With G. these days, daily tantrums are now the norm, as is the occasional hitting and lashing out. Blame teething or toddlerdom, but it is exhausting.
This morning, kiff went outside to put the compost back in the bin that raccoons had broken into. Gabriel freaked out when he left and screamed and hit me on the head with a fisher price little person.
It hurt!
I held him close and tried to hold his gaze and told him that it was wrong to hit, and that he had to be gentle with people. He would not look me in the eye, and even tried to distract me by pointing to the letters magnets on the fridge: "A!" and then the the "Ball!" as if we could change the subject with a little diversion.
Sneaky. The only time he is calm is when he has our undivided attention - especially kiff's.
These days it is striking me just how present I am going to need to be for G. for the rest of his life. Not just "how was school and here is dinner" kind of present, but really, really present physically and emotionally. And I am up for the beautiful challenge. But I am also kind of exhausted.
