opposite boy

Two and a half year olds. I think I blanked out just how frustrating they can be, but here we are again.

We are deep in toddler tantrum hell at the geeky house. It started a while ago. 
Back then I still thought geekyboy would be a milder child than his firey sister, but now I have changed my mind and fear we are facing an exhausting couple of years. My sweet little baby boy has officially vanished and 'opposite boy' has replaced him.

Given choices (which plate, which crayon?) he chooses to throw them at me. He seems to be operating not on the philosophy of 'believing six impossible things before breakfast" like the white queen, but on earning six time outs before breakfast.

I have been camouflaging my face with my touche eclat every morning this week, since look as if I caught the wrong end of a shank in a prison fight after a run in with his fingernails on the way to the naughty chair.

I know, intellectually, that he is just doing his toddler job of rattling the bars, making sure of the rules and testing us to confirm that his universe is a solid and predictable one. I was hoping that at least one of our kids would turn out to be the placid, rule following type though, and that is not what I see. The future looks challenging. In retrospect, I suppose I shouldn't have married a man who was expelled from Kindergarten if I wanted sweet compliant children.

A bright spot is that much of Geekyboy's oppositional behaviour is conveyed with the spoken word.

"Are you done?" I will say at dinnertime. "No. I FINISHED" he replies.

"Hold the handrail" I suggest as he negotiates the stairs. "No, Its the BANNISTER" he corrects.

I say "street", he wants it to be "Path", I say "sandals", he insists "No, those my Crocs". I point out a dolphin, he tells me it's a porpoise.

At least his attitude is improving his vocabulary, as he needs to know at least two words for everything.

He still makes my heart melt. When I whisper endearments such as "you are my precious boy"  he replies "NO. I your SWEETHEART".

I think my adorable little baby boy is still in there, somewhere. What do you think?