It's A Tough Job Being 2, But By Golly, Someone's Gotta Do It!

It was yet another day of tempers and tantrums here at the Menagerie House today. Oh, and Liam was up every hour on the hour last night. Toys were thrown, the word "NO" was used frequently by everyone today, and naptime was way.too.short.

But! There is some good news! I think I have figured out at least part of the reason for Liam's crankiness. After really watching him yesterday and today, it became obvious to me that he's really, really mad at how many things he can't do. He can't put his socks on by himself. He can't feed the fish by himself. He can't make a sandwich by himself. He can't open the fridge by himself. He knows how to do all of these things, but he's too short, or too little, or too uncoordinated, to actually do them. Life's awfully darn hard for a guy who has a clear vision of how things should play out, but who can't physically do many of those things.

This afternoon, Liam became quite angry with me when he discovered that I had taken his sippy cup of soy milk downstairs. He declared he was going to take it upstairs. Alone. Bear in mind he's too small to climb the stairs while holding something; he has to put his hands on the stairs to climb. He made it up one stair and collapsed in tears.

Liam: "NO! NO! NO!"

Me: "Do you want some help?"

Liam (pounding fists and kicking): "NO! Baby Duck must carry milk BY SELF!!"

He gave the whole endeavor another Herculean effort, and then collapsed in my lap.

Me: "Are you mad because you want to do things by yourself and it's too hard to do?"

Liam, lips quivering: "YEEEAAAAH! Baby Duck is just too teeny-tiny. Baby Duck needs Mommy to help him do by self."

The poor kid! It's really got to be hard to realize that he's too teeny-tiny for a lot of things, and this made me realize I need to keep an eye out for things he can do at the moment.

This train of thought led me to ask him if he wanted to go to the duck park down the street, and glory be, he did. After all, who better to feed six baby ducks than Baby Duck himself? He picked out the bread By Self. He picked out his shoes By Self. He found the ducks By Self. He counted the baby ducks By Self. He was looking quite pleased with himself by the end of the excursion.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better than the last couple of days. And hopefully I can find some more things for Baby Duck to do By Self.