My second baby is six months old today. That's a half a year! And while I haven't slept through an entire night in what feels like infinity, and I have not pooped with the door closed in nearly 3 years, I am surpremely happy. I think it's all the scribbling and singing silly songs. If you don't do a lot of that with your kids, I will tell you the three things that make me get along best with my toddler when he's getting annoying: singing silly songs (I recommend Brass Monkey, by the Beastie Boys, b/c then your toddler will sing it later while going down the echoey stairs and that's seriously funny stuff,) scribbling with wild abandon, and wrestling (great for aggression release when you're getting stupidly pissed at the small cave person's attitude problem, because seriously, they can be infuriating but getting mad is just stupid b/c the poor small person's brain just hasn't developed yet. Take a deep breath and wrestle about it.)
If you can't do those things, walking away to count to a thousand and take some deep breaths is totally a good idea. I know b/c some shit I knew but chose to ignore was that sometimes toddlers shit on the floor in defiance. And my kid did that a couple weeks ago. Congratulations to me b/c I didn't kill him. I barely even yelled. I did, however, grab his hand and make him pick it up. We've spent some time since then singing songs, scribbling, and wrestling. And I can honestly say our household is once again happy.
