Wow, these are Terrible Twos

Lately Hamslice has been fighting his nap routine quite a bit. Evidently when he is at home he thinks it's a napless wonderland of cuddling with Mommy. Mommy, of course needs a little break in the afternoons.

Today I put him down for a nap at 12:30. At 1:15 he was still screaming his fool head off and throwing things at the door. When I went in to check on him, I saw a wonderland of destruction:

First step inside the door, I crunch down on his shattered night light. OW.

Second step in the door, I am surprised to see him completely naked.

Third step in the door, I am overwhelmed by the smell of poopy.

Fourth step in the door, I step into the poopy from step 3.

I must admit that I lost my cool a little bit after step 4. We cleaned up and put on a new diaper, I changed my socks, and put him down. Wouldn't you know it, he was snoring in three minutes.

Hmmm. Let's have TWO kids. Yowza.

Jingle Bells

How in the world did Hamslice hear about Christmas so early? I've never seen someone so completely za za over the season in my life. He is in love with the song "Jingle Bells" and sings it constantly. It's to the point now where he sings that song almost as much as he sings the jingle from the Luna Carpet commercial.

He also refuses to drink out of non-Christmas themed cups, and has become infatuated with a Christmas tree ornament he found in the cupboard the other day. All activities are framed with "Can I do this even though it's not Christmas Yet?"

It's cute, but I am starting to wonder if our plane ride to Michigan this December will include rousing choruses of Jingle Bells (One horse open sleigh... HEY!).

Our last ride was a study in how many times he could sing "happy birthday to you" and I'm still a little unsettled by that.

Terrible Twos

So my sweet baby boy has started coming into his own opinions about how the world ought to run. Lately we've started seeing full-on tantrums that include throwing things, and lying facedown on the floor kicking, punching the ground, and screaming.

To counteract this new phase, we have instituted the "naughty chair" which seems to be effective in a random and arbitrary way. Sometimes he sits in there sulking for ten minutes, other times he goes into the chair joyfully, shouting "Sorry" on his way there, so he only needs to touch his bottom in the chair before going back to play.

To further complicate things, he is also starting to potty train. Sometimes we send him to the naughty chair, but he says he needs to go potty. So then what??

Clearly we're out of our depths here...