The day Ryan wore his reindeer pyjamas and made mischief of one kind and another his mother called him "WILD THING" and Ryan said "Chee cry," and "For cryee out wow!" So he was sent to bed without any treat.
Then he slammed his bedroom door.
Repeatedly.
I'll tell you something, the "terrible twos" have nothing on the threes it seems. He is simply oppositional at every turn. It started very first thing in the morning. He came into our room swinging a ribbon around and around his head. I simply asked him calmly, "Ryan, give that to Mommy, please," and I was met with a defiant sounding, "NO!" as he carried on as if I didn't exist. So, I tried again and again, "Thank you, good boy. Put it in Mommy's hand."
Would you believe the little sh--, uhm, I mean "dear" looked RIGHT at me and continued to swing it around?!
Did I stutter?!
So I tried being firm.
"Ryan...put. it. in. Mommy's. hand. NOW. please."
Nope, didn't even phase him.
Then Daddy rolled to face our direction..."RYAN! Give that to MOMMY!" he demanded, the bass in his voice echoing.
Zilch.
The thing is, we KNOW he can hear us. And we know he's not being defiant, as such, but rather exerting a bit of independence. But boy did he manage to make it last ALL day, resulting in us staying home instead of our usual visit to Emma & Daz's for dinner. There was no way we were subjecting them and our niece to his antics.
He ate most of his dinner and gave little fuss at actually preparing for bed, so it was assumed it wouldn't be too difficult to get him down. Our "new/improved" routine is to aim to have him upstairs for 8 o'clock because we suspect sleep, or the lack of, to be the main culprit...along with his strong will, of course.
We did the usual after his bath. Got him dressed in PJs...cuddles for Daddy...story choice (tonight's was 'Birthday Soup' from the Little Bear series). Then 3 song requests from Mommy before I lie next to his bed...usually holding his hand or waiting for him to give me "knuckles" and then drifting off 5 minutes later.
Try SIXTY minutes on and he's WIDE AWAKE chattering to Teddy!! So, I calmly explained Mommy was going and I would be up to check on him later.
What's that? No more attention?
As soon as Matt and I were in the front room with season six of Dexter queued up on Netflix, he started in. First with just whinging at the top of the stairs. We called up to him that it was bedtime and although he would initially run with a guilty conscience back to his room. Matt even went up to try and coax him to lie his head down and stay in bed.
The last straw was when he morphed into a stroppy pre-teen and began slamming his bedroom door!
The battle line was officially drawn and Matt was the first to respond to Ryan's preliminary strike with me not far behind. A good old fashioned telling off left a young lad in fake little crocodile tears and a Mommy and Daddy at their wits end.
We thought that was all it would take...but still not. The "up and down" game of 'popcorn' continued for another 45 minutes before I went to check on him.
This is what I found. Finally, by half eleven, he waved his little white flag in defeat as he fell asleep on the floor next to his bed.
I don't know how I will cope with him some days because I love him more than that of my own life, but he is turning into quite the little button-pusher. In the meantime, I cannot wait until the circuit in his clever tot-brain completes and he gets that Mommy and Daddy are the boss for his own good.
Until then, he can roar his terrible roars and gnash his terrible teeth all he wants. Eventually, by the end of the night, he will have to step back onto his private boat (aka bed) and wave goodbye.
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