Oh...THREE!

This age that Jackson's at right now is going to be the death of me.  I swear, he's a raging maniac sometimes!  Example:

This morning (before school), I asked him nicely to clean up some blocks he'd had all over the living room floor.  All he had to do was put them in their big Ziploc bag.  This request of mine led to him standing in front of me, screaming until his little face turned bright red, crying as if I'd asked him to do something so heinous.  He did pick them up, but not after a lot of noise and show.

After school, I went to pick him up.  One of the classroom aids, a nice woman who knows I'm his mom, came out to help load kids into busses and cars.  She came over to say hi, then told me that Jackson was caught doing something really nice today.  At clean up time, he cleaned what he was playing with, then cleaned up toys that others had played with.  I laughed and told her about my morning, and she in turn laughed and said she didn't believe me.

OH...how I wish I was lying.

This is daily, and there are times where I just look at him and wonder what to do as he's standing there throwing a fit.  Do I discipline him, thus making his screaming/crying worse?  Do I ignore it, like I've heard to do, and make him think his behavior is ok?  Do I get in his face, hug him, show tons of empathy?  Do I follow that teeny tiny feeling inside me to slap him into next Tuesday?  (<--don 2="" 5="" 6="" a="" about="" all.="" and="" another="" be="" br="" but="" can="" do="" feel="" for="" freakin="" go="" happen...="" i="" is="" like="" ll="" lose="" many="" me.="" more.="" my="" nbsp="" none="" of="" on="" online="" or="" people="" phase="" re="" read="" really="" say="" scenarios="" seem="" shit.="" so="" t="" them="" they="" this="" to="" tried="" until="" ve="" what="" won="" working="" worry...that="" years="">
The other thing he does that will drive me to an early grave is declaring every naughty behavior as "my favorite trick!"  When I ask him to stop doing something he shouldn't be doing, 99% of the time, I'm met with, "AWW!  But it's my fave-wit twick!"  If I ask him to do something he doesn't want to do, it's "But that's not my fave-wit twick!"  UGH! 

Then there are the times (few and far between as they seem) where he's a total sweetheart.  If I sneeze, it's ALWAYS followed by "Bless you, Mom!"  If I bump into him and say "Excuse me," he responds with "You're excused!"  He snuggles with me every morning and every afternoon after his nap, and if we're on the couch together, he's snuggled in for some warmth and love.  I could eat him up sometimes, and I cherish those moments because I know that someday, he won't want to do those things and I'll wonder where those times went.

Three.  Can't say it's my favorite age right now.  Wondering what four will be like....