MoMo

With all the difficulties of taking care of child in his terrible twos, I find myself desperate trying to redirect what I would think as inappropriate behavior.  Apparently, me saying "don't do that, you'll get hurt," or "stop it, that's not nice," mean nothing to my two-year old son.  Time outs or sending him to his room has been effective for a while...but as I use it more often, it becomes less and less effective.

I've been trying to keep myself from yelling at home, partly because I feel guilty most of the time.  But most of the time, the guilt is overridden by this overwhelming feeling of frustration.  And so the cycle goes on.  In my culture (Filipino), it was not uncommon to scare kids with some imaginary monster character or "MoMo" to curb their behavior.  I know my mom used to tell us that if we're bad, that the witch will come and get us.  In my desperate attempt to feed my son his lunch a couple of days ago, I told him that if he doesn't eat, the "MoMo" will come and get him.  To make it even more believable, I hung a blue glove on our dining room window.  That got his attention, and sure enough, ate the nutella sandwich and banana that I made for him.

Now, every time we eat, he always refers to the "MoMo" watching him.  Though it's been effective the last few days, I fear that someday when it sinks in, that it will cause more problems (i.e. nightmares, night terrors, etc.), and that everything will practically scare him.  I was telling my hubby today that I wish I could skip this phase, or fast forward to the next.  But in retrospect, do I really want to miss anything that my son goes through, no matter how difficult they may be?  I think I just need more time to understand or find better ways to cope.  I just wish that all these "terrible two" behaviors will be over soon.

Sleep is overrated

For a while now, we've been struggling with two important things with Sam:  food and sleep.  My son is a finicky eater.  He wasn't when he was younger, but as he got older, it became harder and harder to get him to eat.  Lots of fruits, no veggies, no meat.  Occasionally, I could get him to eat cheese.  He likes yogurt.  And the only way I can feed him peanut butter is through PB cookies.  I've given up on the food a long time ago.  My thing is, as long as he's eating something, he's growing, and he's not losing weight.  But sleep?  Well, I love my sleep.  And if he has a problem sleeping, so do I.

My hubby and I have slept in separate beds for two nights now.  No, we're not having problems.  It's just that we moved Sam to a bigger room and a bigger bed in the hopes that he will sleep IN HIS OWN BED throughout the night.  You see, when he was in his toddler bed, he will sleep maybe 2-3 hours there, then walk the 10 feet to our room and jump in our bed.  That's not the only issue.  He will not go to sleep or even agree to go to his room if we don't lie down with him.  For my 6' tall husband, curling in a toddler bed isn't easy peasy. So we decided to move him to a full size bed.  It's been at least a week now since we moved him to his new room and new bed.  The first night, he went willingly, but still woke up in the middle of night and walked to our room.  On the second night, he woke up again and I brought him back to his bed where he slept for the rest of the night.  Then we went to our trip to KY.  When we came back, we were all too tired, so he slept on our bed.  The last few nights have been a battle of sorts.  On Tuesday night, I ended up sleeping in Sam's bed because I was too tired to go back to my own bed.  And last night?  Well, Sam went to sleep around 10:30 pm.  I went to bed, watched a little TV, read a magazine, enjoying the peace and quiet.  I was ready to go to sleep around midnight when I heard "mommy."  Sigh.  I ignored it.  Then I heard another call and Sam starts crying.  I told my husband to go and check on him, and as soon as Sam saw his Daddy, he slammed the door.  My husband came back to our room and said, "he slammed the door on me."  Well, I didn't want to leave my bed.  After 5 loads of laundry, a hot day with a screaming child, making dinner, cleaning the kitchen, and all the other chores that I had to do, I was tired.  So we let him cry for 20 minutes hoping he will just go back to sleep.  Nope.  I told my husband to go and put him back to sleep.  He did, and ended up sleeping on Sam's bed for the rest of the night, leaving me alone in our bed.

I understand that Sam's first 2 years of life has been hard.  He never stayed in one place for more than 6-months at a time.  We travelled to Hawaii and back every 4 months it seemed like, that it's hard for Sam to get situated.  Not to mention our recent short travels to Florida, Oklahoma, and Kentucky.  He has been to more states in his two years of life than in my 32 years.  I understand how it must be confusing going through so many time zones every 4 months.  But I love my sleep.  And I hope someday that he will love sleep too and decide to go to bed early and sleep through the night, and wake up at a decent hour.  Because as much as sleep seems overrated to him, Mommy loves her sleep.