terrible 3's??

I am sharing a recent post by one of my sorority sisters from GT and a dear friend of mine. She has a daughter who is 3, and she is dealing with the exact same things that I am with Jack right now. A light switch flipped recently, and our sweet, smart, engaging little boy has turned into a monster. (Sorry, Gigi, I can only hope he's better for your visit...I really need the extra hands!) I am at the end of my rope...and I don't type that lightly.

We always knew Jack was strong-willed and stubborn. I like to say he takes after his Daddy in that way, because while I am a people-pleaser who hates conflict, Justin is much more stubborn. (Sorry, honey.) I could give a hundred examples of what life in our house is like lately, but here are just two:

1. Yesterday afternoon before Justin got home, Jack was playing in his room. He has a little toy flashlight with interchangeable plastic pieces that shine different animals on the wall. Everything was calm and happy, I was nursing Caroline and Jack was playing quietly. All of a sudden I hear screaming, like someone was ripping him limb to limb, and everything in his room (it seemed) being thrown against the wall. I tore poor Caroline off and ran in to find him having an absolute meltdown over the fact that the light in his flashlight went out because the batteries were dead. And when I say meltdown, I mean meltdown. He overturned every basket of toys in his room (there are 5 and they are HEAVY.) He tore all the covers off his bed. He threw himself against the wall and kicked it multiple times, until he gave himself bruises on his legs. He threw cars at me. I tried to console him with hugs and he punched me in the boob. All of this while tears streamed down his face and he sobbed hysterically. Finally, I left him alone to calm down and this hysteria went on for almost an hour.

2. Today is my birthday. Justin was being sweet and trying to do everything this morning like getting Jack dressed and ready for school. Jack only wanted to cut a piece of printer paper and make a paper airplane. We were getting pressed for time and we told him no. This caused the same massively hysterical tantrum. He loves school and loves to go...and he was crying and yelling at the top of his lungs that he will "NEVER GO TO SCHOOL! I HATE SCHOOL!" He ran outside and threw himself down on the concrete step and refused to move, yelling at the top of his lungs. Justin tried to reason with him - no. I tried to console him - no. Finally it took Justin's brute force to strap him into the car.

So - this is where we are. It's a 4 or 5 times-a-day occurrence now. I thought it was lack of sleep, so I made him sleep more. It hasn't helped. I thought maybe he's in a growth spurt or something, but it's lasted longer than 3 weeks now. I honestly don't know what to do. I would love any advice or helpful information. I am home all day with the kids and sometimes it's amazingly awesome to watch them grow and play...but lately it's a blur of crying and yelling at me and it's really grating. I need to have more patience. I have to somehow keep calm in the face of his fury. Lindsey (blog above) is much more eloquent than I am at writing how she feels...but I assure you, it's exactly the same. I hope that I can write soon about how we've overcome this. Being a parent is challenging and it throws you curve balls when you least expect it. This is one, and it's a hard one.