Nolan & The Terrible Two's

Nolan has most assuredly hit the terrible two's. I wouldn't say that he's insane all of the time; in fact, more often than not, he's a great kid. It's just those few times a day that try my patience.

Here is some proof I may have my own Jekyll and Hyde:

The Good: Nolan loves to load and unload the dishwasher.
The Bad: Nolan doesn't know when it's clean or not and will load dirty dishes with the clean or put the dirty away in the drawers whenever he feels like helping.

The Good: When Nolan gets in trouble, he knows how to say "Uh-oh, sorry mama."
The Bad: Nolan is still 95% non-verbal and gets extremely frustrated that he can't communicate so there is a lot of screaming, yelling, and pointing going on in our house.

The Good: Nolan is learning to pick up. He likes to clear his dishes off the table and throw away the garbage in the garbage can.
The Bad: Nolan usually ends up throwing away a glass or two every few days along with various other items.

The Good: Nolan is beginning to share. He likes to give Ian books from the bookcase and toys from the living room, and stuffed animals to anyone upstairs.
The Bad: During his sharing, he manages to take all the books, toys, and animals out of their proper places and makes the rooms appear to have spewed forth the objects around the house.

The Good: Nolan likes to help me load the washer and dryer.
The Bad: Nolan has started throwing other things in with the wash, ie books, toys, paper, crayons, garbage.

The Good: Nolan loves to play with Brennan & Ian.
The Bad: When he feels he's not winning or getting enough laughs out of it, he throws the biggest fit ever!! Kicking & screaming included!

The Good: Nolan loves his daddy.
The Bad: Nolan knows exactly the right look to get whatever he wants from him. Just one little start of a frown and Nolan gets to spend the night in our bed. And heaven forbid there are tears! Luckily, I seem to be immune to his charm or the entire house would be in peril.

The Good: Nolan still takes a nap.
The Bad: Nolan refuses to go to sleep at night. When I check on him before I go to bed, he's in his room, sorting through the books or stuffed animals, more often than not laughing. You have no idea how weird it is to hear laughing at midnight. It's kind of freaky!

Some other stories to keep you laughing:

* After refusing to eat breakfast, I asked Nolan what he wanted. He went to the pantry, climbed on the stool and got a cup of Easy Mac. He came back into the kitchen and threw it at me with a look that said "This is what I want, stupid!". I made it and he ate every last bit.

* As Nolan was trying to clear his bowl of cereal from the kitchen table, he accidentally spilled it all over the kitchen floor. He looks at me with his puppy dog eyes and says "Uh-oh. Sorry mama." I said it was okay and he just kept saying "sorry, mama". It was soooo cute!

* Nolan wants to help me whenever I do anything in the kitchen. One morning, I was making scrambled eggs. I managed to crack the eggs, and while I reached over to the fridge to get the milk, Nolan grabbed the bowl and spilled the eggs all over the floor. That clean-up was followed by a broken root beer bottle in the pantry and spilled coke in the living room. Seriously one of the longest days of my life!

* Nolan has gotten it into his head that once he sees something in one location, that is it's permanent location. Example: I put my glasses on the foot board of my bed so I could play with the boys on the floor so now Nolan thinks that is where they belong. If he sees them laying on the night stand or counter, he will move them to my foot board. Such a silly boy!

* Nolan really loves his teacher at the Hope Enrichment Learning Preschool. Ms. Helen and Ms. Ana can get him to do practically anything. They even tell me he's a happy and laughing kids while he's there. He really loves to color and sing.

Now for the pictures of my boy:

Nolan stacks EVERYTHING!

He's all about sharing TROUBLE with his brothers

Typical Nolan look. "I'm not doing anything Mom"

He cleaned out the drawer so he could sit in it and watch TV

He's really into dancing and singing. Don is jumping to the music and Nolan's trying to keep up with him.