your attention, please : by amy

Lately, Logan's been...irritable.  He is still his silly self 90% of the time, but something is off.  He showed sudden and extreme separation anxiety on Sunday when we dropped him off at the nursery-- vomiting and clingy-ness.  He's been having mini-meltdowns on the kitchen floor.  He's been grabbing my hand and demanding that I follow his orders, "or else" (i.e. mini-meltdown).

Is it because he had 3 shots on Friday?  Is it because his molars are coming in?  Is it because I'm working too much??  (haha, I always use this as an excuse...see past blog post).  Are these the terrible-not-even-twos??  Whatever it is, it's been sort of sucking.  

So, how does one respond to this whacky behavior?  Most of the time, I show tough love and am not afraid to use say "NO," or "Mmm Mmm! *shaking head*" or bust out the hissing Korean sound.  If he's being crabby on the kitchen floor for no valid reason, I typically leave him alone.  I'm not going to let him fool me with his dog and pony show!  I'll show him who's the real boss in this house!

Right?

Or, am I supposed to look at him in the eye and say, "Logan, I can see you are very upset right now.  Can you please try to understand that although I want to play with you, I need to finish preparing your dinner?"  Or, should I pick him up and give him hugs to make him feel better?  (btw, my hugs don't seem to calm him down).  Or, should I give in because maybe this is his way of telling me "MOM, you spend all day at the office.  I want you to play with me NOW"?  Man, he's so good at guilt-tripping me...

I think the answer is sort of a mix of all of the above.  Sometimes, if Logan is acting up, I'll tell him, "Logan, I know you are mad, but I need to finish what I'm doing.  You have to WAIT.  Please wait for umma."  Then, I'll let him scream and cry.  He typically gets over it once the next distraction comes around.  Not sure if this is the "right" thing to do, but it's what I do.  

How do you ummas deal with difficult toddler behavior?

I'm going back to Cali (for the first time) : by amy

Going to have to keep this one short because I'm 1) watching Obama and Mittens duke it out again and 2) need to finish packing for our trip to California.  Hard to believe that this will be my first trip to Cali, right?  We are going to San Diego and Irvine to see our beloved friend, Neah, get married.  Hopefully Logan will stay awake for some of the wedding.  Given the time change, we are expecting to have some early evenings in the hotel-- perfect opportunity to catch up on movies I've wanted to watch over the past year or watch a Korean drama.  But I won't waste my days in Cali in front of the tube.  We'll probably check out the zoo, Balboa Park, the New Children's Museum, a beach, numerous taco joints and In n' Out.

But before I can even really plan that,  I'm a bit terrified for the 6 hour plane ride.  Logan, while typically a pretty good kid, is an active toddler.  I can only arm myself and pray.  We bought Logan his own seat on the plane, some new toys and books, packed a bunch of squeezy packs and snacks, and...I bought an iPad.  It's my last resort.  It pains me to put him in front of the iPad for more than 20 minutes, but I will do what is necessary to get us (and everyone else on our plane) to San Diego in a sane state of mind.  I was going to get an iPad eventually anyway, so this just seemed like an opportune time to execute.  In fact, I am writing this post on my new iPad!

Wow, Obama just reminded Mittens that we don't use horses in our military.

Gotta end it here.  Back to packing!  
Blogged from my iPad.