I've learned that the terrible two's actually begin in the second year of life - as in right now. Dexter still isn't over his cold and has been completely manic. One moment he's happy and laughing, the next he's screaming bloody murder. It's so draining to deal with. I'm trying all sorts of techniques to try and get him to cheer up, but sometimes I just can't figure out what's wrong. I think it's going hand in hand with the fact we understand some of what he says. He doesn't have words for everything yet though, so it must be frustrating to have a couple things understood and nothing else.
He is starting to communicate much better though. When he's hungry, he runs to the refrigerator and pokes the door along with a loud whine or stands behind the booster seat in his chair at the table when it's around mealtime. He loves to brush his teeth, so he points to his toothbrush. Sometimes he wants a bath, so he points into the tub and says "ba! ba!". He still likes his broom and will just say "broom" because we understand that. He also says the usual "dog, "ball" and "boo(k)". I really should have started a first word diary because he says a lot of things already. The funniest "word" he has is for us to play music - he does raspberries - psbpsbpsb. All because of a song by Barry Louis Polisar, You Can't Say PsbPsbPsb on the Radio.
I'm thinking about converting the crib to a toddler bed. He gets in and out of our bed with no problem, and he's going to bed so easy these days. He does still wake up in the middle of the night, but he usually puts himself back to sleep. My only issue is that he wakes up sometime between 4-5:30am and he's adamant about sleeping in bed with me. I give in easily because I'll do anything to get another hour of sleep. He then usually spends 30 minutes playing with my hair before either finally going back to sleep or waking up for the day. At least in a toddler bed, I won't have to get up. Perhaps at 15 months I'll do it.
Speaking of 15 months, Dexter just turned 14 months. He's a pretty cool kid. I love him to death even when he is a pain in the wahoo. I'm hoping his current bout of tantrums will subside a bit, so we can feel sociable again. I don't feel like hanging out with people too much when he's as unpredictable as he has been. We'll see. It seems to be getting better as he recovers from his cold. Thankfully, all his new teeth are nearly completely through the gums now so we won't have teething issues again for a while.
