Terrible Twos

It's not all smiles and sunshine these days in the Murray family. Landon has decided that it is time for him to test the boundaries, and in the past few days he has thrown two full blown tantrums, just like the ones you see on TV! And, of course, those tantrums were in the middle of Home Depot, with Aaron and Costco, with me. To add to the delightfulness, he has decided that he does not want to take a nap anymore, and he will fight us on even just laying down on his bed. I've tried a few different wrestling moves to get him to lay down, but somehow I always end up on the losing end of that deal, and yesterday he gave me a backwards head butt that gave me a decent lip injury. He has also learned how to open the child-proof door handles, and surprised us at 5am Saturday morning, ready to start his day. Yikes. It all adds up to lots of prayers for wisdom and patience.

I love the boy, but recently I don't like him that much at certain times throughout the day. It's bizarre how a little two year old can have such a big personality and be ready to test a parent on who is in charge so early on. In the pictures below, notice how the bed is empty, and Landon is sprawled on the floor under his blankets. This picture was taken after he fought a nap for two hours, and when he decided that he was going to assert his independence and change into pajama pants, and sleep on the floor (so there!). The day before he also fought his rest time, and I found him standing up, leaning over the side of his bed, where he had apparently been sleeping just moments before. Many times I have wished for a video monitoring system so I could watch the drama unfold (unfortunately, all of the video monitors I have purchased have not worked in our house, for various reasons, so we just use the audio ones for both boys).