New toddler in town

Judah has thrust full throttle in to toddler hood this past week. He's exploring fit throwing tactics that are new to us, as parents, and has got a scream that will bring attention to a mile of surrounding neighborhoods. This boy is opinionated! Elijah has always had a temper, but his expression of it when he was 18 months old was much more subdued than Judah's. I'm sure there's more than just personality to account for. Judah has an older brother to watch. He copies EV ER Y THING that Elijah does and tends to mimic Elijah's fits and then dare to take them to a whole new level. Even Elijah just sits and watches in wonderment as Judah experiments with how shrill he can make himself sound when he's upset. He's asserting his independence, and when he feels that is threatened he pronounces to the world his disbelief that anyone should have an say in his behavior. This morning I made hot cereal for breakfast. The boys LOVE their hot cereal. Lately Judah has been growing ever so discontent with me feeding him....ANYTHING, or even helping him eat. He seems to believe that he's perfectly capable of running his own utensils no matter what the consistency of food he's dealing with. We sat down to eat and I scooped up a bite and extended it toward him. The screaming started instantly (the above picture is not from today...clearly), as he thrashed this way and that in his chair. He slapped the table with both hands while yelling indiscriminate sounds at me. He made his point. I sat watching him, bewildered at how such a little body can cause such a racket and asked him if he wanted to try. He quieted down and said, "mmhm", so I slid the bowl over. He devoured a couple of bites, his bib taking more of the cereal in than his mouth, and then clearly took great pleasure in how the cereal slid off his spoon onto his lap. He scooped up a hefty dollop on his spoon and slapped it down on the table. The spoon was hurled as his hands came down with force on to the cereal on the table. He smeared it all around, all the while concentrating with great discipline. Elijah stared at the ritual and then looked at me with a look that said, "So...what are you going to do about it, Mom? I mean, really? You're going to just watch that happen. Psh!" I sighed and reached over to take the spoon and bowl from Judah. I told him, "no no", and scooped up another bite of cereal for him. Breakfast continued this way for ten minutes or so. I took breaks now and then to finish off my bowl before it got cold as Judah worked himself in to such a tissy about not being in charge of his own breakfast that he didn't even want to feed himself anymore. All in all, in more than 30 minutes, he had only 3 full bites of cereal. He'd stop screaming now and then if something distracted him and then when I'd sit back down to ask if he wanted a bite the rage would bubble back up. I supposed he was done and asked him. He reassured me, "dah done". I cleaned him up and he went and played. He was plenty hungry by snack time. This isn't the first time this little firecracker has blown. And it really is only with food. If he's not able to feed it to himself he really wants nothing to do with it. He's demanding independence, full scale! I'd let the child feed himself the hot cereal (and other like consistencies) if I knew they weren't going to end up on all the walls. If even he'd let me help him. But if he's going in for a bite and I reach out to take his hand and help the whole earth gives way. Lord knows I'm not going to be the mother who's children sits by and watch as I scrub their dinners off the floor and walls because they felt like flinging it all about. Perhaps I seem a horribly controlling mother to some of you, but I will NOT have wasted food for the sake of playing. Does that mean we don't have fun at the table? Certainly not. We have plenty of fun, just not at the expense of the food. My children play all day and have endless possibilities of playtime imagination when they are not at the table. The table is for eating, not foolish wastefulness.

That being said, I've thoroughly enjoyed watching Judah transform out of his baby-ness. He's precious and blesses mine and Josh's and Elijah's lives daily.