I love my son. I love him a lot and I have an affection for him that goes deeper than just about anything else. But lately, he's been driving me crazy. I've heard that the age of 3 can sometimes be more difficult than the age of 2, and I think that's what we've got on our hands here: the terrible threes. John was a pretty mellow 2-year-old. As a 3-year-old, he's still easygoing but he's also more...bratty. I mean that in the nicest way possible, "but there it is" (as Elizabeth Bennet said in Pride and Prejudice).
John isn't difficult to handle most of the time, but he's definitely been testing Peter and I a lot more in the past few weeks by doing such things as simply disregarding us when we ask or tell him to do something or to stop doing something (like getting a kick out of kicking Mommy in the car. Ouch! You brat!). Sometimes it's total and utter disobedience, which is difficult for a control freak like me to know how to handle. What happened to my compliant little angel? Now he's a non-compliant little angel.
I wish I'd been able to potty train him earlier, because with his older age he's much more stubborn and set in his ways, and it's such a challenge to get him to do his business on the toilet rather than in the Pull-Up. If this is what the age of 3 is really going to be like, then I hope March 8, 2009 will come very quickly. That's when he'll turn 4, but hopefully this phase will be long gone by then. It better be just a phase, and a quick one at that!
In spite of all of this, I have to end on a positive note. The challenges of parenting are difficult, but it's totally worth it. I am extremely grateful to be a mother and to have John as my son. I love that this is my job and my life's work right now. Now if only the job would get a little easier...
