Turning the Corner

Writing this post is the blogging equivalent of asking for trouble.  And yet, I'm writing it anyway.  While knocking furiously on wood.  I wanted to capture what it feels like to turn the corner between two and three.

Jude's behavior has changed recently.  It's been over two weeks since he had his last the-world-is-ending, out-of-control, snot-slinging tantrum.  He is reasonable.  He will take "no" for an answer.  We don't have to fight with him about every. little. thing. he needs to do in a day.

This is not to say he's suddenly an easy child.  He still cries and protests, and we need to think carefully about how we approach him.  The difference is that the cries fade in a matter of a few minutes, and he can move on from the thing he thought he NEEDED to something else that would be good enough.

We no longer have to bribe him to get into his car seat.  He hops right in and lets us buckle him up without arching his back and twisting out of the way.  It's just not something that triggers a fight anymore.

Turning off the TV to eat a meal is accepted with a casual "Ok".  No screaming for Just One More Show or kicking and flailing on the floor.

Changing clothes is no longer an issue, most of the time.  He'll let us change his shirt and pants if they are dirty, and put on PJs at bedtime.  This was emphatically NOT the case last month.  He would wear the same shirt for days and days, and insist on sleeping in his play clothes.

Yesterday, he wanted to play a certain game that has too many small pieces to be safe for Ada.  He REALLY wanted to play, but Ada was in a mood herself, and only wanted to be in that exact area where we could play the game, and so I wouldn't let him play.  I admit it was sort of an experiment to see what he would do.  After a brief bout of crying, he pulled himself together and said "Let's play a blocks game instead".  This would NEVER have happened a month ago.

We still have a lot of behavioral work to do.  Jude can be pushy with other kids, and we can't really set him loose in a crowd.  He throws things.  He tests boundaries.  He is careless with Ada's safety, and kicks her away when she intrudes on his personal space.

This change in him is huge, though.  It makes everything else seem so much easier to tackle.