Mixing it up

Beau has become a typical, terrible, trying, testing two-year-old toddler. He's gone from such a chilled out, happy little baby, to a very demanding little man. And he just smiles or laughs at you and says "Funny" when you tell him off! And it is SO hard to keep a straight face!

I've pretty much resorted to mixing it up. Bribe, threat, feed, sleep, bribe, threat, bribe.

This week I was talking to a friend outside our toy library while her son and the Little Lawrences played in the front garden. Beau came up to me and said "Mummy pick up?", to which I replied "No, Beau. You're too heavy. You can have a play with Jasmine and Charlie or you can stand here with me. After asking another, oh, TEN TIMES in the following THIRTY SECONDS and receiving the same answer he realised that I actually wasn't going to pick him up. At which point, he walked past my friend and I, across the footpath, and straight onto the road into oncoming traffic!!!! Where he knew I would come and pick him up! Which I did - because I had to!

My friend said to me, "He's lucky he's so cute".

The last time we visited the toy library they had a ride-on-tractor on the floor (his favourite) which he barrelled around, running over small children and into mothers' shins the whole time I was choosing toys (and pretending he didn't belong to me). When it was time to leave, and he realised we weren't taking the 2 meter long tractor with us (I mean, seriously, we have the biggest station wagon in the southern hemisphere and I doubt it would have fit in the boot), he threw the mother of all tantrums and clung to it for dear life. I ended up having to prise every finger and limb off it one by one (he was like an octopus with those suction things on it), and then got hit and kicked all over my head and upper body while I carried him out over my shoulder.

Oh, and did I mention the time he had such a whopping tantrum that he bit a hole in the wall? IN THE WALL? He actually bit a chunk out of the corner of our kitchen wall. I was so cross with him that for the first minute I didn't even care whether the white stuff crumbling out of his mouth was teeth or plaster.

So you can guess how much I'm looking forward to the 30 hour trip to Canda in 5 and a half weeks' time. And the 40 hour trip home. I read a great word for it in the paper this morning... Flightmare.

Inappropriate Parenting

Where to start on a topic like this... so much material to work with.

Well how about, teaching my darling 4 year old some letters of the alphabet this morning. We were playing an alphabet game (OK, so it was on the iPad - inappropriate parenting part 1 - outsourcing learning to a machine), and we got to the letter D.

What's D for mummy?
D is for dog, and dragon, and dinosaur, and um... drunk.

Breakfast attire

Is there enough pink in the world for our four year old girl? This is how Jasmine dressed herself this morning...

Water can-ing

One of Beau's favourite things to do right now is "water can-ing", which involves me filling up his watering can 50 million times and then watching him water the deck/his toys/the grass/his shoes. But this afternoon the mint managed a few drops too.