The Terrible 2's: Tantrums, Tears, and Hair-pulling....(and it was a rough time for Joey too!)

Ahh, the Terrible Two's. As a parent, you will hear stories of tantrums, biting, strong wills, and maybe even the occasional "my kid used to bang his head on the wall repeatedly". You'll hear an equal amount of over-embellished tales of how well-behaved, smart, and completely compliant a mother's child was from birth. I say "mother's" because it seems some women can't bring themselves to admit any such woes. It could tarnish their self-reputed Good Mother status, don't ya know!
Let me see if I can paint the most accurate picture of what 24 to 36 months of age was like for Joey....Take the typical menu of "Terrible 2" attributes and multiply it times 4 or 5. Now add a lack of language development to the equation and you've got yourself a recipe for frustration.
Joey's 2nd birthday didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Without going into too many details, hyperactivity and shrieking ensued.
At this point, I was a novice stay-at-home mom trying to get into the groove of being full time caregiver, teacher, nurse, psychologist, chauffeur, warden, cook, maid, etc....Joey's day was structured for his organization....and my sanity. We ate breakfast together...when I could wrangle him and sit him down long enough, that is. In the mornings, he'd help me vacuum< There's that vacuum cleaner thing again.
I tried my best to only go shopping once per week because that was the most my nerves could handle. A short trip out usually went something like this:

1. Strap Joey into car seat while he kicks and screams because he doesn't want his rapid mobility stopped.
2. Drive 15 min. to the store while Joey struggles to get out of the car seat, shrieking if a truck passed by or the sun was too bright.
3. Arrive at the store, and now Joey is happy and bubbly, ready to......RUN!
4. Convince Joey that the child seat in the shopping cart is way more fun than running all over the store, and promptly bribe him with Cheerios and a sippy cup.
5. By the 2nd aisle, Joey is overwhelmed and grumpy....and he's letting the entire know it.
6. I beg, plead, attempt to distract, and even bribe him more to stay put in his cart seat, or at the very least to hold the cart while we walk the aisles.
7. Chase him down the aisle (my attempts failed miserably), then wait for the ear-piercing scream that follows.
8. Try to ignore the ignorant remarks of witnesses who are under the delusion that screaming is something only spoiled or sleepy children do. (FYI, the worst of the spoiled children don't need to scream because they've never been denied anything. Therefore they have no manipulative reaction that's displayable.)
9. Finally make it through the store, but I've not gotten everything on my list because quite frankly, I'm exhausted.
   
10. Make it to the check-out lane where screaming begins again because...well, I'm not completely sure why. Maybe it was the sounds of the registers overwhelming him, or maybe it was that he just didn't want to leave the store....which becomes an irony in the near future. Either way, I get the usual disapproving looks of parents who are apparently perfect, as are their children.
11. Try not to lose it driving home from the store because now he's not happy about being placed in his car seat once more. Translation: more shrieking.
12. Get Joey in the house before bringing in the shopping bags, otherwise they'll never get taken in because I'd be too busy chasing him down and trying to muffle the screams so neighbors don't think he's in physical danger.
13. Put away groceries and sink into the sofa while trying not to cry my eyes out at my failure as a mother.

The rest of the day was filled with power struggles, "No, no, Joey!" 's aplenty, and an endless amount of random energy that I couldn't seem to help him channel positively. Building and imaginative play were his only interests, but there was only so much pretending he could do without developed communication skills. By 2.5 yrs old, he was still using only single words. But again, my concerns to his pediatrician were met with consolation that he would soon catch up because he wasn't lacking intellectually. If it weren't for Joey's preschool teacher, I never would have known that the public school system had a speech therapy program for children beginning at age 3. And so began the road of searching for answers, options, and support.