Two Things Need to Go

As I've said many times in this space, my kids were great, happy babies, but extremely challenging toddlers and little boys. Carson has come so far with his behavior in the last year. Miles remained challenging until he started kindergarten, so the fact that Carson is still a year and a half from kindergarten and already settling down is a win in my book. 

With that said, there are two things that I am ready for him to outgrow now! One is a nuisance and one is a borderline nightmare. First for the nuisance. I am over him having to sleep with a bed full of stuffed animals. He is currently making a border wall with them every night. They take up half his bed. I quickly counted what I could see tonight and I counted 15, 1 of which, the elephant, is big enough for 5. You might think I could sneak some away, but I'm pretty sure he would notice. They all have to be accounted for and tucked into their special places before he can sleep. It makes changing the sheets such a pain and you can forget about making the bed because who wants to wait for him to organize this every night?!? It really bugs me, but we are soooo thankful that he is going to bed by himself every night (for going on two weeks), so we'll live with the stuffed animal arrangement.

Now for the nightmare. Clothes are a complete struggle. This has been building for a while and it just gets worse and worse, even though we compromise sometimes, but don't completely give in all the time. I remember being a little picky about my clothes, so I know it's a real issue for kids, but I also know part of it is a power struggle for Carson. When pushed hard enough and threatened, he will concede sometimes, so I know he can. 

He doesn't like tags, seams, sleeves, collars, tight fitting anything, when socks are the slightest bit crooked, and basically any underwear because "it's up in there" as he says. It's almost a daily struggle. We have wasted so much money buying clothes because he will take one look and not like it or wear it a couple times and then decide he doesn't like it. He is highly unpredictable, although I am finding that he likes dry fit shirts a lot and when his clothes are a little looser, including his shoes and underwear. He also likes shorts, so this look has become a new favorite and seems to be a sure bet. 

Can we talk about how big his feet are? These are Miles' old shoes and they are a 3Y. That is outrageously big for a 4 year old. His tennis shoes are a 2Y now. Miles has big feet too, but nothing like this, especially at such a young age.

I talked to a friend at church that has four boys. I asked her if any of her boys had this clothing issue. She said that one of them did and when I asked at what age he outgrew it, she said third grade. That was not the answer I was going for. For now, I am going to try buy more of what I know he likes and continue to push him at times. We can't do it everyday because we will lose our minds (especially Darrin who has a very short fuse with this issue...understandably), but he also can't win everyday. So, if you see my kid wearing the same thing day after day, it either means we washed it or we bought five of the same pair of pants or shorts :)