Is it a monster? Is it madness? Is it menopause? No it is Monty

(happy halloween)

Forget about the terrible two's, meet the ferocious fours... Good grief, the temper tantrums that that boy throws. I don't remember Stoney being this bad at four... but maybe i have a selective memory. It is just temper tantrum after temper tantrum. And all this yelling that he does! The "funny" thing is that he has some manners during his tantrums. Stamping his foot on the floor, yelling: "Alsjeblieft!!!" which means "please". Well honey, i am glad you are saying "please", but the answer is still no. He has clearly picked up some phrases that his teacher uses: "Onmiddelijk" which means immediately. So Mommy, you need to get me my cup with milk IMMEDIATELY! And it is the same everyday. I don't want to get dressed (temper tantrum), I want chocolate milk for breakfast (temper tantrum), i want to watch tv (temper tantrum), i don't want to brush my teeth (temper tantrum) And i want a chocolate chip cookie right now, immediately, IMMEDIATELY, IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!
You'd think that by being consistent and making rules clear and establishing a set pattern of doing things, he'd settle down. After all, if you throw the same temper tantrum every day,and you never get what you want, then why spend the energy? But i guess he is not in full control of his temper tantrums, by which i mean, he hasn't learned to let logic dominate his immediate feelings (which is why i compare it to menopause).

Meanwhile, he still has his pooping problem. "I don't want to sit on the potty! EVER!"
We tried all forms of bribe, but he won't even do it for lollipops, which are his favorite. We tried threatening him. He always goes and hides somewhere to sit on the floor to suppress the natural process instead of going to the potty. So Leland said: "I am going to take a toy away when you do that." Monty hides under the desk to do his "suppressing" and yells: "you can take a toy from me." Then we said: "we are going to spank you if you do that instead of going to the potty." Monty hides behind the couch to suppress this nr 2 movement and yells : "You can spank me later." Deep, deep sigh.
Very, very slowly there seems to be a little improvement. Sometimes, when he is in the right mind set, he surprises us and goes to the bathroom all on his own and shouts: "Mommy i did kaka!" I am afraid he is just going to have to outgrow it.... Hopefully SOON.

Meanwhile some more, he is slowly getting a little better about staying in his bed at night. Not every night though. Most of the time he just wakes up very early in the morning lately. Last week he was on the 5.30 schedule. And then of course throwing a temper tantrum because he has decided that it is morning time and is highly ticked off that we won't get up yet.
Last night he pulled a new one: he started sleep walking. He has not done that before, but he did last night. He came marching down the stairs, having a complete conversation with someone who wasn't there, and then crawled in bed with us. He laughed and giggled, all while being sound asleep. It was strange. How do we get him to stay in his bed when he starts to sleep walk? It is hard enough to keep him in his own bed when he wakes up, let alone when he is sound asleep!!!

The child is going to do me in.
Luckily all is well with Stoney most of the time, he is starting to grow up some and to be a little less of a mommy's boy and a little more responsible. He got a really good report card right before their fall break ( i think they get 4 reports a year here) and i am very proud of him.

Below are some pictures of them by the pedestrian bridge just behind our house. Here we go and watch trains go by. The train track runs just behind our back yard, but there is a dirt wall with trees in between us and the tracks, so we can't see the trains from our house too well.
So we go here and watch trains, and then one more, and one more and then just one very last one, and just one very last one for Monty. Monty can sit there for hours....