Nearly all of my closest friends have children older than V and they’ve all warned me that the twos are smooth sailing compared to the threes. We’re about four and a half months from the threes, and little signs are starting to sprout.

Overall, we can’t complain. V is still a very happy little boy with one heck of a sense of humor. About once a week we have a meltdown of some sort that typically doesn’t last very long and is usually the fault of the parental units. Perhaps we let him slide on a nap – or we’ve played too long and too hard and neglected to make sure he’s had plenty to eat and drink, or the Husband and I may have been bickering in front of him, which he always picks up on and emulates in his attitude. Thankfully, the Husband and I are pretty good about rarely bickering in V’s presence … but all it takes is once.

A few of the recent challenges we’ve been dealing with include:

  • V’s sudden desire to watch television all of the time. It’s summer, thankfully, so there’s plenty of things we can find to distract him from the TV, but his development of a whining little attitude about it is nothing short of annoying – comparable to finger nails on a chalk board. Ugh.
  • Ongoing – actually, escalated challenges with bed time. He’s learning to manipulate a bit more cleverly each week. He’s now added “my tummy hurts” to his repertoire, which the Husband falls for each and every time. That, and he’s now refusing to actually sleep in his bed. Last night he spent the entire night sleeping on the floor next to his bed. Doesn’t really bother me, so long as he sleeps in his room – which is now a rare occasion. Ugh again.
  • Food. The kid is obsessed with candy and cookies. We don’t typically keep these things in the house, but he goes to see Grandma or Auntie – among other places – and that’s all it takes. He’s gone from being a child that loves fruits and vegetables to one that won’t touch them. He asks for a cookies about twenty times a day – that and Yogos, which he calls “yogurt balls.”

When V was an infant and teething, my mom always told me that in order to get through it I should poor a shot of brandy, dip my finger in it and rub it on V’s gums, and then take the rest of the shot myself. It worked like a dream! Being that we’re just on the cusp of the terrible threes, I’m thinking that wine …. plenty of wine will do the trick. I’d better stock up my wine rack!