When yes means no and no means yes

When T was in the fierce, uncontrollable grip of tantrum land (a place he still occasionally loves to vacation, apparently), I just kept telling myself - 'it will end, it's just a phase, this too shall pass' - over and over. And to be honest; gradually, slowly, things got better. I got a lot of advice from well meaning people, a lot of it good. Anything was worth a try. What works with T today may not work next week but might work in a month. Who knows? (I sure don't!) But once you can find a way to break through the frustration and help him tell you what's wrong, he will calm down almost immediately.

So, there are going to be a lot of big changes soon. And we are trying to prepare him - talking about the house and how great it will be to have a yard and to be able to go outside whenever we want. And he's totally on board with that. I am really, really, realllllllly hoping that things will continue to go smoothly. The worst thing is that there will be no more Disney playhouse channel. We have tons of movies and Thomas the Train DVD's, but he's all about the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. For the first week or two, he'll be too excited about all the outside time to worry about TV. But our first really rainy, yucky day, I'm afraid he'll zoom off to tantrum land and stay for a while. We'll see.

Not to go unnoticed, the divine Miss S is developing her lungs as T's second in command. Be afraid, be very afraid. I know I am. In the commissary today, she was pretty much unmanageable, shrieking and wailing and screeching - not because anything was wrong, not because we denied her a cookie/toy/cereal/candy/grapes - just because she felt like it. And the stares - oh my goodness. To make it worse - when she decides she's done with the screaming (which sounds like we are shoving flaming bamboo shoots under her fingernails) she then smiles, giggles, and blows kisses at everyone we pass. You can literally see the dark cloud over R's and my heads. Siiiiigh.....

So, today as T had a nice sojourn to TantrumLand and S followed his departure and return with the opera of eternal screeching, R and I drug our frustrated, put out behinds home muttering under our breath about the unfairness of parenting and how the entire idea of the Brady Bunch and Leave it Beaver have ruined all parents like us for the harsh reality that kids can be completely impossible for absolutely no reason at all other than they feel like it. Later on as I was trying to cook dinner and talk to Papa, T decided he wanted to talk to Papa too. It's one of those things that make no sense. He's all about talking to Papa when Papa isn't on the phone. Put Papa on the phone and you are very likely to receive a defiant "NO" and assorted annoying noises when you try to get T to say hello. I hope that Papa doesn't take it personally, but it's a bit embarrassing. Today, the phone gods were on my side as T took the phone and chatted (mid-tantrum, mind you) with Papa and just happened to admit within my and R's earshot that indeed, he says yes when he means no and no when he means yes. BUSTED! If T were aware of this as a possible response, I have no doubt that T would reply 'because I feel like it' as a reason why he does this. I think Papa is still laughing about this and will be for a while. I have to laugh too, which will undoubtedly come back and bite me. Painfully. And probably soon.