8/8/11 - S is for Sad

For some reason, Nathan decided that just a few months before his 4th birthday he'd start to explore the "terrible twos."  I have no idea why, but Nathan is crying at the drop of a hat these days.  Seriously, I bet if you took one of his hats and dropped it, he'd throw one heck of a hissy fit about it.  We're working really hard to try and emphasize that it is absolutely okay to cry, but it's not okay to cry for no reason...so if he's crying, he needs to use his words to express himself and try to explain what is making him so upset.  If he can't do that, he goes to a quiet place where he can cry and think about it.  When he's ready to talk he can come and sit in Mommy's lap and I will hug him and hold him as he tries to explain why he's so sad.  I'm often telling him that crying only tells me he's sad, it doesn't tell me what he's sad about and it doesn't help solve the problem.  If he wants something, he needs to use his words so that I can understand what he wants. I'm optimistic that he'll get the message sometime before his 18th birthday.

I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do or not, but I've read that since I'm the Mommy I'm automatically the expert. HAHAHA. 

In this photo Nathan is crying immediately after waking from his nap.  He came right down the stairs screaming and crying.  I did what any good mother  365 project photographer would do, I identified his emotion as one that would properly fulfill today's requirement for a photo of something starting with the letter "S" and plopped him on the office chair, grabbed my camera and snapped this photo. Then I attempted in my most Love and Logic inspired way to console my child while trying to figure out what could have possibly happened in the 10 SECONDS between waking up and walking down stairs to make him so hysterical!!  Sadly I waited too long before posting this photo and I no longer remember what Nathan was crying about.  I'm pretty sure it got resolved though.