Band aids can’t fix beanbags

I think I spoke too soon when I told people that my two and a half year old didn’t seem to be going through the terrible twos. I was more likely correct in saying that his terrible twos are, for the most part, being over shadowed by my oldest son’s fighting fours (dubbed so because everything is a fight with him). My husband would probably say that my middle son’s twos have been pretty terrible for him or more specifically his two (if you catch my drift).

You see, aside from the ear piercing screeching that my two year old has been doing lately, he’s become rather fond of throwing things and punching things. Usually these things aren’t done in malice, especially the punching. He just lives in a two year old’s world where superheroes rule and he is one of them. In order to protect this world, he must shoot things from his palms with a “pew-pew” sound and punch things. Every once in a while a person just happens to get in the way of his punching, but he’s two, so there isn’t much force behind it and it is all okay.

About a week ago, my husband happened to be on the receiving end of a punching incident, but it wasn’t one of his normal, malice-free punches. My husband was standing in the kitchen, minding his own business, when suddenly, out of no where, my two year old came running at him and punched him in the balls full force. I was in the adjoining living room when I heard the yell and quickly ran to see what happened only to find my husband crumpled on the ground howling in pain. This isn’t the first time a kid has injured my husband in this fashion, intentional or not, but I’ve never heard him howl so much from it, so I knew it was particularly bad. My two year old was so scared from the yelling and howling that he hid under the table. I still wasn’t sure how my husband had become injured in this fashion and looked around for my four year old, who had been in the kitchen moments before, to ask him what happened, but he had quickly scurried out of the room. Next thing I knew, my four year old comes running back into the room with a bandaid for his dad. It was so cute, I couldn’t help but laugh and neither could my husband, despite his pain.

It took a while to coax my two year old out from beneath the table. I told my husband that he needed to explain why you were yelling and that what he did was bad, but in a calm manner so he wouldn’t do it again. So my husband tells my two year old, ” you hit me right in the beanbags, you can’t do that.” Of course this was hysterical to my four year old who then went around for the next hour smacking himself in the crotch and saying “Oh, right in the beanbags!” Awesome.

Well we must be doing something right with our oldest son since he had such compassion for his dad. The two year old, on the other hand, is a work in progress. I guess the lesson here is, four year olds can have moments of sweetness on occasion. That and always wear a cup around a two year old.