t even care one bit!  He gets out of bed a million and one times at night.  He is in that hard, between nap stage, where if he doesn’t get a nap then he is grumpy by 4:00, but if he does he won’t go to bed.   By the end of the day I am exhausted!

But oh how much I love this little guy.  Sure, he is hard most of the time, but the sweet moments I have with him are the best.  I know he will grow out of most of it, so I just smile, sometimes laugh, and pray really hard that I will have patience to deal with all that he does each day.  My prayers are answered when he runs to me and wraps his arms around my leg and gives me a huge grin, and tells me he loves me!  That’s when I forget about all the naughty, crazy 2 year old stuff he did and I pick him up and give him a big bear hug.  I am reminded how little he is and how fast they grow up, and I just want to hold him forever!  I sure am lucky to be his mom!