Defiance.

Lately Wyatt has been testing the boundary waters. A lot. And it’s sort of driving me nuts. He’ll be quite content, playing with a toy, a car, a pan from his kitchen. Then, out of the blue, he chucks it. Hard. Usually at the window or the wall. Sometimes at me. WTH???

I’m sure the look on my face says it all. As we all know quite well, I’m not good at hiding my emotions. I tell him not to throw his toys because it’s not nice. He looks straight at me, picks up something else, and chucks it again!

At this point,he goes in time out. Except that he won’t STAY in time out. So I return him to time out. Rinse, lather, repeat. It becomes a battle of wills. The third time I return him there, the teachable moment of why he is in time out is long gone.

And so it goes, all evening long.

I know this is completely normal for a 1 ½ year old, but it doesn’t make it any less aggravating. What happened to my nice little boy? And moreover, what do I do now?

Last night I just did not have the energy to deal with it anymore. The above scenario had already played out at least once. Then came dinner. He ate about two bites and got up from the table. He returns upon my request, but stands up in the chair (!) and gives me his big, “look how cute I am!” grin, holding his fork up in mid-air. Unamused, I tell him to put his butt on the chair. He sits on his knees with his butt touching the knees. I help him sit like a normal person. He scrapes his fork along the wall about 12 inches. I ask him to stop, please, and eat. He looks at me, intentionally drops his fork, covered in ketchup, onto the floor, and says “uh-oh.”

Uh-oh??? No, that is reserved for MISTAKES, which this was not!

I eventually took his plate away and he didn’t eat dinner. Of course this had absolutely no effect whatsoever on him. Sweet!

Seriously. What do I do? Make it stop!