Gavin Michael Curt

I recall saying this with Tyler too, but I am reminded again that whoever came up with the "Terrible Twos" expression was one year premature. The twos have nothing on the threes. At least the first half of the threes. I recall enjoying most of Tyler's second half of his third year. But here we are with Gavin, in his first month of his third year and I find myself wondering "Have I created this monster?"

Yesterday he was on a rampage. It started with spitting, a new and really annoying habit. Actually everything I'm about to blog on is new and really annoying behavior. As soon as I admonish the spitting, he baby talks. "Blaah waah maaah pluuuh," and stomps away, arms folded, and turns to kick the wall. I let it go once but no matter, he's already winding up for repeat kicks. So it's off to the Naughty Chair for a thinking time. We don't spit. We don't kick. If there's something you want, use your words. So he, being the smartest 3 year old I know, says "I have to go potty." He knows that's my hot button. Rush to the bathroom and yes, he pees but not very much. I tell him to wash his hands and go back to the naughty chair and I walk away to ignore the baby back-chat as SuperNanny refers to it. Thirty seconds later I'm back in the bathroom to find the boy emptying every last tissue out of the Kleenex box. Tissues everywhere. I yell. GO TO THE NAUGHTY CHAIR NOW. BIG TIME OUT. He kicks the wall. I'm too busy cleaning up the tissues to say anything about that but it appears he's listening because I can hear him walking down the hallway, baby talk and all. Sure enough, I find him in the naughty chair only now he's got a pad of paper and he's tearing every last sheet off the pad. Another mess. Everytime I turn around. I mean, really, how am I supposed to redirect that type of behavior?!

Thankfully Shawn has been helping more than ever with the corrections. He doesn't like the way I yell so much. He's convinced Gavin is heading down the path of trouble at the early age of three. He doesn't remember stuff the way I do. I can only hope it's this Terrible Threes phase and I'm not one of those parents in denial sticking up for all the bad things her son does. Daddy steps in and has a long talk with Gavin. Daddy's talks are good; curt and to the point. But the best part is he insists the offender repeats what he's just told them. Gavin refuses. Now do you see why I yell? Longer time out. Gavin cries. The other part of the Terrible Threes is this incredible drama, which I don't remember with Tyler, where every little thing, whether he falls down, pops a balloon, or gets his feelings hurt, results in huge tears and wailing so loud I'm wishing I would have closed the windows so the neighbors don't cast judgement. This went on pretty much all evening last night, from dinner to bath to brushing his teeth, he didn't listen, didn't do, and didn't care. Until he finally fell asleep. At least he's a good sleeper. Hopefully we're at that point in the cycle where we think we can't take it anymore and the bad behavior goes away. But just in case, I wrote Ms. Amber a note this morning telling her to put him on a timeout if he spits. That's one thing I cannot stand.

Little man is still recovering from a nasty bug. He had this fever cold. On day three he tugged at his ear so I rushed him to urgent care thinking they'd give us antibiotics. Nope. They said it was allergies. Really? Allergies cause a fever? I didn't believe him for a second so on day 4 I took him to his pediatrician. She gave him antibiotics and he was instantly better. No ear infection, but she was fluid in the ear that might have been the start of an infection. Or might have just been from swimming. Either way, I feel bad now. Would his fever have gone away on its own just two hours after seeing the pediatrician if we hadn't given him antibiotics? I'm thinking yes but all the waiting was driving me nuts and making Gavin miserable. So while I didn't agree with the urgent care doctor, he was probably right to suggest we dry him up with Claritan and bring the fever down with Motrin rather than try antibiotics. Especially with Gavin who had a reaction to Amoxycillin when he was a baby so has limited alternatives when he needs it. Last night was the first night of uninterrupted sleep in five days. Ahhh back to normal. How did I do it when they were babies?!

Gavin sure is good for the doctors though. He loves the anticipation of waiting for them to come in. And when they finally do come in (we were the first and only patient at after hours Urgent Care and we still waited 25 minutes), he flops on the table laying perfectly still as if they want to inspect him head to toe. The only way I can get him to take medicine is to tell him the Doctor wants him to take it. So now docs have special powers in the kids' eyes. Great, maybe they'll want to become one!

Gavin has been doing a fantastic job with potty training. I'm so impressed! But he's so independent, he prefers to pee alone and he does not announce it when he's leaving to go. So the accidents he has had were largely in part due to not being able to pull down his pants in time and not wanting to ask for help. This is so completely different from Tyler who still announces to all when he's leaving, hollers for help when he's done, and walks around with his pants unbuttoned until I have a free hand to help. Gavin will spend hours in the bathroom going, wiping and getting dressed (or changing if needed) all by himself.

Gavin had a great birthday party. We got a Madagascar themed bouncy house, had a big tray of bubbles & wands for the kids to play in, animal shaped peanut butter & jelly sandwiches, chips, fruit, and cupcakes with sprinkles for the kids to put on however they wanted. Brian loved playing in the sandbox. Hope warmed up to jumping in the bounce house once her mommy went in. Grace blew lots of bubbles with Gavin. Owen played inside & out. Mack and Tyler tried their hardest to engage the younger kids in the Hullaballo game they were playing. Grandma made the sandwiches and swept all the messy sprinkles. Kristin built the kitchen Papa & Gramma gave Gavin. Keith filled 30 balloons with helium. All the kids played hard together, separately, inside and outside. After the bouncy house was hauled away to the next party, everyone promptly left and Gavin and Tyler laid down for a FOUR HOUR NAP!!!

Today is Gavin's 3rd birthday! He's really become a big boy these past couple of weeks. He wears underwear. Yes, he has accidents now & then (mostly the number 2 kinds) but he's doing great with that. He also just got his colors nailed this past week. Up until then, we'd quiz him on what color is this shirt or that hat, and 3 out of 5 times he'd get it wrong. Now suddenly, click, he gets it right 100% of the time. He's so proud of that too. He's learning to ride a scooter (that's his birthday present from Mommy & Daddy) but still not comfortable on a bike.

He continues to be too independent for my taste. This past weekend he let himself and Chili out the front door twice. Luckily, Chili is the best dog ever and he circled between Gavin and our house the entire 5 minutes (I'd like to believe it wasn't longer than that) they were free, which kept Gavin from going too far away. At least that's the rumor I heard third hand from someone who heard from someone else that they saw my kid and dog wandering the streets. Now we have one of those lovely chain latches on the door which really ticks him off. He figured out the door handle lock we had but it's going to take years before he can crack this one out.

Gavin took fruit snacks to his friends at school today. I simply couldn't feed those kids those disgusting over frosted cupcakes from the store and was going to bring in donuts but both the boys slept in until 8:00 this morning which meant we missed breakfast and morning snack. Lucky for me, he was stoked on the fruit snacks idea. Now I get to bake him a cake and assemble his scooter in between conference calls and appointments today. Shawn and I can't seem to remember what time he was born. Shawn says noon. I say 3ish. If only I had actually put together a baby book for him, I'd be able to look it up quickly. Maybe by next year I'll have accomplished that goal for my second son. Until then, he's my #1 three year old.