Wow. There really IS light at the end of the tunnel!

Wherever the phrase came from "Terrible Twos" is NOTHING compared to the way more difficult and challenging threes. I'm not sure if I have selective memory, but Trevor was a really good toddler from about a year until right around age 3. Granted, he was probably very spoiled with attention from family and such, and learned to enjoy the variety of activities I had him in, but I thought for some reason I was just lucky in having a very easy-going and well behaved 2 year old. THEN, 3 years old hit. It took a while to find our own discipline technique because the "time outs" on the stairs were literally a joke to Trevor. Eventually, he responded best to warning, and then being brought up to his room for a time out.

Anyway, since using the time outs, we haven't gone very long without having to use them at least a few times a week. Also, I don't know what I've mentioned before, but Trevor also knows how to test any and all adult authorities in his life. And he knows what he can and can't pull on them. He has had some GREAT swimming teachers, a wonderful music teacher, and some very lax (which Trevor then takes over and does whatever he wants) other teachers.

Overall, the area where we struggle with is really "listening". It is hard as a parent to not get immediately frustrated after asking something that to you seems so common sense. But also to know that you have to let your child (within reason) decide for himself if he is going to listen, and if not pay the consequences for those choices.

So I have heard, through some of the other moms in last year's ECFE class that have older children, that it really will not get past this independence phase until right around the time they go off to Kindergarten. Which I guess is at least somewhat good given that I would hate for a teacher to have to deal with crazy, limit testing 3 year olds (GOOD LUCK PRESCHOOL TEACHERS!!!). But that's also a little sad given that if that is the case, parents have to finally get a break, only to ship off their better behaved children to school for most of the week?

Ok....back to my point. Yesterday, for whatever reason, Trevor decided to have a very good day. And what suprised me even more was that he KNEW he did well. And he knew what he had to do to keep that idea going. I was praising him all day. At the end of the night, we were going to go upstairs to bed and he said he wanted to keep being a good listener, so I didn't even have to ask twice. Up the stairs he went.

Now I know, we will have plenty more days of the 3-year old testing his limits but it was so nice to get even a glimpse of what he's going to be like after this phase.