Teddy is a royal pain in the arse

Just to get everyone up to date, in the last week, we took a trip to see the cousins in Philly, drove back in the snow, had fun in the snow the next day, saw Uncle Steve and went to concert of Mongolian music with him, and then enjoyed almost balmy weather this weekend. Margaret is almost potty trained. Whoo hoo!! She no longer appears to object to the potty as a matter of principle, rather her objections arise when a potty break is inconvenient. She rarely wears diapers during the day anymore, she hasn't had many accidents, and she performs like a champ once we get her on the potty. I took the kids to the Air and Space Museum yesterday during Abby's book club, and she made it for four hours out of the house with no diaper and only one trip to the restroom at the museum. Although I was pretty apprehensive the whole time, she turned in a stellar job. There may be some hiccups in the future, but we're pretty pleased with her. And she seems pretty pleased as well, so it's nice to get this issue out of the way.

Especially because the boy has started to develop issues of his own. He has become very stubborn. Extremely stubborn. He decides that he wants to do something, and he starts to scream as soon as it's clear that we're trying to stop him. Such as banging on the computer. Messing with electrical outlets. Sitting in a chair, and NOT his highchair, to eat. It's really quite frustrating especially when he's trying to do something that is completely inappropriate (such as messing with electrical outlets) or unsustainable (such as trying to monopolize all of the brooms when we're cleaning up outside.) The most "fun" situations arise when Teddy is thwarted by Margaret. Such as when he's trying to take the broom that she has and won't accept any other broom. Or when he wants to get in the back of our newest stroller, which is Margaret's official perch. (As an aside, it's actually pretty funny to watch him when we take out new stroller to school. When I pick them up, he immediately makes a beeline for the back of the stroller and tries to establish his position. Unfortunately for him, Margaret can't sit in the front, so I inevitably scoop him up and plop him in the front. And unfortunately for the rest of us, he inevitably howls about this mistreatment.)

There's not much that we can do in these situations, as he's pretty inconsolable when he doesn't get his way. He really bellows, turns bright red, and gets this nice vibrato in his wail that really makes it seem as if he's suffering. Sometimes he'll toss in a quivering cry of "Mama!!!" to really emphasize that Papa is the source of his misery. Given that Margaret's potty problems have faded, I'm pretty philosophical about the temporary nature of such phases. But that doesn't mean that it's fun.