Bossy Sunday

From the moment Sam awoke on this beautiful sunny day - he has been loud and very bossy. Demanding loudly - not requesting/asking to do things or have things. It started with wanting to go outside at 8:45AM - Don and I barely had our eyes open (ie: caffiene/coffee) much less being ready to 'talk' with anyone. Mind you, we HAVE to be ready to talk usually at 7AM or so - it is NEVER a casual/gentle morning. Today just seemed to be as though someone snuck in and gave him 5 Red Bulls on top of his usual behavior - (Uncle John???) we told Sam daddy had to eat and get dressed. Yelling ensued as though the world completely revolves around him - sometimes if you say "First -------, THEN --------" it works - NOT today - NOT in the least bit!!!!! So it was unbearably loud and unenjoyable until he got his way. There is NO getting through to him when he is like this - he does NOT hear what you have to say - SO if we have the time and ENERGY to wait it out (with throwing, yelling, kicking etc for however long......) we do so in order for him to understand it does NOT get his way by doing this. But when you have days where EVERY little thing is handled like this by Sam - you simply cannot muster the energy to fight out every battle. It is exhausting to say the least. EXHAUSTING.

I am giving in to things as a mother that I am very against - he usually gets his watered down juice in bed - I am a BIG advocate for only water in bed if anything. However, it is NOT worth him waking his little sister next door NOR is it worth having another half-hour/45 min battle over a drink. I VERY much dislike this and many other power struggles that we have. But when your life is constantly involving this type of behavior - you CHOOSE your battles depending on conditions. Another problem with this is his sister - she will begin to think some things are ok or 'not fair' if Sam is getting his way with something but not her. So, when she is awake and I don't have to worry about her being awakened - I typically work through the painful meltdown to get the point across with Sam. Unfortunately she can be in the line of fire - so I'm usually lugging Sam to his room several times or doing whatever it takes to keep her safe.

Well - thats it for now - maybe I'll add more later and maybe I won't:-)