Little Angel, Little Monster

Last week we had Liam's Spring Parent-Teacher conference. They talked about how laid-back he is, real easy, gets along easily and can play well by himself, too. He's assertive, but not aggressive. Things don't rattle him. They don't ever hear Liam cry. We were so proud.

That's at school.

Yesterday, we got a big dose of Mr. Assertive. He is testing us and fighting for control. He's counting on his will outlasting ours.

Yesterday morning Will was feeding him breakfast and Liam wasn't eating much (very unusual, I know), so he had all kinds of things out on the highchair tray for him. Liam was done and rared his arm back to throw a piece of cheese and Will said, "no, Liam." He threw it anyway, looking Will straight in the eye. Will took his arm, held it firmly, and said, "no, Liam, we don't throw." Liam got very upset. Will was holding his arm (as Liam was grabbing for other fod to throw) and cleaning up all the food off the tray to get it out of his way.

Will got him out of the chair and Liam was looking for things to throw and threw his cup. Will took everything out of his way that was accessible, so Liam, frantic and angry, went to the door and grabbed it and bit it, yelling. He was so angry. So, Will closed the door and Liam got on the floor and rolled around to get it out. Wow. Will was pretty stunned. I am, too.

Last night, Liam started the same thing with me - not eating and wanting to throw his food. So, I did the same, held his arm, said no, got him out of the chair. He didn't bite the door this time, but he did get on the floor and roll around upset and crying. Big sigh, draining. I just let him get it out and then we went downstairs to play and have a change of scenery.

Bedtime is presenting the same battle of wills. He typically goes to bed so easily. Well, not this week, he wants to be held and have us with him. So, last night (for the 2nd night) he cried it out for about 30 minutes and woke up again an hour later and cried it out some more. We just let him cry it out because we knew he was trying to wear us down.

At 4:30, he woke up and we decided to give him a bottle. When Will walked into his room, he said it smelled like puke (I was in there with Liam, but my sinuses are so congested I couldn't smell anything). I felt the bed, it felt dry, but I could feel something on the floor, but it was dried. We didn't want to turn on the light, so we didn't do anything about it since he was okay. Will put him back to bed after the bottle, he cried it out SOME MORE (about 20 minutes) and then slept like a little angel until this morning.

I peeked in at 7 before I left and sure, enough he had thrown up - he was obviously standing up holding on the the side of his crib screaming last night, angry at us, and screamed until he threw up. Man, he has a strong will.

Will said surely we'll have this worked out in a few months. I think this battle of wills will only end once he's grown and out of the house and it's not our responsibility any more.

So, in the meantime, this precious little laid-back angel is fighting for his rights and testing us with all his might. I hope he's going through the terrible two's early and that Will's right about this being a phase. Otherwise, he is so sweet and precious and so much fun. We are just having these moments...