First girlfriend

Elliott gets along really well with the daughter of my friend who watches Elliott occasionally.  This is what she sent me today :

"Hannah and Elliott hand in hand just came into the living room smiling. Hannah says I kissed him and he gave me a hug now he needs the gate open so I can show him my room."

Then she says she found them inbed together  haha 

Soaking up the park!

Little helper

These days Elliott loves anything that he does on his own and that makes him feel useful.  He refuses to let me feed him most of the time now of course.  I suppose he's way too old to be fed but sometimes it's just so messy that I wish he would let me feed him that hot soup!

 Some things he likes to help with are putting dishes away, throwing trash away, wiping the table, turning off his toys and putting them away, and helping put his shoes and coat on.  Of course these are all followed by claps of self-admiration!

Right now I am working on my second case study out of 2 that we have to work on and prepare to answer unknown questions about for our final.  The first case featured schizophrenia and this case focuses on issues with multiple sclerosis.  I have been working since 10 am and I have had a few hours break throughout the day but not much!  I can hear Elliott saying "hi" and Jared is saying "hi" back, to which he responds, "hi".  So far they have both said "hi" to each other at least 3 times in a row : )

10 minutes later : Jared is outside taking the trash to the curb and I can hear Elliott first whining downstairs, and then I hear little feet running back and forth into the living room looking for him out the windows

Monster in my closet...

Recent iPhone

Movies

Elliott is going through his language burst and along with that his comprehension of emotions and things he sees is a lot more in depth.  it's funny watching movies with him at night before bed now because he will see a boat sink in the water on an animated show and go "Uh Oh", or the hero will suddenly appear alive and well and he will clap and be happy about it.  It's funny how he would even know that those things are sad or happy moments when the music isn't even that dramatic or scary.  I've also been able to talk to him and have him do things more, like telling him to turn things off after he uses them and I don't even point at it but he understands and will do it.  Or today I told him to go around the slide to go back down and he just does it.

In tantrum news...

He's still tantrums but it's gotten slightly better the last few days.  Whether it's because I have been trying a few different tactics or if he was just teething or something, nobody will ever know, but he definitely has a slightly more testy personality than some others.  Normal testiness for a 2 year old but he can be a little more dramatic and clingy than other kids when we go places in groups, like at the monthly social today.  My arms definitely did not get a rest this morning!

Tantrums

Terrible two's, front and center!

I've been directed toward the Happiest Toddler on the Block book to deal with tantrums and toddler behavior so I've been reading that and it is helping me understand how to approach him better.  Lately he has been tantruming on average 5-10 times a day and Jared and I are nearing the end of our patience.  Or maybe we crossed that border a few days ago...but in any case, I need to get this under control because he spends a good 75% of the day in tears, crying, or whining.  I just laugh when people ask what his triggers are because this week off the top of my head it was carrying him into our bedroom (trigger), giving him a sandwich (trigger), taking his nutrigrain bar out of the wrapper (trigger), and many more mundane, harmless actions.  These days I can look at him wrong and he will flip out.  We're talking floor crumpling, body flailing, rolling around on the floor screaming, snot flying everywhere, sobbing for almost an hour until we gag type of tantrums.  Many many times a day.  Time to take swift action!  At least while reading this I am enlightened but also feeling slightly ahead of the game because we emphasize sign language in our house, which was suggested as a technique in the book.  And the reason behind trying to teach him signs, from my perspective, was to help prevent toddler frustration with communication as well as the obvious language-building benefits.  We just finished the Baby Signing Time class which was more for my benefit than Elliott's but I think we both learned a good amount in a short time.