That smiling, adorable little baby face has been in our lives for a whole four months now and I can hardly believe it! Some days it feels like the hours just drag by but then when I stop and think about the grand scheme of things, time is actually moving at an alarmingly fast rate. The holidays are right around the corner and before we know it, we’ll be entering the year 2018!

I think this past month has been the hardest for me in terms of parenting and just life in general. Both Kurt and I are still very much mourning the loss of our first pet, Stella, which I posted about a few weeks ago and it’s been hard having to repeatedly remind Nate why she isn’t physically with us any more. He doesn’t ask about her daily but when he does, he asks repeatedly about her throughout the day and sometimes asks if he can “go and find her?” It’s hard trying to explain to a three year old exactly why he can’t find his cat and where she is now. I like that he remembers her right now and does tell me he misses her; it just makes me a bit sad. So there’s that then plus, I feel like I got robbed of my favourite season this year. People were literally wearing short sleeves in the middle of October then BAM! all of the sudden it’s winter jacket weather. No in between this year; no ‘real’ Fall in my opinion. It was crazy warm then cold. I hardly wore any of my Fall clothes (and yes, I know it’s still technically Fall but not MY Fall).

And now, we’re embarking down a dangerous path “The four month sleep regression” and the dreaded “threenager”. At. The. Same. Time! Seriously, for everyone who has ever said it’s the “terrible twos” no, you’re wrong. It’s not. It’s the “terrifying threes” for sure over here. Yes, Nate is still super cute and funny and silly and every other nice word I’ve ever used to describe him but he’s also learning how to be more independent and realizing that he’s his own person who can control what he says/does. There have been days where he’s been an absolute angel of a child and helps me out in every way he possibly can and does his best to be independent (e.g. pulling up his own pants after using the bathroom) but then there’s been days where he literally fights me on EVERYTHING!!! Like literally everything.

Me- “Nate do you want a yogurt for breakfast?” Nate- “No! I want the phone!” Me- “Nate, I’m asking what you want to eat, you can use the phone later.” Nate-bursts into tears and throws self onto ground. Me- “Awesome, it’s not even 9 am yet…”

Kurt- “Nate you need to eat the dinner Mommy made you. Try one bite of chicken please. It’s good; look Daddy’s eating it.” Nate- bursts into tears “No chicken! No chicken! I have chocolate milk and cookie?” Kurt- “No Nate, you need to eat you dinner first.” Kurt- picks up a piece of chicken to give to Nate. Nate- bursts into tears, starting gagging and screaming bloody murder.

It literally feels like the ‘bad’ parenting days have been outweighing the good ones lately. And it’s hard because he’s genuinely such a sweet kid but I swear some days I don’t even know who the boy living in my house is because that’s how drastic his mood changes can be. The worst part is, I was warned by so many friends that the third year is 10 times harder than the second but part of me (like every parent) thought that Nate would be the exception. He’s still a fantastic kid but this whole ‘learning his own independence’ thing is wearing me down. Then we’ve got little Eli who is going through a sleep regression and not only waking several times throughout the night again but also refusing to take longer naps during day so by dinnertime, his mini 20 minute power naps aren’t enough to keep him content so he’s overtired and miserable. Two out of three days this week have been spent with him literally screaming and crying for close to three hours straight.

Basically, it’s just been a rough few weeks and I’m really hoping for some positive vibes to come my way. As much as I complain, I do know how lucky I am to be complaining about this type of stuff but it doesn’t make it any easier to deal with. Hopefully things turn around soon and we’ll be back on track! Until then, there’s always these adorable pictures to make me smile!