What I’ve come to realise with DS1 is he’s either ‘on’ 100% or he’s off (asleep). As soon as he wakes up it’s all systems go and he never seems to chill out. He's 2 years and 4 months.
He absolutely won’t nap anymore unless in the buggy or car in which case he’s asleep in 5 minutes if it’s past 11am. He wakes up around 5 so it’s a long day for him without a nap. Some days he’s absolutely amazing with no nap and other days he’s a total monster! I've tried asking him to have 'quiet time' in his room with books and toys and he won't. He just screams and cries to come out his room and come downstairs. This has been going on for at least 2 months so it's not just a phase.
I don’t know how to get through to him to do what we ask. Sometimes he does things that are dangerous and when I ask him to stop he carries on and if I start sounding more loud / cross / urgent he just laughs - this sometimes results in accidents, like the other week when he was head butting the garden door with the back of his head because he wanted to see my OH who was was working. I saw the door start to open, told him 'don’t do that, you’re going to fall out, started to get up and walk across the room to make him safe but it took too long (due to my huge bump I’m v slow to stand up atm) he did it 2 more times, the door opened and he fell out backwards down 3 steps onto the patio. Amazingly he didn’t really hurt himself but it was terrifying to watch. He’s also started kicking the dog and trying to climb on radiators. It’s all freaking me out he’s going to get hurt. I know he's pushing limits and that's what toddlers do but it's the unsafe ones that are really worrying me.
Does anyone know what to actually do in these situations? I try distraction and also explained we don’t kick people or dogs because it hurts and makes them sad. It’s become a thing he does for the attention I think? Our dog is incredibly tolerant and docile but that's not the point.
We are due another baby in 2 weeks and I'm scared we'll have even less attention for him to keep him safe.
He's just so impulsive and defiant. Does this all sound normal?