one of those days

This weekend we had family up to celebrate Colby's Baptism. This always throws Blake for a loop. When it is just the four of us here he knows the exceptions and how each person will react given a certain situation. We have a flexible yet structured routine to the day and life goes on. Blake thrives on this and seems to need the boundaries especially now that he's 2 and tries to find his own way to do things.

I have never been... and never will be a helicopter parent... you know the kind that hovers over the children and tries to prevent every accident by not letting the child live. I let my boys make mistakes. I let them fall and teach them it's ok... get up, brush yourself off and go on. I want them to develop a strong understanding of independence.

I also encourage them to play together with and without my intervention. Now, this is hard at this stage since Colby is well 7 month old and not moblie, but they do play together. Blake loves to share with Colby and often wants Colby to do the same thing that he is doing. Blake has developed an understanding that he has to share his toys and the attention with his brother... and for the most part has no issue with it.

When we have company over... Blake often gets a LOT more attention, some would say undivided attention. There are some who also hover over him and fuss at him more than we typically do. Then when the company leaves, things are tough because getting back into the swing of normal is hard.

Blake has to share my attention with Colby after having extra people doating over him for a few days. Blake has to hear "no", "stop", "please don't do that", "make good choices" and all those other things that seem to go out the window when others are in the house. Blake has to go back to sharing his toys and space with his brother.

This my friends is very hard on a 2 year old! Today has been one of those days where I've battled with Blake over these issues... well it started on Sunday actually. On Sunday, both Richard and I put Blake into time-out multiple times over not listening to directions. Yesterday, I had to threaten time-out more than once and we had many talks about being a good brother and sharing.

Today he lost it... BIG TIME. The funny thing is he lost it during his mommy alone time (each boy has some mommy alone time everyday). Today Blake wanted to watch tv or use the computer all morning. Yeah ... NO! I gave him options of the play room, the living room or out on the porch... nope he wanted none of this. Then he wanted his pacifer... nope not until nap time. So he melted down. I ended up putting him in his room so I could have a break and pull myself together. Now he is fighting taking a nap... yeah no way buddy.

I can only hope that tomorrow is a better day!