The Winds...they are a changin'

There is no doubt that B is becoming more stubborn. There is a lot more whining, screaming, and throwing occurring at my house these days. Last night, the child cried in his bed for no less than 2 hours past his allotted bed time of 7pm. I went in and rocked him, soothed him, whatever I could think of. Anytime I entered the room, he was all smiles and squirming in my lap. It was clear that he was not upset, just wanted to play. Nay, nay. Post-7pm is mommy time.

This has been showing itself in other ways as well. Last night at dinner. B looked at me as he threw his food over the side to the dogs as if to say, "What now?" He also gets told no and does it again and again to see if it will stick. He always follows all of these naughty actions with a smile as if that will smooth things right over. Now, I am not too familiar with other babies, but B seems to push just that little bit farther (perhaps this is Mom vision). He gets so frustrated when he doesn't get his way. He kicks his legs, goes limp, generally, acts as impossible as he can.

I shouldn't be suprised that our child is showing such a subborn streak. Both his father and mother don't always handle it the best when they don't get their way. Somedays, I think there is not a passive bone in either of our bodies. We want what we want and we will usually do just about everything we can think of to get it. That has served us both well, we are successful and (I hope) happy with where we are in life and where we are headed.

This new shift has resulted in the continual locking of horns. I want him to stop, he wants to go. Time for bed, time for play. It goes on and on. The child knows how to get me irritated and he does it with pleasure. I don't mean to imply that he is bad (well, he kind of is), but more that he is testing us in a new way.

These new challanges have lead J and I to reassess the way we usually approach the world. We can no longer batter ram things like we used to. That old cliche of patience is beating us at every turn.