I feel awful saying this but I am struggling to find much joy in parenting Stanley at the moment. There are moments for sure. He is incredibly sweet and funny. But it is overshadowed by a lot of really challenging behaviour.
You just can't ever relax because he is always on the verge of breaking something (either possessions or himself). I feel so sad for Winnie because unless someone else is around to keep an eye on Stanley it is virtually impossible to give her attention because I either have to run off every 30 seconds to stop Stanley from doing something he shouldn't or he is desperately trying to climb between us.
I know some of it is just his age, and that he's a boy. I try to be realistic about what to expect of him. But it's very obvious when he knows he shouldn't be doing something because he will make sure you're watching him before he does it.
He doesn't even watch TV so you just can't ever get a break. Like if I could put something on and know he'll watch it for even 10 mins it would make my life so much easier but it's like he doesn't even see the TV. He might stop for 30 seconds but that's literally it.
I don't know what I can do about it, I keep waiting for him to grow out of it but it's been over a year and if anything it's gotten worse as he's become more mobile. He really pushes my buttons and I'm ashamed to say I've ended up shouting at him more than once but even that does nothing, he just laughs.
I saw a reel the other day that said if your first kid is well behaved and you think it's because of your amazing parenting then it's important you have a second kid so you can be humbled and it's so true. Consider me humbled lmao.