The Legendary "Terrible Twos"

Legend has it, that in every child, there lies a little monster who is awaiting to be unleashed at the tender age of two (or earlier in some cases). This transformation turns the lovable little kid into a tyrant with the knack for throwing temper tantrums and shows signs of physical aggression.

Well, the legend is true to certain extend. Renzo, much to my inevitable fear, has entered the stage known in the parenting world as the "Terrible Twos" and quite aptly named if you asked me. Basically he has reached a point in his physical and mental development that he is at the crossroads where he is taking in as much input as he is giving output (though not always understood by the people around him). Plenty of cognitive and linguistic advances right now (which is the fun and pleasant part) and be able to describe things or events that are not in his immediately surroundings and is able to express his desires, most noticeably his request to go to his cousin's place to play with her Thomas Train set which happens to be a collection almost three times Renzo's.

Now if I haven't mentioned earlier, do note that the "Terrible Twos" stage usually happens at the age of two, give and take a couple of months. Renzo has been for the past few months, become a little boy who is bossing us adults around. With commands like "Daddy don't come out, Daddy go sleep" to "Mummy go kitchen open fridge. Renzo want orange juice" to the simpler "I don't want 爷爷~!", which interestingly ticked off my dad on numerous occasions. Failing to comply to his wishes would end up having him collapse onto the floor wailing or in extreme cases, wails accompanied by flailing legs and punches. (which again ticks my dad off at times).

A few memorable cases include:
1) Crying and refusing me when I pass him his milk bottle and insist on having Mummy giving the bottle to him (which he happily took and gulped down)
2) Requesting for my help to assemble his toy for him because he failed to do so himself and when I managed to do it, he frustratedly cried and swing his little arms and knocked over his toys.
3) Requesting for grapes and then refusing to eat them because Mummy painstakingly removed the skin
4) Crying and refusing to eat his char siew bao because we split it open into halves after he complained that it was too hot
...
and the list goes on...

My patience with Renzo runs thin but somehow Mummy's never seems to wear off. It is from her that I understand that as parents, we should understand that Renzo isn't trying to be defiant or rebellious but merely trying to express himself with his limited linguistic capability and when he can't get his message through, he gets frustrated and thus the tantrums. Despite this knowledge, I still find myself unable to coax and soothe this little boy the way Mummy does. While Mummy smiles and baby-talks her way into getting Renzo to calm down after his tantrums, I can only bite myself (yes Buddy, that is how i got my ulcer) in a desperate attempt to not unleash my fury.

On a positive note, the second part of this "Legend" states that another important fact about the "Terrible Twos" is that it will eventually end... and from a "Terrible Twos Calculator" that I Googled, it calculated that, as of writing, I will only have to endure another 143 day, 23 hours, 25 minutes and 3 seconds before Renzo grows out of this phase...

Quote of the day...
"We Shall Prevail" -Daddy Chan, on conquering the "Terrible Twos"