Toilets, Trashes, Tempers, and Teething

As you might have gathered from the title, it's been a trying week with Mathison as he's beginning to travel the road of toddlerhood. Here are the main things that are keeping our family on their toes:

• TOILETS....... The bathroom is Mathison's new favorite play area, and the toilets are proving irresistable. Perhaps it's because they involve so many of his senses - he can hear the flushing sound when he pulls the handle, then watch the water whirl down the pipe. Next, he can feel the splash of the water and even lick it off his hands. And if Mathison gets tired of these activities, there's always the wonders of unrolling the toilet paper or shredding it to pieces. Who knew that bathrooms could be so fun?
• TRASHES....... These are a close second on Mathison's list of fun activities. There are so many mysteries to uncover in their depths, and he just might luck out and find some discarded gum or - happy day - actual food if he happens to raid the kitchen trash. This sheds a whole new light on the saying "one man's junk is another man's treasure".
• TEMPER........ All of my other kids entered the "terrible twos" around 18 mos, and it looks like Mathison is headed in the same direction. He's started yelling at family members if he's angry at them, and has even tried to hit his siblings once or twice. Mathison's newest - and most frustrating - trick is to arch his back, throw his arms in the air, and slump to the floor if you try picking him up when he doesn't want you to. It makes it almost impossible to hold him, and you feel like you're going to drop him at any moment.
• TEETHING....... To top things off, Mathison's cutting his 4 top teeth all at the same time. One finally broke through the other day, but the others are still bulging right beneath his gums. This has made him crankier than usual, and he's been crying a lot during the nights. Gnawing on things seems to alleviate some of the pain and pressure of his teething, but the objects Mathison wants to chew on are the body parts of other family members. It was quite a surprise when Mathison tried to take a chunk out of my toe while I was watching TV! Hands are also a popular choice, and Mathison even went after DEl's thigh the other night when he was lying on the couch.

I've been thinking hard about my "silver lining" for this situation (as per my last blog), and I've come up with the following: I guess I should feel lucky that if Mathison were to ever find himself alone in our house, he would be able to sustain himself with water from the toilet and food from the trash....and if an intruder were to enter the home, Mathison could use his arch and slump manuever while biting him on the thigh!