The not so terrible twos

We’ve all heard about it, those ‘terrible twos’. You may even be in the throngs of it. Ranging from tantrums to physically lashing out. I was dreading it!

My son, Evan, will be 3 in April, so I feel like I can speak about this now with some confidence…it’s not too bad. Honestly! And no, I am not saying that because my little darling can do no wrong. I have firmly put my roses tinted glasses down. So I am under no illusions – he most definitely had his moments; I had the bite marks to prove it.

But the reality was he was emotionally changing and developing . He knew his own mind just struggled to get all those big feeling, thoughts, wants, desires across and understood. Once I grasped an understanding around why it was happening, Dennis and I, were able to able to find better ways to cope and to start showing him how to get this across without screaming or smacking to make a point. Only then we were able to see actually how magically this age actually is.

So, with all that in mind I wanted to share with you some of standout reasons/moments that made being two so special for me.  

1. How his speech has developed. Throughout the course of this year, we have gone from mama, dada, dog to linking words together to make sentences. Some of his dictation needs work like that fact that he refers to himself as Feven, but that will get there. I adore that he can now tell me about his day, what he wants to do, if something makes him happy or sad and what makes him ‘really really excited yeah’.
2. Empathy. I am now 25 weeks pregnant with our second child and truthfully pregnancy does not suit me. I am nauseous, vomiting, weeing all the time and generally not feeling great and yet he comes up to me lifts my t-shirt and kisses my stomach to make it ‘all better’. I mean that is just so special!
3. The ‘I love you’s’. This one melts my heart every single time. There is nothing more rewarding or special than hearing your child tell you they love you just because they want too, and when this gets followed up with a cuddle, a kiss or both and I become putty in his chubby little hands.
4. His imagination. I wish I could think/see the world through his eyes. I see a cardboard box (hopefully I am not alone in the over indulging with online shopping whilst we’re within lockdown), he sees a castle, a race car, a den or house. I see an empty kitchen roll, he sees a rocket ship, a telescope, a mobile phone, a tunnel for his cars. In every item there are endless possibilities and adventures to be had and made.
5. The fact you can leave your house with limited items – long gone are the days of needing a good 30 minutes to pack all the ‘essentials’ you’d need to allow you to just nip on out. One small bag and you’re good to go – spare clothes, wipes, in our case his favourite action figure – this week being iron man – bottle of juice and off we go. Good bye stroller, bulky travel system, bottles, milk, half a cupboards worth of snacks, the spare dummies and all of the other items that I’m sure I’ve missed off this list.

The list is endless. At aged two he is in the midst of finding himself and it is fascinating. I love watching Evan engage with the world, seeing what excites him now and being able to build his interests into our day to day. I love seeing him grow into this kind, caring little boy. I love how he wants to help nowadays and how cleaning and being like Mummy is fun. I now can’t wait to see what the tremendous threes have in store for us.

I’d love to hear about your little ones not so terrible twos.