ANDY: the terrible twos.

Andy turns two next month (sob, sob...), and with that age comes the terrible twos.  Both of my boys entered the "terrible twos" before they turned two.  My only hope it that Andy will pass through this phase as quickly as Cal did.

When Andy is happy, he is sooooo happy.  He is funny and laughs and is just awesome to be around! 

But, Mr. Andy has a mind of his own, and when he is mad, he is MAD.  And let me tell you, this little guy is STRONG.  Getting him into a carseat when he doesn't want to be in a carseat is close to impossible.  Literally, it is incredibly challenging to strap him in.  I have mastered the karate chop to the belly to make him bend so I can snap him in  It's not pretty.  But it is effective....for now.  

Speaking of cars....we have some serious (SERIOUS) issues in the car.  It doesn't matter if we are going 30 seconds up the road to the gym or 300 miles up the road to the beach-- Andy is screaming bloody murder the ENTIRE time.  I think (and hope and pray) that this will be resolved when he learns more words and can tell me what he wants.  Often, he doesn't know what he wants, he just wants to scream (and throw stuff).  Or, he wants something that he threw on the floor that is now out of my reach.

It makes it VERY hard to run errands or to do anything, really.  I thought maybe he didn't like his carseat, so I switched him over to Cal's.  That wasn't it.  He won't watch the DVD player and literally nothing makes him happy in the car.  It is a challenge, that is for sure.

The car is where we see the terrible two fits the most.  It is very VERY hard to stay calm when driving down the road in traffic with Andy screaming.  He actually goes through phases of fits in the car: phase one-- screaming (it's not crying-- it is flat out screaming), phase two-- screaming and hitting himself (he usually removes shoes/socks here and throws them {usually at me} and hits himself with his feet), and phase three-- screaming, hitting himself, and spitting.  Annnnnd, then we arrive at our destination-- me a flustered hot mess, Andy, covered in spit, shoeless and beet red from the tantrum he just threw.  

I always feel like people don't believe me when I tell them this, so here is a video of him, mid-fit.  If you are at work, you aren't going to want to have the volume on....

 Andy is still obsessed with his lovie, Lala.  I try to get him to leave Lala in the crib, but some mornings, there's just no prying that thing from his hand.  A friend of mine saw his lala at the gym (with him, of course) and she commented that it was the most pathetic looking thing she's ever seen.  We've tried to replace it and can't find a match! CB found one close to it and I tried to sell it as Lala, but he just laughs (with his fat little hand over this mouth) and says, "no, momma.  'snot lala!" hahaha He is a mess.

He also is still sucking his fingers.  I might have to do a whole different post on the finger sucking... not sure when we try to break that.  We tell him every time we see him doing it to take his fingers out, and he always does-- but they just wind up back in there a few minutes later.  I will ask his pediatrician at his 2 year check up her thoughts.... if y'all know of any ways to break him of this, let me know.  But part of me wants him to keep on sucking them....at least when he's in the car!

This little sweet potato has it out for his momma.... he doesn't fuss in other cars-- just mine when I am driving.... but good gracious, he is so dang sweet...so what if he wants to scream in the car?? I could eat this kid up with a spoon.

me=smitten.

(however, the terrible twos are welcome to leave at any point now...)