the terrible twos.

the terrible twos are no joke. also it's more like the terrible almost-twos at our house. the last week or so has been a real challenge with bennett. he is starting to assert his independence more and more and it's causing major meltdowns when he simply can't do what he wants. the primary triggers are getting in the car seat and/or stroller and having to hold my hand while walking. he goes limp, drops to the ground, screams, hits, etc. it's extremely frustrating and he has been testing my patience every day. (by the way, i'm miserably failing that test.) i feel like every fun outing turns into a battle and leaves both bennett and me in tears and exhausted.

while i know that this is normal and age-appropriate, i definitely feel defeated and don't like that i have started to almost dread doing fun things with bennett because i'm anticipating the meltdowns. the sad part is that the fits are such a small fraction of the time but the intensity makes it feel like the whole day was a bust. that's where i need to work on maintaining perspective. it's not helpful or fair to throw the baby out with the bath water. i'm thinking joe and i would benefit from reading a book on parenting/discipline so that we have a framework that we can go off of when bennett acts up. for the most part we are on the same page and are consistent but any new suggestions on how to handle discipline couldn't hurt! any book suggestions? i have heard good things about parenting with love and logic...

thank the Lord (seriously) that hunter is such an easy baby and sleeps like a champ. last night he slept 10 til 6:30! not bad for 6 weeks old, huh? 

i truly think God knows i need to be rested to manage bennett without completely losing my mind.

lucky for him he's so cute...