No Book!

"No book!"  He throws the book on the couch.
"No airplane!"  He knocks the toy plane off the table.
"No!"  He swings his arms wildly attempting to hit something, someone, anyone in the way.
And he's not even in a bad mood; Just his usual response to a suggestion to do something he doesn't feel like doing.  The suggestion was for a book, but the plane and any other bystanders are all just collateral damage in his short-lived, but extremely typical outburst.
He's 2 yrs 2months old - so yes, I guess you can say it's terrible twos.  But I don't want to just write it off as typical behavior, because I don't want to become complacent.  I want to make sure that when it's time for him to start school, he will be ready; socially, emotionally ready.
I don't get to objectively observe him for long periods of time as much as I would like - mostly just on the weekends.  Well, who are we kidding?  I don't ever "objectively" observe him.  How can anyone ever be objective about their own child?  So the best I can do is write down my notes about the happenings of late, with the hopes that it will help me take a step back at times and re-asses if I'm doing the best that I can to help my child learn about himself and the environment and how he can best achieve what he wants in life.

Cloud flies home from Miami

I figure now is as good time as any to start writing down Cloud's various tantrums, destructions, and other fun behaviors (oh yea and some of his good moments too).  So what if it's already been two years since he was born?  Better late than never.

We were in Miami over the last two weeks, which left lots of time for me to ..ahem..  "observe" Cloud in his natural state.  Sad, I know - it takes a vacation for me to really get to know my son.

Moving on.

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of flying back from Miami - which we cleverly planned for Cloud's nap time (original departure time was 11:45, we actually left at 12:30, which is typically what time Cloud falls asleep for his nap).  But Cloud had other plans.  He woke up bright and early that morning - 5:45am.  He then proceeded to fall asleep in the car at 9:00am as we were getting ready to leave for the airport, and slept just long enough to completely screw up his normal nap time and yet still remain quite cranky.

During the 3 hour flight, he slept for exactly 0 seconds and spent exactly 3 hours screaming and kicking the chair in front of him.  As the plane landed and began making its way to the gate, I turned to Cloud's dad (P) and joked - wouldn't it be funny if Cloud fell asleep by the time the airplane doors opened, now that we were on the ground?  And *poof*, that's exactly what happened.  In the 3 minutes we were driving along on the ground to the gate, he finally conked out.  P proceeded to punch Cloud in the jaw out of spite, and I can't say I blamed him.