Dealing with the jealous, possessive (little) man in my life...

The other night we were hanging out with my parents before they left for vacation.  My sister cooked a huge, amazing meal, and we had eaten and had a lot of fun.

My younger niece, the 1-year-old, was closing in on bedtime and getting sleepy and cuddly.  She toddled over to where I was playing with the kids on the floor and plopped in my lap.

My son immediately ran over and hugged onto me.  "No!" he chastised her.  "My mama!"

I showed him that there was room for me to cuddle on them both, and that his cousin wasn't going to steal me away from him, but he was still pretty put-out.  That's when I started getting nervous about Sunday.

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What to do when all you hear is "Mine!"

Just starting this week, my son has had an odd new habit in the mornings.  Whenever it's time to leave for school, right as we're heading out the door he'll grab one of his toys, or maybe a favorite book.  If you try to convince him to leave it at home, he'll just hold onto it more tightly and yell.

Given that the last thing we want to do right before work is defuse a toddler tantrum, my husband and I have been just letting him carry the possession into the car and hold it during the ride to preschool.  Sometimes we can get him to leave it in the car, other times, he's insistent on bringing it inside.

His teacher, the lovely Mrs. B, has also informed us that he's starting to use the words "mine" and "no" a lot more frequently.  This bothers us a little.  He's always been great about sharing with other kids, and he's normally pretty agreeable.  But lately, we've been seeing him act out this way at home, too.

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