Ah, that sweet smile.
His contagious belly laugh.
His growing vocabulary.
How he wraps all 5 of his fingers around my one as we walk places.
They way he says, “Mama, where are you?” when he wakes up from his naps.
These are all things I love about our sweet Levi. Sometimes I need to take a moment and remind myself of the charming characteristics he has. Especially on days that he is pushing the “Terrible 2’s” to the limit.
Like this past week.
He started screaming when we would put him down for his naps. Not an “I’m hurt” scream, but rather an “I am angry and will scream at you until you get me up” scream. An ear piercing, nail-on-chalkboard scream, that cuts to my very soul–igniting my anger. Sigh. Yes. That scream. And that boy has will-power made of steel. One day he screamed for almost 2 hours before he finally gave up. TWO HOURS! And before you get all worried and sad for him and think I’m a terrible parent for letting him scream that long–yes, I did check on him. When I would walk in the door he would stop. He’d start talking to me and playing. Then as soon as I would turn my back to him or put my hand on the doorknob, he would inhale and resume the screaming. See? Just a plain temper tantrum.
I’m not a fan of this stage.
We’ve gone through our arsenal of disciplining tactics–to no avail. And by the 4th child we have quite a lot of these tactics! But with God’s grace and a lot of prayer and a lot of coffee we will prevail! I will say that by Friday he was getting better. Not done totally, but it does help that he’s started to lose his voice (from all that adorable screaming, ha!). I’m hopeful that we’re rounding the corner here.
If you think of it, say a prayer for him. And for me. 🙂
Oh, my goodness. I will indeed pray for this stage you are going through.