Problem Solving with the AxMan

I feel the need to blog a little about Axl. It's been a while since I documented some things about him and his 23 month old self and found a few minutes to actually sit down and do it! (Though this post will most definitely not be overwhelmingly positive, as most of the posts about my kids are, know that I love my children with all my heart and wouldn't trade them for the world!)

He is talking A LOT. We still can't understand many of the words he says, but it seems like everyday I am able to translate one or two more that he has been using a lot. Most words sound at least a little bit like their actual pronunciation, but there are still a few that just have a mind of their own..e.g. blanket=Gigi??

He has consistently gained weight..around the time Cooper was born, Tyler and I noticed that he was getting pretty thick! Right now he weighs about 29 pounds. I don't think he looks too chunky, but he is definitely VERY dense. We can't really figure out how he keeps getting bigger because we have a very finicky eater on our hands. (this is problem #1) He is always wanting snacks and typically will not eat anything we serve him at meal time unless we give him "snacky" foods. Goldfish, gummies, occasionally fruit (grapes, pineapple..but this is hit or miss). There are a few "meal-type" foods he will eat most of the time (tortellini, chili, pizza (teetza), and hamburger and rice), so I try to fix these often. He is a juice monster. If I give him milk and he wanted juice, he throws the cup, refuses to drink it, and sometimes goes into tantrum mode. (of course we address the throwing...and the tantrum). Because he has been such a poor eater, he would go evenings without eating anything, which started a bad habit (my fault completely). I felt bad that he hadn't eaten anything, and didn't want him to go to bed hungry, so I would send him to bed with a sippy cup of milk because I'd always find it empty when I went in to check on him. I was always so prideful in the fact that I never gave him a bottle in the bed...then I realized..."um, JoAnna...this is the same thing.". So..,.as of two days ago, no sippy cups in the bedroom. He asked me for it last night, but went to sleep fine after I left.

He is crazily attached to his yummy and bunny bear. They have become a package deal. Both are, in theory, confined to the bed, but if he finds one or the other, he starts frantically looking for the counterpart. He only gets them in the bed, unless we are going out, at which time he almost always gets them in order to keep him quiet in certain places, or to ward off an upcoming tantrum in the middle of a public place. (Case in point...I just noticed that the gate was open when I heard Axl scrambling up the stairs...by the time I made it up there he was already ON TOP of the counter getting into the storage drawers where we have decided to keep the yummies and bunny bears; thought they were inaccessible..wow.)

(Now for problem #2) He watches ENTIRELY too much TV. Shrek was our savior around the time we brought Cooper home from the hospital and it kind of morphed into us having the TV on for the better part of the day. Don't get me wrong, he doesn't actively watch the tv all of that time, but it has definitely become our "go-to" in bad situations...How about some Mickey, Axl?

(and problem #3) He is B.A.D. Any of you reading this are probably saying, "oh my, I can't believe she's saying this about her child!"...but really, I have no qualms saying this because I KNOW that's how little boys are SUPPOSED to be. Their mothers, however, are supposed to be able to find a way to cope and not go completely crazy, which I currently am in the middle of. On our way home on Monday from a weekend trip to Tyler's cousin's house, it just completely hit me that we DO NOT have control of things. I started crying as I came to the realization that we were going home and another week was starting of Axl finding everything possible he knows he's not supposed to be into (kitchen cabinets, desk drawers, doors to places he's not supposed to be (even though we have the doorknob thingies), climbing on our desks to find things like screws and scissors, tantrum throwing over the slightest correction, yelling and pointing his finger at us as we're trying to discipline him, just overall craziness.

As Tyler and I talked about it on the way home, we made some realizations.
1. He is snacking too much! I wonder why he doesn't want to eat the lunch I've prepard him when his "stick" (pretzels) bowl has been on tap since 10:30...
2. He is BORED. For the better part of Axl's life, he has been on a schedule...and it worked beautifully. As he got older and more independent, it kind of just became a free-for-all. The only thing sure to be in the schedule was a BIG NAP! Especially when Cooper came along, schedule mode went to her. I wonder why he is getting into anything and everything in the house when he is expected to stay in the same room with the same huge overwhelming assortment of toys he sees everyday...

The past three or four days have been devoted to fixing these problems...I purchased the Babywise II book (5-15 months) which I had never read, thinking it would be helpful in the coming months with Cooper. It had a LOT of pointers on what I could do with Axl! It reminded me that keeping a schedule is a good thing, and we have implemented a few suggestions regarding room playtime and designated time set aside to play with mom and dad.

The first day of our schedule was magical. He was in time out ONE TIME. Did you hear me??? ONE TIME. I couldn't believe it...and I shouldn't have, ha, because the next days didn't go nearly as smoothly, but still overwhelmingly better than they had been.

So, that's where we are. Trying every day to keep things at bay while Axl moves through this toddler phase. People keep telling me, "I promise it won't last forever" and I just say, "well, I should hope he won't be throwing himself to the floor, baring teeth, screaming wildly when his teacher asks him to wash his hands."

Love you, little guy.