Dear all,
I am a first-time mom to a 14 month old boy who, very early on, showed signs of being different from his peers. I read many of your posts when I was at a loss at how to mother a child like him especially as I felt very alone through the first year, not wanting to sound like I was bragging/lying etc about my son's development and although I never posted, I derived much comfort from your various comments and experiences. Thank God I have a very observant and supportive pediatrician and family, so I eventually managed to squash my anxiety issues (well, somewhat ;))
I won't ramble on about his achievements but to set the stage, DS spoke his first word clearly at 7 weeks of age and now has a 40+ vocabulary, recognized all his shapes by 11 months (including more complicated ones such as decagon which he now names if shown), the entire alphabet in random order at 12 months as well as numbers 1-10. He can sleep less than we do (triple ugh), watches full length operas on tv with great interest waving his hands in tune with the music (that, he shares with his doting grandfather who has more patience than I do) and demonstrated empathy and interactive play with other children at 8 months. The only thing he's behind on milestone-wise is the fact that he still doesn't walk alone (due to an orthopedic issue which will eventually correct itself) which I selfishly see as a temporary form of relief as he already gets into EVERYTHING especially if it's dangerous, has a lid, knob, cord, socket or bolt. And it never stops...
I love him to bits but I must admit that I am totally exhausted. My husband and I both have demanding careers and the only free time we have is spent with him...which is normal but the fatigue is now even more so as we are having increasing trouble disciplining him.
Basically he understood the word no at 9 months and back then when approaching something he knew he shouldn't, stopped to look at us, then inquisitively shook his head no and waited for our confirmation. If no, he would then simply move on.
We thought AWESOME...but it was short-lived. Now he just does what he wants, giving us a cheeky smile when we tell him not to touch something and doing it anyway, looking at us provocatively dropping his food on the floor saying uh-oh with a grin, and even laughing when we cracked on day and gave him a good spanking (for info, I am generally not a supporter of corporal punishment and I hated myself afterwards but he really put himself in danger and "no" followed by physical removal from the source yielded zero results). When my husband scolds him, he blabbers right back at him with an indignant tone which at time can be downright funny (we shield our smiles of course). He also likes to scream at the top of his lungs without tears when he is irritated or sometimes, out of the blue, and cracks up right afterwards. Needless to say it makes trips to the supermarket or cafe extra pleasurable
As I mentioned before, I am a first time mom and I am probably clueless yet I honestly don't see this behavior in any of my friends' children at that age so it's a little worrisome ...but could it also be just normal toddler behavior and I just need to be patient and wait it out? do you have any advice?...We don't want to crush our little man's spirit or sunny nature but want to make sure he receives age-appropriate discipline. We, of course, don't know yet if he is gifted but we can't deny that his pace of development may play a part in his behavior.
Any ideas would be lovely...Thank you so much for your time...
