Top 5 Annoying Things About 2-Year Olds

Keeping in mind that I do, in fact, really love Ben. But he's 2 and a half and with that comes loads of fun. Plus a myriad of annoyances. Here are my top 5 least favorite:

1. Saying no to everything. Ben learned the word "no" much later than we thought he would and it's now his answer to most questions. He does throw in a yes more often than we give him credit for, but usually it's No! Or NO I WANT TO (which to Ben means NO I DON'T WANT TO ARE YOU CRAZY??)

2. Having to do everything himself. This is also a recent occurrence and I know it comes with independence. But it also means he wants to do things like close the door and lock it (while I'm outside getting something out of the car) or push the cart at the store himself, open and close the refrigerator himself (with remarkable force), put on chapstick (which is actually quite cute). But most of the time we are in a hurry (why are we always in such a hurry?) and those are the times he insists on doing things himself. Like trying to zip his own jacket. Have you seen a 2-year-old try to do this? It would probably take him half an hour.

3. Not listening. When it's two of the most important times of the day in our household (bath time and when it's time to leave for school) Ben suddenly doesn't know I exist. He will sit on the floor playing trains and I can shout his name fifty times and he won't even flinch. Where do kids learn this kind of self control? I mean really!

4. Eating. Or not eating. Ben is huge. He's tall. He weighs 40 pounds. He's nearly 40" tall. He's a big 2.5 year old! But the kid doesn't eat anything. The handful of things he will eat without protest are pretzels, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cheesy roll up from Taco Bell, apples and french fries. We're working on the eating. And we're even cutting down on the amount of milk he drinks so it should be a miracle he's growing as big as he is! Kelli and I even joked the other day that we were trying to force our kids to eat, even if it was bad stuff like french fries. "Ben! Finish those fries and chicken nuggets! Eat more of your ice cream!" Because yeah, we can't even get the kid to eat sweet stuff!

5. The whining. My friend Ambyr told me one time that she loved the 2's (her oldest son was around Ben's age at the time) but it was the whining that really bugged her. I thought for SURE the whining couldn't be that bad. Boy was I wrong. Ben can put on a whiny pity party with the best of them. He can fake cry for thirty minutes on our entire drive home if I hadn't figured out ways to get him to stop (not an easy feat I assure you!) On the way home last night he fake cried for a good 10 minutes before finally starting to calm down. So at the end of his "episode" I pulled out my phone and recorded it. Then I played it back for him. And he was so embarrassed. Point made, score one for Mom!



Did I leave out anything? Later this week I'll post my top 5 favorite things about 2-year-olds!