He's not quite a year and a half old yet, but he's already testing his limits and mom and dad are being tested too.

From what I read and what I hear from friends, most kids go through it. But we're doing our best to nip bad behavior in the bud.

Let me start by saying I'm blessed to have a wonderful toddler. Normally Mr. Kanyon Christopher is the picture of what every parent could dream of... happy, curious, funny, smart and loving. That said, he's a normal kid, with comes with normal challenges. Chris and I are going through those challenges right now.

What are the big agenda items at our house?
Kanyon is hitting when he's upset and it's time to let go of the pacifier. We're about ankle-deep in these waters and I don't want us to get over our heads. We're trying hard to get these things under control before they become a habit for him.

We're first-timers of course, so some of you will probably nod knowingly or even chuckle at our adventures in parenthood.

So far, when Kanyon gets mad or doesn't get his way (like diaper changes) he starts swinging. He gets told firmly not to hit and that hands are for hugging... his hands are stopped which normally ends in him laughing (despite our stern faces and insisting it's not funny) and he'll then hug and be all happy. However, sometimes he keeps hitting and now he's going into time out for 1 minute since he's 1. He knows he's done something wrong because he cries but he hasn't stopped hitting all together. I'd say it's better, but not completely gone. We've been dealing with it for 3 weeks now. To the best of my knowledge, he hasn't done this at daycare or anything, so for that I'm thankful, but he needs to stop hitting mom and dad and inanimate objects too!

We've heard consistency is the key so we're sticking with our plan and not letting it slide at all. It's probably a bigger test for Chris and me than anything. We want to raise a respectful, sweet child. I am not hearing alarm bells or anything in my head yet because I know part of it is him not being able to express himself in another way yet. His vocabulary is getting bigger by the second and I'm hoping soon he can say "mommy I'm mad" instead soon. (No is one of his favorite words right now of course).

Does this stage pass soon? I'd love to hear your experience and advice!

Then there's the pacifier. Chris and I have always let Kanyon sleep with one and if he was having teething pain he could have it, otherwise it was popped out of his mouth when he woke up. Our big plan was to ditch the pacifier June 1. Then, Kanyon got an ear infection. I felt too bad taking his nighttime comfort when he's sick and now he's started requesting his "nuk" by name! That's when you know it's time if they can ask for it! However, I'm letting the antibiotics run their course, but in a matter of days it will be time. We wanted him to have long forgotten the pacifiers by the time the baby comes so he won't want one again. We're not sure what approach to take.

He's handled every other big change well (weaning, sleeping through the night) so I'm confident in him. We just can't decide if we tell him a story about how big boys don't need pacifiers or if we do the whole cut the tip off so they don't have the same appeal... ideas? What worked for you? We'll be tackling this fun in a couple of days.

I don't want to introduce any big life changes when the baby gets home so we're working hard to take care of these things now. By the way, baby number 2 is doing great! Kicking lots at night. Chris finally got to feel baby kick Thursday night. That's a fun moment!

I am dragging a lot more now. I guess my second trimester energy has transformed into third trimester tired. It's just a whole different ballgame being pregnant with a busy toddler at home! Holy smokes.

We had a nice weekend at home with Kanyon splashing away in his baby pool in the backyard. He's also making strides toward potty training on his own (I'll spare you the details) and we may be going down that road before we expected too! So while we've got some limit-testing going on... it's mostly great stuff to be grateful for. It will be so fun to see what his sibling is like at this age!