I finally understand what people mean when they say "The Terrible Twos". This weekend we went camping with Alex. We had a great time, but we had a really hard time controlling him. Whenever we would say (or yell) "NO!", he would laugh at us and run away.
There was a road between our campsite and a big open grassy area. The first time we realized we had a problem, Alex was standing on our side of the road and looking at us. I told him "No, come here!" and instead of coming he decided to test me by taking a few steps into the road while giggling. He knew he was doing something wrong, we could tell by the look on his face. At this point, I got up and carried him back on to the campsite. No sooner did I sit back down in my chair, he was at it again, but this time when I said "No!", he was off and running away and giggling the whole time. This time I brought him back to the campsite and put him in his stroller, but he was completely content to just sit there and watch the world around him. This routine repeated multiple times on our trip. There just isn't a good place to put a two year old that is really punishment while camping.
Until this point, we have not really needed or used time outs. I'm not really sure he even truly understands that they are supposed to be punishment. The thing is the running away while laughing really scares me. What if there had been a car coming, or what if that dog he ran towards had been actually vicious? He's my little boy. I don't want anything to happen to him, and he doesn't understand that the world is not a friendly place.
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