I really do. I love just about everything about this child.
But when the sun sets, Chris and I both make eye contact, sigh, and will ourselves not to freak out immediately about the upcoming interactions with Justin. Because the boy is stubborn. Don't get me wrong; I love "stubborn". I happen to have been called stubborn 90% of my life thus far, and always considered it a compliment (much to the chagrin of my parents). However, Justin has taught me all about stubbornness. I was an amateur. I mean seriously - I was in the tadpole class and he's the big giant crocodile of stubbornness.
He makes cement seem flexible.
He makes me seem easygoing.
An example of night time at the Garland home....
7:30 Adelai goes to bed. Like a breath of fresh air, she is laid down wide awake and puts herself to sleep. Because that's how much God loves Jess Garland.
7:35 The boys change into their jammies.
7:37 Justin realizes that he doesn't have his Toy Story sheets on his bed (because he peed all over the place last night and now has red sheets...which represents the "B team" of sheets in Justin Land).
7:38 Justin has a blow out tantrum wherein he screams at the highest decibel you can imagine. No one can understand. No one can sleep. No one has hope that life will ever get better.
7:40 Chris and I finally understand this tantrum is about sheets.
7:45 Jess finally gets Justin to believe that red sheets are Elmo + Lightening McQueen + lobster sheets, all rolled up in one and subsequently trump all sheets in the entire universe.
7:46 Justin begins jumping on the "melmo" sheets, trying to touch the ceiling.
7:50 Chase climbs into bed like an angel. An easygoing, sleep loving, angel from heaven.
7:52 Justin beats cheeks out of the bedroom and yells "I want some cheese, Daddy. I'm hungry! I need to go pee! I want my blanket from the car! Let's go to the store and buy chocolate milk!"
7:53 Whichever parent lost the quick rock-paper-scissors match goes and retrieves the toddler, who turns into screaming crazy person, once again.
7:55 Justin's tantrum is ignored and we begin reading books with Chase. Justin comes running and yells "I want to read Gold Bug", which is the toddler equivalent of Where's Waldo, except that there are 400 pages of cars and all must be talked about. Every-freaking-single-one-of-them.
8:40 The lights are out, Chase is almost in a coma. Parents leave the room.
8:43 The door closes, and the light under the door comes on. Justin is giggling. Chase is crying and saying "You woke me up, Justin!"
8:45 Justin wanders around the house, giggling. He is caught, walked back to his room and placed in his bed.
8:46 Justin wanders around the house, giggling. (Again.)
9:14 Chris and I think he has gone to bed finally, only to realize that he is singing on the ground in his room, jumping on the bed and laying on the floor in the hallway.
9:15 We lose our cool.
9:16 We realize losing our cool doesn't work at all and makes everybody feel crappy.
9:17 Justin wanders the house, giggling. He "wants to cuddle, mama!" He wanders some more.
9:20 We lose our cool again.
9:21 We feel crappy again and give up.
9:22 Justin says "Mom and dad, I just need to poop. Can't I go poop?"
9:23 I say "fine, you can poop, but you better squeeze something out, child".
9:29 Justin has squeezed out the smallest turd anybody has ever seen. (Did I really just write that?)
9:36 Justin begins wandering the house again. Chris and I give up completely.
9:54 He starts to look a little tired.
9:55 I pick him up off the ground, he goes limp in my arms and lays down.
9:56 Chris and I collapse.
10:01 Chris sneaks into the bedroom to put a pull-up on Justin, because had he put it on before, the tantrum would have never ended.
10:05 Lights out in the Garland home.
It's exhausting. He's devoted to getting his way. We are devoted to not giving in, and yet he outwills even the best of them (meaning me). I know the parenting strategies, but no strategies makes up for a 2 year old boy in a small house with two other children sleeping. He has the ability to ruin everything, he has leverage over his parents, and he has the energy of 1000 adults, all combined together.
Let's face it.
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