Potty training & Temper Tantrum City...

Ugh, in the last week, we've hit a new phase in Alex's life and not exactly a fun one. Independence and Temper Tantrums.

With both girls, the "Three's" were 10x's worse than the "Two's",and this is proving to be the case with Alex too (I say this is the three's since he'll be 3 in 2 months). So far I've just let him throw his fit, completely ignoring him. I just let him go until he can't go anymore and then will try to talk to him, as until then it's pretty much pointless. Once he's worn himself out, I'll try to talk to him, clean up his snotty face and then he usually wants a hug and to be held for a bit and calms down.

Each day this week we've had at least one full blown temper tantrum. I'm talking on the floor, screeching, screaming, mad at the world, kicking, inconsolable full blown fit. And man, he makes them last a good while too, a good 30-45 minutes. *sigh* The girls had thier fits, but gosh, this boy thing takes it all to a whole new level.

Tuesday, we really had a rough day and had fielded three of them by naptime at noon. Needless to say both kids got naps and I was desperately wanting one for sure! I didn't get one but I was sure wishing I had!

I have to mention though that I think a lot of this is coming from the new found independence and self sufficence that has been discovered on his part though. There's been a lot of milestones hit in the last few weeks too, for a toddler that is. Some things he's done for the first time in the last few weeks/month:

Opening the doors despite the doorknob covers (which has lead to the need for a key locking door knob on the bathroom closet for the medicines and stuff)

Riding his tricycle- able to pedal quickly

Pushing himself on the big kid swing on the swingset

Pushing the button & opening the diaper pail lid by himself (lid is broken, you have to do both)

Dressing from head to toe by himself, including velcro shoes/sandals

Buttoned up his pj shirt all on his own (did this Wednesday night)

Overcoming his fear of the sprinkler

Going all day without an accident in his training pants (except the pullup he wore at nap time)- Did this yesterday

So all in all it seems that he's fight/getting upset more on things mainly because he wants to do it on his own, or if you tell him he's not allowed to do something. So all in all, as long as he's not hurting himself or hitting things around him, I try to divert it to begin with, but that's proving more difficult as he's getting more and more stubborn like his parents can be.... ;)

But with Potty Training, he has been doing very well, as we started it out as a game. I set the kitchen timer I have and when that timer goes off, Katie and Alex had made it a game to see who could get to the bathroom the fastest (yes watch out for the herds tearing through the hosue when the timer goes off) and then they'd both go potty. Then was the rewards, Hi fives for successes, 1 jelly bean for pee'ing, 2 for doing number 2. So since we've done that all week, Katie doesn't even have to race him anymore, the timer goes off and he's running for the bathroom. So far he has done very well in that we take the timer with us outside and he'll stop what he's doing to come in and go to the potty, so we've had excellent success this week with it, as yesterday although he'd already did number 2 before I got him out of his nighttime pull up, he went all day wearing the same trainer, except for the pull up for nap time. :) It was NIIIICCCCEEEEEE!!!!!! :D

So we'll see how he does today- as he has yet to do his morning number 2 but is in his trainers. and if we have the continued success he had yesterday, will probably start stretching that time out beyond the 45 minutes I have it at right now.

Wish us luck!