Testing the Waters at Three

Has anyone seen my sweet little boy? Because I had this sweet two year old, but I think someone stole him and replaced him with this three year old who is testing every.little.thing lately. Oh, and this one comes with tantrums too. Oh yay.

As a mom of a kid with CIs, many things run through my mind. I wonder if his map levels are off - too soft or too loud, which both can be a cause for not hearing clearly and behavior problems (for my non-CI parent followers, remember Aiden hears through electrical stimulation. A "map" sets limits to these stimulations in order for Aiden to hear the softest sounds as well as comfortably loud sounds. Each map is individual to its user and can change over time which is why we frequent the audiologist). Another thought that always comes to mind is his receptive and expressive language. Is he understanding what we're saying to him? Is he frustrated we're not understanding everything he is saying to us?

I'm pretty sure his maps are fine. He repeats all lings perfectly. His speech is the same. He shows no physical signs of the maps being too loud (such as his eyes watering and/or twitching OR him not wanting to wear them). But then again, he was recently "turned up" and has said a couple random times (with a smile on his face and covering his ears), "It's too loud!" But he says it with the simplest of things, such as when Ryan, Kailyn, and I are talking together. Then there's the opposite spectrum where I'm having to repeat myself many times to get him to listen. I call this three year old selective hearing though.

I know he's understanding us.

For example, yesterday his sister was laying on the floor watching Disney channel. Aiden was playing beside her, picked up one of his toys, and threw it at her to get her attention. His daddy stood up immediately, told him to, "Come here," which he did, then told him he needed to sit in time out for hitting his sister. Aiden, without any physical direction, went directly to the steps (his head hanging low as he knew he was in trouble) and sat down. After his two minutes were up, his daddy called for him and told him he needed to tell his sister sorry. Aiden went right over to Kailyn, gave her a hug, and said, "I'm sawy."

This morning I nearly had to sit on him to get him dressed and ready for school. He did not want to take off his pajamas, get dressed, get his shoes on, etc and fought me tooth and nail with everything I tried to do. A solid 40 minute tantrum. Do you know how hard it was to put him on a bus after all that?! Part of me couldn't wait for the bus to drive away with him and part of me wanted to sit down to hold and hug him to make it all better. He fights going to bed (which he's really never done before), he tells us "no" to everything we tell him (and I remember being worried he'd never say NO - oh my), he's not eating his dinner, taking him to any type of store where I can't strap him down in a cart is completely out.of.question, and the list goes on.

I think I have a very active three year old who is showing his age, his attitude, definitely testing his limits, and is trying to take over my household.

I think Aiden is VERY strong willed and VERY strong physically. Whew, he nearly won that wrestling match to get him dressed this morning and it definitely counted as my daily workout.

I think I'm still going to put a call into our audiologist to let her know about the recent behavior changes. Just.in.case.

I think I'm truly going to enjoy lunch with the girls today, and I know I'm having a margarita.

Even with all this, I do have to say, the sweetness is still there. Many times a day, he'll run up to me yelling, "MOMMY!" like he hasn't seen me in years, with a big ol' smile, and his hands held out ready for a hug and a kiss.

I think it's part of his plan to get away with all the other things he's been pulling. Call me a sucker, cause it works.