Although I’d like to pretend that life with Tyler is all smiles and sunshine, (wouldn’t we all with our kids?) we do go through some rough times with him.

In the last few months Tyler has developed a temper which I have definitely connected to lack of sleep.  Boy, is he moody in the morning.  “I don’t want to get dressed, you’re a bad mommy…”, and sometimes, he has even hit me.  When he does that he gets punished with something special to him taken away.  And usually he thinks about it and says, “You are a good mommy, and I do love you.”

He’s had some incidents at school as well.  It’s not like a bully thing where kids are scared of him, it’s more like “he’s gonna blow” as he tries to hold his temper in, and the kids in school aren’t scared of him.

Grant and I, along with his teachers are teaching him to see a “red light” and to take a breath before he acts out.  And the always popular, say it with me now…”Use your words”.

Last week Grant and I had our voices raised.  I say that because we don’t really yell, ever.  But as much as we try to keep any angst from Tyler, sometimes it’s hard not to argue in front of him.  And he is very sensitive to it, as most kids are.

Anyway, as we had our “voices raised” in front of him, he suddenly shouts out, “Mommy! Daddy!  Calm down!”  We looked at him.  “Seeee the red liiiight”, he continued. “Now breeeathe, breeeathe.”

We stopped, wordless, looked at him, and then started laughing.  How long can you be frustrated with a four-year-old boy who teaches us that we need to “Use our words better”?