ok... two year olds are by far the hardest thing to raise.

Dog's eventually catch on and when you tell them "NO" they act sorry. You can train them to sit and stay, they eat on schedule and for the most part they sleep through the night.
Two year olds on the other hand are absolutely insane. Mine spits and hits, kicks our dogs and will refuse to eat anything without sugar listed as the 2nd ingredient. I'm not really sure where the sugar came into play. I made most of his baby food and when I didn't I would almost only buy organic. My child was not going to have fast food or soda, so it surprised me the other day when Wyatt asked me, "mom, I have a Pappy Meal peease?". What happened to me?! If there is one thing you can have some control over, at least until early adolescence years, is food and I lost it.
Wyatt William is by far the most strong-willed, hyper active, independent, rule breaking, boundary pushing, dare deviling 2 year old child that I have ever met in my almost 25 years of life.
I see my faults in where I have and am going wrong with his behavior problems. He doesn't think that I am serious when I say no and put him on time out because, well... because I am not. Sometimes its cute when he jumps off of the coffee table and sometimes it's not, sometimes it's ok to have 3 popsicles before dinner and then other times it's not, sometimes it's ok to stay up late with the cousins and sometimes it's not. My inconsistency is a bad thing. It's not his fault, it's mine.
Look at the whole potty training dilemma.... He was doing so good and when HE decided he didn't want to do it anymore I said ok. Wyatt was sick a few weeks ago and slept in bed with me for an entire week and now he wakes up at 3am to come cuddle and I let him because it is easier than trying to get him back into bed and lose 15 minutes of much needed sleep.  He doesn't have to stay on time out until the timer rings because he acts super cute and blows kisses, he gets the toy car or skittles at Target because he'll cry if I say no and other parents who have easy well behaved children will give me "that look".
I understand a lot of my parenting no-no's are because I am a young, single mother. With age comes patience and understanding and I am still developing a lot of  these qualities and trying to figure out who I am as a person while trying to raise a well adjusted little person.
I can't mop the kitchen and the bathroom floor and expect Wyatt to play by him self, I can't study and expect him to sit through an episode of Diego for a half an hour, I can't do my hair and put on make up and expect him not to destroy at least $10 worth of hair products, nail polishes and make up, because he is 2!! Instead I've been giving him chores, like when I mopped yesterday I asked him to throw the ball for the dogs and when he got bored after 4 minutes of that he helped me mop. Sure... it added an extra 10 minutes to the job but he felt so proud of himself to have helped.
Wyatt needs way more one-on-on time because he is so hyper active. He needs to go outside 3 times a day, he can't eat processed foods and sugar because it truly makes him crazy and he needs his mother to be consistent! I'm on day three and I started simple. I took out the sugar, I threw away anything with high fructose which was a lot! Eventually I will cut out the white flour and so on but I'm starting simple. Wyatt gets a time out, not some sometimes but EVERY time he hits, pushes, spits, throws something and kicks. I stay calm and talk to him in a low voice, I don't let him see that his behavior upsets me.We started a sticker chart. I helped him make and color it, he was very proud of his work. The sticker chart has probably been the best thing in Wyatt's behavior change, he has really responded to it and tries really hard to acquire as many stickers as he can, every 5 stickers he gets a non-edible treat.

Train ride in Costa Mesa

There is the coolest park in Costa Mesa that has free train rides every 3rd weekend of the month. We went last weekend with Grandpa, Uncle Matt and Ashley. Even though Wyatt's dad is no longer involved, I feel very thankful that his family is so involved with Wyatt. They are awesome people.

The train ride was pretty sketchy but so much fun!

Uncle Matt and Wyatt

                                                              Grandpa and Wyatt

Me on the train =)



This week has been nuts. I think I've bought about 5 starbucks drinks, but they have kept me a little sane so it's been worth the money.

I finally turned in all of my financial aid paper work. That was a 2 month process and now I have to wait up to 6weeks to actually get the financial aid. But... it's finished!

School is going alright. I'm not the best at cutting hair yet and I'm not used to having to work so hard at something, I normally pick things up a lot faster so this has been a little hard on my ego.

I found this the other day and it made me happy...

One day at a time =)