Saturday, October 3, 2009

The Terrible Almost Twos!


I'll be talking to another mom about her children, and usually I will hear, "Well, my oldest is my laid back one, but my younger one is definitely strong-willed" or "My daughter is strong-willed, but my other two were so easy!" And what am I thinking in my own head? Something like this: laid back? easy? Out of the two kids I have, BOTH are strong-willed!
When we had our first daughter, I was certain she was my "strong-willed" one. And, she still is difficult at times. However, upon the arrival of our youngest daughter into the almost-two stage, she may be even more strong-willed than the first! I feel like I spent most of the last month disciplining her. Much of the day I found myself saying, "Don't hit your sister." "Don't kick your sister." "Did you just bite... YOUR SISTER?!"
It seemed as though she just wanted to be mean, and I was wondering if the punishments did anything. Then, we started praying for her, that God would change her heart. My oldest would pray for her, I would pray for her... And the Lord is faithful! This past week was much better. Through the Lord's grace, I saw my little one hug her older sister, when she would have hit her. I heard her say, "Sorry, Au-Au (Autumn)" before I told her she had to. Is she a perfect angel now? Definitely not. However, the progress makes me hopeful. It's amazing how little my faith is, and how great our God is... a God who hears what seemed to be such a little prayer!

3 comments:

  1. We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I not sure yet, but I think as you have more children - some children now appear to be easy compared to the other ones.

    What helps me is to remember that under 4 or even 5, children have a hard time viewing the world outside of themselves. I remember one mother's day Miss G had a fit because she wanted it to be her special day. Now she goes out of her way to think of a gift or she will spend hours making a card for Mother's day. They will develop and mature.

    Sometimes kids just go through stages, esp. at E's age. A friend of mine had a daughter that went through a stage where she fingerprinted with her own poop! Yuck! I am so glad my kids did not do that, but while gross, it is not that uncommon, and they do grow out of it.

    Great idea to solve the problem through prayer! Praying for our children is so important.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Karen. It's always nice to hear from parents with kids a little bit older!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great reminder to bring every little detail to the Father!

    The poop fingerprinting has me cracking up over here!

    ReplyDelete