Terrible 2s?

When does the 'Terrible 2s' start or end? A few months ago, when the Prince was banging his own head on the floor when we refused to go his way, and after that ended, I told Hubby his 'Terrible 2s' have ended. But this weekend, it seems it has just started (again?). If you read this article by Dr Greene (as I am doing now), 'Oppositional behaviour' is the hallmark of this phase and there is nothing you can do to prevent it.

For one, The Prince stopped his endless requests for his milk. These recent nights, he hardly finished his last feed of 200ml. The only thing consistent is that he drinks the last part only AFTER I wipe his teeth which means he still goes to bed with milk in his mouth. Argh! He started biting his teats and he destroyed 2 this week. The number may be higher if not that I resisted changing his teats, despite buying more over last weekend.

Then came the funny idea of his, to keep the lights on while he tries to fall asleep. Problem is (naturally) he doesn't fall asleep but starts entertaining himself with his fingers, toes, hunting around for Thomas, Percy, Skarloey and the JR train. When I turned off the lights, he screams his head off and shouts "On! On! On! Papa, On!" (his Daddy is his solution to all things that Mummy creates problems to).

Next, he decides to go and a diet. Not really a diet because he is eating, but just the wrong type of food. He welcomes all the junk such as sweet, chocolate, biscuits and only 'samples' his main meals. And ever since learning how to say 'Full' properly, he now both signals and tells you "Full!" when you want to give him another mouthful. Try shoving the contents in and he will coolly spit it out slow-motion as if to tell you 'Make sure you remember this move'.

Of course, the screaming came along. We tried asking him over this weekend, whether he wanted this or that, and he will reply with a 'NoOOOOOO!!' or scream his answer back to you with bulging eyeballs. We brought him to his 1st Kindermusik class, some free trial I won in a lucky draw, and our friend tried leaving the class 3 times within 45 mins. He simply screamed that he wanted "Out!" or "Open" while pulling the door handle; or when you try and coax him to return the hula-hoop back to the teacher. My God... so much so that I can't really determine whether he enjoyed the class (thought he did because he was dancing along to the music played) or he hated it (let's put it this way - no other kid came close to even walking towards the direction of the exit).

Nevertheless, the Prince was an Angel in other ways. Just like how Ethan's helping out Mummy Deb with loading the washing machine with laundry, having a toddler can really be entertaining because they do help out with the chores (if they want to). The Prince can throw his own rubbish, help us turn off the fan, wash his hands, call for the lift and help Grandma carry her bag back to her room. I shan't be greedy and say I can't wait for him to be able to clean his own backside or wash his dishes. (opps, just said it).

The cutest thing that happened this weekend was the Purple Balloon Incident. Got him a helium balloon in the afternoon and we let him bring it up to the bedroom before bedtime.

1st time when he released the balloon (above our bed), he tried to grab the string but he missed by about 10cm. So Daddy taught him that he could stack pillows in order to reach the balloon.

2nd time, he jumped off the bed and accidentally released the balloon. Immediately, he pulled a pillow from our bed and placed it on the floor, while smiling confidently. We were laughing our heads off because of the big gap between him and the string.

3rd time, The Prince clinged on his balloon and we noticed he only released it once he got onto our bed. Guessed he discovered the bed's closer to the ceiling than the floor!

4th time, he tried without using the pillows. He was getting a thrill out of staring at the tip of the string and jumping into the air to grab it, which eventually he did!

After all that, the drama of "Keep-the-lights-on!" started. And by morning, The Prince wasn't interested in the balloon anymore because it was lying on the floor next to him. So much for his 'one night float'.

Lastly, the Prince said 'MOONCAKE' man! Not sure whether he's in this lazy state or just not ready, but he says only the last syllabus of any word he knows. So when he said 'Mooncake', boy, was I awed!