Midnight Happenings

Rarely do I get a full night of sleep anymore. Either hubby's coughing and snoring keeps me awake or Little One comes to our bed in the middle of the night. Here lately Little One comes in and jumps up and down on the bed, talking and laughing. It doesn't always wake us up right away so he gets quite loud and rambuxious. Once I wake I either tuck him into our bed and tell him to go back to sleep, or I walk him back to his bed.

Last night though... HA! None of the stunts Little One has pulled compared to what he did last night. I am faced with the fact that he is high-energy, not so much ADD just high-energy. I've had to cancel appointments on occasion because he was too wild to take.

So we woke up in the middle of the night to sounds of a totally excited and LOUD two-year-old. In my half-awake state, I told Hubby that he was just fine, just playing in his room. I forgot, however, that I had opened his door before I came to bed. The sounds behind a closed door were coming from the bathroom.

Hubby was the first to get up. "He is in the bathroom! He's sitting on the counter! How did you get up there!?! He's torn apart a roll of paper towels and the toilet is full of toilet paper. Should I flush it?"

"No! Don't flush it! It will flood!" My first reply and ability to wake up. "I just cleaned the toilet, you can take it out, it's clean."

"I'm not reaching in there, you do it!" And he came back to bed.

Little One bounced into the bed and climbed on top of me. I couldn't contain my laughter. I kept it to a rumble in my chest so as not to distract Little One from knowing he was in big trouble.

I got up and went into the bathroom. I about doubled over, I couldn't believe the sight. Who knows how long he had been in there. He had completely unrolled a brand new roll of toilet paper into the toilet. He had evidently tried to flush it because it was all wet. I scooped it out only to find yellow water at the bottom. Gross. When it was empty, I flushed it.

Then I washed my hands and picked up the entire tube of paper towels laying all over the floor and wadded them up into a ball. Little One was ecstatic with his "fun experience."

As much as I tried not to laugh, I took on a serious tone and told Little One it was time to go back to bed. I asked him where his pacifier was. He replied, "Where's my pa-yer?"

"I don't know."

He went into the bathroom.

"No, it's not in there. Where did you put it? Is it in your bed?"

He went into his room and found it. "There it is! My pa-yer."

"Okay, it is time to get in bed and go back to sleep."

"Bedtime, night-night."

"That's right, you go back to sleep. Night, night."

With that I shut the door and went back to bed. However my mind kept me awake for another hour or so. The last couple days I've finally settled into routine of a SAHM, but have been totally overwhelmed with how he is acting. If I don't keep him occupied, he immediately does things to get in trouble. I've sidetabled any idea of homeschooling right now, though I try to keep some activities in our schedule. We're still doing our calendar, alphabet, counting and singing songs. Coloring and painting doesn't happen anymore because he colors EVERYTHING! Reading books doesn't happen anymore. Anytime I pick up a book, he takes it from me and yells, my book! So I pick up another and he does it again. His floor will be littered with books and I won't have been able to even read the title of a book.

He is learning to test his boundaries and see how far he can go before he gets into trouble. I find myself smacking his little bottom and sitting him down more and more.

At the park, he rough-houses, pushes, and bullies even the bigger kids. For instance, there were two slides side by side. A four year old was sitting at the top of one slide. Even though Little One started to go down the other, next thing I saw was him pulling the other kid out of the way so he could go down that slide instead. I told him no, no; that he needed to go down the other slide or wait his turn.

When we go to Barnes & Noble to let him play with the train table, he constantly takes trains away from the other kids and pushes them out of the way.

I'm trying to be a good mother, but it hasn't been easy. I hope this is only a stage and not a precedent he is setting for the future.