Terrible Twos

Welcome to our world- all of the sudden, within the past two weeks, Gab's behavior has completely taken a turn, and it breaks our heart! He was such a happy, easy baby. Up until two weeks ago he would always go and wake Etienne up and love to play on the bed in the morning, but now he'll go and be happy one second and crying the next when things don't go exactly as planned. We used to have days when he would be in a bad mood, but most of the time he was happy. Now, good moods turn into bad in a matter of seconds, and you never know what to expect. He'll be playing with his toys and just get frustrated for no reason. He'll want to do something but not really know what that something is and get upset. I feel that he is always on edge and that we are continuously in opposition with him.

Etienne and I have been worried the past couple days about Gab's behavior, thinking that the new baby is really going to be a shock for him if this continues. We want to spend time with him, but at the same time, he won't let us. We don't know our little guy anymore! Then, we started reading some articles about the Terrible Twos, and apparently, all of this is normal. Children at this age don't know what they want and they need limits to be set. As parents, we are their voices. Something that I read that is also interesting is that up until the age of one and a half, babies imitate their parents, so if their parents are in good moods, they'll imitate that most of the time. However, there has to be a point in time, for developmental reasons, when even if you are in a good mood, the baby has to find his own mood and allow himself to be in a bad mood. One thing we learned that I am going to try from now on, especially at meal times, is to not impose strict limits but to give your child a choice between 2 or 3 things. That way, limits are imposed, but he still has a choice within those limits. Gab can shake his head yes or no, so I know he understands us. I had been doing this a little, asking him for example after a meal if he wanted a yogurt. Etienne wasn't really in agreement with my giving him a choice but now agrees that it's a good idea to allow him to pick between a few things. Wow, colic, getting up twice a night for feedings, cleaning up spit up were all so easy compared to this stage! The new baby will be a vacation for us!!! I just hope we get our little Gab back soon and that he is not traumatized by growing up. As a mother, it has been really hard for me to see him changing and going through this stage of opposition, but at the same time, there will be many, many more instances of this in the future, so the Terrible Twos are there to prepare us for those!