Inside the mind of a toddler

Cole doing his victory cheer after peeing in the potty.

Notice the clenched fists.  There is a red m&m in one of them.

I don't think I will ever be able to truly understand the mind of a head strong almost 22 month old.  He is so unpredictable.  One minute he likes something and the next minute he shrieks if you come near him.  I can see that he is really starting to develop a mind of his own and he has his way of doing things.  Over night Cole has become a star at peeing on his potty.  The picture above is after he sat down and peed and actually stayed seated the entire time and held his little guy pointed down.  He was so proud of himself, as were we.  

It is now 10:30 and Cole is still awake.  He is trying to find different ways of getting us to let him stay up.  Over the past hour and a half of cuddle time (way too much time) I have heard every 30 seconds or so "what is thadt?"  I come out to investigate the situation since Mike does the cuddle time.  Cole acted like he had not seen me in years and screamed until he could be with me.  That lasted 5 minutes.  Then he had a melt down and squirmed away and ran to the cabinet for food.  I gave him some crackers (he really wanted laughing cow cheese) and he takes them to his table and acts like it is any other normal snack time.  He keeps looking at me with this little smug smile as if to say "ha mom, I tricked you!"  He then got this weird looking on his face and I figured he was pooping so I ignored him for a bit and then asked him if he had pooped.  He said "oh ya ya" and got up and ran to the bathroom and began trying to take his clothes off.  I get him in there - no poop in diaper - and sat him on the pot.  His diaper was totally dry and he filled up his pot with pee!  I cheered for him and he smiled.  Mike grabbed the diaper and I got Cole out of the bathroom.  Cole willingly lets Mike put the diaper back on and then gets up screaming when Mike tries to put his pj's back on.  We get him clothed and he then runs back the bathroom very upset.  I let him in and he runs to the trash can and pulls out the used piece of duck tape from his diaper.  He unzips his pjs and proceeds to put the duck tape back on the flaps of his diaper.  Seriously???  He actually wants the duck tape on there when weeks ago he was kicking us if we tried to put it on.  We got a new piece of tape and put it on.  He is now resting comfortably on the couch.

This type of situation has been occurring all day.  He only wants to eat laughing cow cheese but not on crackers.  He wants to bit in to the foil and then suck it out of the hole.  If you go any where near his food he flings it on the floor, even if he was eating peacefully until you came near him.  Everything requires a shriek - good or bad.  He is practically glued to my side at all times

It's times like these I wish I could have a beer.....