The terrific two's...RIGHT!

Well we've had a tough night.  Mommy had the brilliant idea that we could all watch a movie together as a family and then head to bed.  A great idea, in theory, but way too much stimulation for a little guy who really should have had some more quiet or peaceful play time before going to bed.  

So about 15 minutes into WALL.E, I called it off.

After a pretty resounding, "Noooooooooo.   Want to stay awake."  I calmly explained that "Mommy had a bad idea and it didn't work out so well.  Let's go ahead and slow down.  Mommy will help you get settled in for sleep.  You can do it."  Much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  We try MANY techniques.  All with Mommy doing a pretty darn good job of keeping it cool and being a shining example of "making peaceful choices."  Then WHAM...he clocked me in the face.  Yep, my son, the one that I adore, that I have just been SO unbelievably patient with, hauled off and hit me.  I was furious.  "That's it.  Mommy has been very loving and you just hit me.  I am so sad and angry with your choice.  It is time for sleep and you will need to figure out how to do it on your own."  This would be the second brilliant idea of the night.  

Let's here it for partner intervention.  T. stepped in to see if a change of parental scene would help.  Nope.  Now it was an even bigger response...kicking, hitting, a full fledged two year-old exhaustion inspired control seeking temper tantrum.  UGULY!  It was kind of like an earthquake, if you've ever experienced one, really rough and earth shattering, but relatively quick.  After being held by Daddy and then passed over to Mommy, all the while hearing that his choices were making Mommy and Daddy very sad, that we loved him very much, but would not let him hurt us or himself.  We got some puppy dog eyes and a few slobbery declarations of "sorry Mommy, sorry Mommy" accompanied by the ASL sign for sorry that he used when he was pre-verbal. 

You instantly wonder, what the hell went so wrong?  I know the movie idea was a bad one, but all of the rest of his bed time routine was in place and the movie idea only happened for about 15 minutes before I saw the eminent disaster and called it off.  Is there something wrong?  Is it because he's two?  A boy? Exhausted?  Do they all act like this?  Or is it just my son?  

Shortly there after he was sound asleep, but woke up throughout the night and then was a grouchy bear upon awakening.  Oh joy.  Where did this little tyrant come from?  Oh yeah, me!  Back to the books and the blogs for insight.  There are many ideas and resources and I feel armed with techniques.  A trip to the playground though settles my fears of total child rearing failure as I observe that, for the most part, they are all little cave people.  They march around ignoring each other, pushing boundaries of physical space or flat out bonking each other on the head and claiming ownership of the coveted new Lego piece while all (or most) of the mommies and daddies do their best to intervene.  Watching these little precious people all puffed up trying to make sense of everything in their world and trying even harder to be big was touching.  No wonder he had a total meltdown.  

The solution for today:  lots of reading together, some extra snuggle time, NO MOVIES and plenty of rest.  Oh yes, and toddler gates for his room so that if he wakes up in the night he isn't roaming the cave looking for his next thing to conquer.  I'll let you know how it goes.