the lessons they teach us...

this morning, we had to leave mass halfway through the homily because nolan started "la la la"-ing and when i asked him to be quite and listen, he got much, much louder. toddlerhood! *said shaking fist

later tonight, while eating dinner, nolan started screaming/yelling (we're cycling through that lovely phase again) and tried (i successfully caught it) flipping his plate of food upside down (another lovely, lovely trick of his lately). ugh.

yes, i realize that he was tired, had been processing (all. day. long.) a crazy busy, slightly overstimulating day yesterday and he was DONE skyping with grandma while trying to focus on dinner, but still...i don't do yelling and plate flipping.

by this point (with a couple other episodes throughout the day), i was OVER IT. i raised my voice and said, "NO!" and some other stuff i can't remember.

he didn't stop.

how many times am i going to lose my patience and try that? it never works! anyway, after i talked to him for minute and acknowledged what was going on and got off the computer, he calmed down.

a few minutes later, i was doing something. trying to get him to eat something or not do something, i don't remember (sometimes life with a 2-year-old is a blur :D) and he yelled, "NO!" at me and this is what i said:

"nolan, yelling 'no' isn't going to get you anything that you want. that isn't how we communicate to each other in this house."

...

oh, the lessons they teach us...listen to your own advice, mom.

i apologized and we went on to have a rather lovely dinner where i finished my food and so did he. yet another reminder for me to take a breath, assess what is going on and address it appropriately. easier said than done, i realize...but a goal.