Car Seat Woes Continue

Lance and I are really beginning to get concerned about how best to parent little Tyler. His tantrums and meltdowns are truly epic, and we just can't figure out what to do. He will bang his head on the floor, on the cabinets, on the wall - whatever he is near - and that will go on for quite a while no matter what we do while he his also yelling at the top of his lungs, crying hysterically and flailing all about. We have tried ignoring (which is the most common suggestion), tried to calm and comfort, hug and hold, tried to distract, tried to praise him (or Katie to see if he will want to be like her), tried the firm no (and admittedly the OMG can you please just stop type of "no"), time-outs, etc., etc. all to no avail. He really loses it and gets so mad and upset over seemingly very small things that we are just kind of at a loss. The worst is when he has to get in his carseat. He does. not. like. being confined in the car and lets it be known. When you finally get him to sit down and wrestle his arms into the harness he screams and yells until he finds a way out of the seat. We turned the seats around hoping that would help, but he still finds a way to get his arms out (which hurts him because it isn't supposed to be done), then his legs and this morning he was standing in the backseat of Lance's car. That is not ok, but we do not know what to do. I picked up some little Dollar Tree toys and had them waiting in his seat when he got in yesterday and that worked, but this morning he could not have cared less. The two of them are awesome, and more often than not he is my sweet, little cuddly boy BUT, when he gets upset it is a whole other story. We are worried because, like I said, the smallest things set him off - giving him the wrong cup, not letting him turn the faucet on, or not being able to put his sister's too small shoes on, and we don't know how best to handle it. Everyone says that this is just the beginning of terrible twos, and just how toddlers are but, Katie isn't doing the same things and I have never seen such long and destructive tantrums that cannot be stopped for anything. I just hope that it is a phase where he is frustrated and learning that he has some independence. Lance thinks that he is just behaving like he did when he was a child and that it is something we will just have to deal with. I hope that isn't the case because it's not fun for anyone - especially Tyler - to get that upset and not be able to control temper and emotions at all.

I am going to try to take some pictures soon - we have been pictureless for too long! They are getting so big and grown-up. Katie's new phrase is "I got it" and she is starting to want to do everything herself and thinks I am just silly when I ask for kisses and hugs. She is quite the jumper still and we had a blast yesterday afternoon doing ring around the rosy (they held hands and fell down at the same time over and over again and it was the cutest thing ever) and marching around the house saying, 1, 2....5 (no clue what they have against 3 and 4 but they won't say it). Tyler is like a little sponge and seems to have a new word every day. He is still my little bookworm and he just loves to sit in my lap and "read" and tell me everything he sees and I am always amazed when he knows something that I have no clue where he learned. They both also still love to "sing" and dance - if I can get them calmed down in the car they will just dance and try to snap and sing songs the whole time and it is just too fun. I do, though, like watching them dance when we aren't in the car because they do this crazy stomping, side to side thing that is hilarious - I will have to capture it on video!