Sign of Things to Come?

Ryker marked his second birthday by promptly falling into every stereotype of the Terrible Twos known to man. He throws CRAZY tantrums. He screams and yells because we cut up his hot dog instead of giving him the whole one. He sobs if we don't let him carry the case for a DVD around. He yells "No Momma - (s)top it!" when I rudely insist on changing his dirty diaper.

And he doesn't reserve that behavior for us. He shares it with his teachers and classmates as well. We have started getting notes about his behavior. "Ryker had a tough day." "Ryker was very angry." "Please work with him at home on this."

This week they've started making him go sit with Miss Mari. That's the Toddler Room equivalent of being sent to the principal's office. The offense? When he gets mad, he now sits on the ground, takes his shoes off, and throws them across the room. He has all the rest of the toddlers doing it too. So the chain-reaction where one kid cries, then another starts crying now includes a mass of children dropping to the floor to remove their shoes.

It used to be that when I took him into the room, they would say "Hi Ryker!!" with genuine excitement in their voices. Now they sound a titch disappointed that he showed up. I remember my mom coming home from a day of teaching first grade, saying that it was a really easy day because Naughty-Child-So-and-So was home sick and wasn't there to disrupt the class. That's MY baby now! Awesome.

My mom is trying to convince me that the Universe provided Chuck and me with the Crazies (my new name for the boys) because we are so calm and can handle them. And of course we can. But I have a new respect for those parents in the store who have kids throwing tantrums. I used to look at them and wonder what exactly was flawed in their parenting style that would result in kids THAT out of control. Now I just smile and nod knowingly.