Linda recently asked her readers for advice after Riley bit her. Like, he bit her bit her.
Even though Noah has about four gagillion teeth, I'm happy to report that he has never bitten me or anyone else.
He just smacks me in the face and throws things at my head.
No, seriously. And it freaking HURTS.
He's not doing it to be mean -- in fact, he clearly thinks it's all a game. He'll toddle up to me, all dimpled smiles, TV remote in hand, and then hurl it at my face as hard as he can. Same with his cup when he wants more juice. He'll let me know he wants to play catch by beaming me in the head with his ball. (Which is bad enough already, but now picture a small red wooden stacking toy that he thinks is also a ball.) If I'm talking or singing, he'll hit my mouth until I stop.
Then he laughs. He laughs when I raise my voice and tell him NO. There doesn't seem to be a tone of voice that he takes seriously, at all. If I grab his hand and say NO after he hits, he laughs while trying to get his hand free, and then gets mad and KICKS ME IN THE GUT if he can't. If I try to explain why we don't hit and that he hurt me all I get are blank stares and no apparent lesson learned. If I take whatever object he's just hurled at me away, he doesn't seem to get the connection. Or he'll just pick up something else to throw.
And he's strong enough to make it really hurt now. I have a big bruise on my cheek. I flinch whenever I see him coming towards me with anything heavier than a stuffed animal. Every time he picks up a ball at Gymboree I'm afraid he's going to hurt another kid. And I don't know how to make him stop. How to make him understand that we throw balls TO people, not AT people. That hitting is not a game. That he is hurting Mama. That he needs to use words and questions instead of simply hurling whatever he wants at my eye sockets.
I'm also afraid of losing my temper one of these times, honestly.
Have any of you dealt with a toddler who hits? HALP.
