Terrible Two's at Four

Like all children, Samuel has always enjoyed cuddling with April and myself.  However, recently he has become extremely attached to April.  Almost anytime she sits down in the living room, Samuel crawls all over her.  He just enjoys sitting with her and hugging tight.  He will still jump in my lap on occasion, but for the most part if both of us are in the same room, Samuel is all over April.  She is not real certain what has brought about this recent action, but she certainly enjoys it (even if at times, she would like a little space to herself).  I'm guessing that Samuel simply feels secure when he is with April.  It will be interesting to see if this is just a phase or something that becomes consistent.  

Sometimes I think Samuel is going through his "Terrible Two's" as a four year old.  He is reaching that point where he is exploring more.  This is especially the case when he goes outside.  Over the past few weeks, he has started taking off running in our backyard and has ventured into other areas of the neighborhood.  We cannot take our eyes off him for one second.  As a result, we are currently getting bids from fence companies in the area.  Hopefully we can get the back yard fenced in this summer so he can enjoy his playset without us worrying about him wondering off through the neighborhood.  

 

Another phase he seems to be going through is wanting to be home more often than not.  If we go just about anywhere, a short time into the visit he is saying "want to go home" and telling people "bye."  Last weekend we spent the night with April's parents.  We had told him early in the day that we were going to spend the night with "nana and papa".  He seemed to be okay with doing this until about 6:30 that night.  All of a sudden he was emphatic saying "want to go home."  After several tantrums, we gave him a bath before he gradually calmed down.  He fell asleep around 9:30 and slept good during the night.  However, this experience made us question whether we should take a vacation this summer.  Originally, we were planning to visit Atlanta for a few days.  However, after thinking about the noise of the city and staying overnight in a different spot, we have reconsidered.  We are currently leaning towards just taking several day trips instead. Hopefully in a year or two the communication between Samuel and us will be at a higher level so he can let us know when things are beginning to get too painful for him before it reaches that point.  This will hopefully allow all of us to have a positive traveling experience.  

Recently, he has also started throwing items off the shelf.  It is obviously fun for him to do this, despite us voicing our disappointment in the action.  We have noticed that he is usually in a quiet mood, when all of us a sudden he will start running around and go knock everything off the shelf.  After he does this once, it seems to become addicting and wants to do it again despite our objections.  I think he enjoys seeing us get angry with him, so we have started taking a different approach.  We try not to say anything, but simply point at him to go to his bedroom for timeout.  In addition, we tell him to pick-up his mess after the timeout is over.  I'm not sure if this is working or not, but it obviously is something we are trying to work through.  Something triggers him to want to take this action, so we are trying to determine what is the best method to improve.  

Finally, we are still trying to get the ABA Therapy scheduled for Samuel.  It has been an extremely long process trying to get through the bureaucracy of getting the State Health Plan to approve an in-network provider that is within 50 miles of where we live.  We still have not reached that point, but did receive a positive lead yesterday.  I will keep you posted as we try to get this approved and the therapy started.  

As always, thanks for taking time to read!

Have a great weekend!

Brian