Posessed
I think my son is possessed by the Devil. I swear. He is hitting, kicking, biting, and today he decided to pull my hair. I think Tom said it best - he is "feral". Nothing I have tried helps. Time-outs, smacking his hands, moving him away from the situation, removing myself, a stern rebuke, getting in his face and explaining, restraining him.... Ugh! About the only things I've seen have any effect are keeping him very busy with TONS of attention (not possible on an average day, when I have to cook and clean and do laundry and go grocery shopping and feed the cat and all kinds of things), and then also (Like Amy said), giving lots of attention to the hitee, and talking about how bad it is in front of him. But that's kind of hard when the person being abused is yourself. It helps if I can notice him get that look in his eye... it's kind of a playful look. I guess he thinks he's playing, doing it to see what kind of response he gets, because the response can be pretty excited, I guess. He doesn't seem to want to hurt people, or understand what that means. I know sometimes he does it to get attention, but really, just asking to be picked up will get him some attention, or bringing me a toy. Beth said it was a phase, and the books say that too, but really, I'm getting tired of feeling like I live with a crazy feral monkey that has to be watched every single second.
He is doing some cute things... he put on Tom's shoes yesterday:
And he's climbing everywhere. While I was sweeping the porch, he climbed up onto the patio chair and from there on top of the table, and gave a triumphant cry. Then, of course, he asked for help getting down. He also has figured out he can move and carry heavy things. He dragged the kitchen chair over to the counter. he hasn't figured out he can get on the counter yet, but I'm sure it's coming. I guess the knives have to be moved... somewhere. He tried to lift the air conditioner out of the window, after trying to climb on top of it. *sigh* Guess I'm going to have to find meals that don't take as long to cook, and do some more baby-proofing.
I just never expected to have a kid this wild!!!
He is doing some cute things... he put on Tom's shoes yesterday:
And he's climbing everywhere. While I was sweeping the porch, he climbed up onto the patio chair and from there on top of the table, and gave a triumphant cry. Then, of course, he asked for help getting down. He also has figured out he can move and carry heavy things. He dragged the kitchen chair over to the counter. he hasn't figured out he can get on the counter yet, but I'm sure it's coming. I guess the knives have to be moved... somewhere. He tried to lift the air conditioner out of the window, after trying to climb on top of it. *sigh* Guess I'm going to have to find meals that don't take as long to cook, and do some more baby-proofing.
I just never expected to have a kid this wild!!!