Acting Up

For a little while, maybe even a week, Lincoln has been back to biting. It's not every day, and it's never at home, but we have been getting more and more reports from school about it. The first few reports we chalked up to his teething since weknew that his last two two year molars were still pushing through. However, they've been at least halfway in now for many days so we didn't think that he would be having teething issues/pain anymore. Then, yesterday, he tried to bite 6 times and was successful 5 of those! He ended up sitting in a high chair for a lot of the afternoon while the other kids got to play on the floor. I hate that, but I hate that he's biting even more. Plus, this time (yesterday, not just one time biting), he was biting because he wanted something or because he didn't want to share! My sweet little boy who does a great job sharing at home and at church (in the cry room, with us right there).

So, today I told school that if he tried to bite twice that they should give him a full dose of Tylenol. I hate giving him medicine when we don't know that anything's wrong but it definitely seemed better than having him bite all day! (Plus I sent him to school with two teething toys.) So, I got a call late this morning saying that he wasn't biting but was VERY aggressive - hiting his friend on the head with a toy, doing something to a girl who wanted to play with a toy that was near him (that he wasn't playing with), and so on. How embarassing and disappointing!!! This wasn't behavior that they would normally have called about but they wanted to know if I thought he should get Tylenol even though he wasn't biting and if I had any other ideas. (I said yes to the Tylenol, although probably after nap since he sleeps fine and isn't a menace then. I also told them that if they needed to use harsh voices, time outs, and having him sit in the high chair, they should do what they needed to do to discipline him.)

That's another thing, yesterday, he wasn't even remorseful about the biting! He got it that he was being punished once he had to sit in the high chair, but not before then - not even with normal time out!

The owner had a son who was a biter who got really bad right before her next baby was born. So, maybe this all has to do with Ben's arrival getting close. Lincoln is really sweet about babies and likes to talk about Ben and Ben being here, where he'll sit and such. But, maybe this is just nature taking over and somehow getting him prepared for not being an only child anymore. I suppose if I think about it, it would make sense that the toddler would start fending for himself or trying to bully his way in the world if he knew mommy and daddy would be distracted with a baby. Not that Lincoln actually knows any of that, but I guess I could see how nature would be set up like that.

Hopefully, he had a good afternoon and we can just watch him for teething issues...