Our little angel....

Here we are, mother and son.... isn't that a sweet little face he has? He's saying "CHEEESE!" Well, you might think he looks innocent, but inside that cute little face of his is a two year old! I never believed anybody when they used say "terrible twos" I thought it was all their fault for not being good parents. Ha! Looks whose laughing now - not me!

Will turned two the end of April, and we've had an interesting past few months. The inner 2 year old has emerged, and it isn't pretty. I'm sure it's not my parenting style, I've read all the books, done all the research, so basicall, I'm a perfect mother... ha! Again, look whose laughing - not me! Every day I ask myself... where did we go wrong? Have we not given him enough choices, is he getting enough positive attention, and positive reinforcement? Is he sleep deprived? Are we spoiling him too much? Does he need to run outside and burn off more energy? Should I just forget it when he throws a monsterous fit everytime we leave the house because he doesn't want to put on his shoes.... who cares about shoes, and why is it such a big deal if he doesn't wear any (because people look at you funny in the store if your child has a dirty face and is shoeless... not good)?

Or, how about the other day when I told him it was time for lunch and and suddenly he collapsed on the floor, tears raging, and screaming hysterically. What does that mean? And who cries over lunch? I'm always thrilled at meal times... I think those are MY own issues though. OR, even better, any sort of hint at the word bed or naptime.... don't even go there. So, where has my angel gone? I know he's trapped up inside that adorable body somewhere, I can't wait until he comes back..... and I must say, the two's are not ALL bad. We have our wonderful, inspiring, loving moments too, thank goodness, or else I don't think I could muster my way through the next 18 years. My apologies go out to all mothers of 2 year olds.... actually just to ALL mothers. And my apologies for all the people Will has glared at and said "NO!" so defiantly when I tell him to say "Hi!" or "Bye!" - we're working on manners..... :)
I'm almost done rambling, I promise... but let me leave you with this little diddy. As I enjoyed some time after church today, it got very quiet. I was upstairs changing my clothes and thought to myself... "it is WAY too quiet for anything good to be happening downstairs." So I called to Will: "What are you doing Will?" and I got a scary reply "I'm just getting something in your purse!" So, of course I finished changing, grabbed my camera, walked downstairs, and found my whole purse dumped out, lotion open, other feminine things open, and starburst wrappers scattered about, and WILL with his mouth full of starbursts. I don't know how many he ate, the wrappers were too small to tell. He just smiled at me so innocently and said "Cheeeeese!"
This is after some clean-up - and Will did a great job of putting things back where he found them. He even took all the wrappers to the garbage without me asking him. See? There's the little boy I know!

Who are you looking at? Me? Oh I couldn't ever be doing anything mischievious or sneaky, I'm way too innocent for anything like that! This starburst in my hands? I don't know where it came from, didn't you give it to me, since I ate all my lunch? Oh you didn't, oh well. It sure is tasty!