Terrible 2's!!!

Last weekend we went out to eat on Sunday. We had a lazy morning and Lil M ate a big breakfast, which is typical for him. Then we went to Cheddar's around noon because I really wanted a Monte Cristo and google said Cheddar's was the closest restaurant with one on their menu. If you have never had one it is a ham and cheese sandwich dipped in a funnel cake batter and fried. Then served with a raspberry dip and sometimes powdered sugar. They are a-maz-ing! Highly worth the multiple days worth of calories in one meal. Anyways, Lil M got a pasta and proceeded to grab both hands full and cram as much in his mouth as possible. He has always been an aggressive eater, but this was over the top. We tried to slow him down and scold him, but basically gave up and just tried to contain the mess.

 Later in the day he was all about testing his boundaries. I'm pretty sure his thought process was similar to this: Can I pull Moby's paw, yes, how long can I pull it, how hard can I pull it, why is he growling at me, oh that makes it more fun! and the day proceeded from there. His big stuff is annoying the dogs, climbing on things he knows he shouldn't instead of things he can, like the couch, and throwing EVERYTHING! He isn't really listening when I say no, he just smiles, maintaining eye contact while continuing the activity. He still responds to distraction, but I don't know how much longer that will last. We have always planned on using time outs and have started those this week. I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda lost on how to start time outs with a toddler. They immediately became a game of get away. I have read some online tricks for his age, like keeping the time short, ignoring him, etc. But when I put him in the designated time out spot, he just looks at me and laughs, then proceeds to try to get away. He has no idea he is in trouble. I think that is the most frustrating part at this point. He hasn't made the connection that he did something wrong. I don't know if we are starting these to early or if persistence is the key. I think only time will tell, or we will find the true limit of Moby's patience. :)

Since he has recently picked up on puzzles and how they work I bought some stickers for him to play with. He loves Cars so naturally we got Cars stickers. He loved them, but was constantly trying to take them off the paper to move around. At first it was only to put back on the paper, but then he became interested in other places. Luckily there aren't a lot of sticker friendly surfaces in our living room, but he found one good place, his belly! Later, after he went to bed, I found one stuck on my leg too, apparently I wasn't paying very close attention.

We also had our first scrapped up knee this weekend. We were walking the dogs and Lil M got excited and tried to run on the sidewalk. He fell and slid a little bit. He cried and I was surprised to see he actually drew blood, but he was running around after a minute like nothing happened. I even had to wrestle him down to get this picture. Such a boy!