Nearly two year olds turning into Gollum - help me wise ones

Sorry for mixing the movie metaphors but I am going round the twist. My son is a total 'MINE' monster. I know it shouldn't but it makes me so embarassed and upset as he just grabs thing and really cries and makes a fuss if anyone goes near anything 'his'.

SGL2626's lovely little boy was over yesterday and E just walked around howling if the other little baby touhced anything saying: 'Mine - mine mouse, mine piano, mine neigh' etc etc etc.

He engaged (for about 20 seconds at a time) in 'showing' the other baby thing which was quite cute, and if we engineered it both doing the same thing for a few seconds but mainly he was like Gollum with the ring holding his precious property close and squawking if anyone even looked at it.

Is it a phase? Is it a long one? Did any one else find it particularly anxiety inducing? He does it with me and R too (MINE Mummy... Mine Daddy etc). It is so all encompassing, when SGL's W touched his foot he shouted 'No, MINE toes'...

I wish I could say it was a short phase, but my nearly 2.5-year-old's Gollum phase is still going strong and it's been this way about 3/4 months.

It's awful and fairly embarrasing. She's progressed from 'mine' to 'my', but it's still just as bad. She tells people off for looking in my direction 'My Mummy' or even daring to look at her little brother 'My Alex'. She tells me off for singing or dancing (my song, my dance). She's even told me off for typing on the keyboard - 'my fingers'!

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, because she's becoming easier to reason with. I hope it doesn't last quite as long with you.

My dance made me laugh. It must be important developmentally but it is so stressful. He is so 'it is the end of the world' if people touch stuff which is 'his'. He's also strated taking a million toys to bed with him each night and all hell breaks loose if we try and intervene (do you let them a take a large wooden bus into their cot? I don't know...). In this heat he lies in a nappy on a mountain of teddies. Last night at 12.10 am I tried to remove a particularly sweat inducing Winnie The Pooh which he was clutching to his chubby cheeks and the sleeping angel actually snarled like an angry guard dog so I had to leave him to it.

I may be able to help regarding the cuddly toy/toys to bed thing..

E used to want to take loads.  I found a smallish basket that I got some smellies in for Christmas.  This sits by her bed and she knows she can take anything she likes up but she has to choose one toy to go into bed - the rest have to sit in the basket.  It works like a dream!

That's a really good idea Hecate. Could you get a dolls cot cheap somewhere and all the teddies sleep in their special cot but one lucky teddy gets to sleep with E in his cot? If you're short of space a hammock could work, probably a longer term solution so  when he's passed taking them all to bed with him, they have somewhere more permanent to live.

I couldn't help but giggle at mine toes. Sorry.

It's only in the last month that the mountains of toys have to come to bed with her - and come down in the morning. There are specific ones, but even the book she reads before bed has to join her, plus anything she may have acquired that day. The other night I had to sneak in after she was asleep and prise a huge blow-up lollypop out of her arms that she'd had to take to bed.

I may try Hecate's suggestion.

I love the basket idea but am slightly scared that he will just want to take that in too if that makes sense.

Mine toes made me laugh too! And on Tuesday when someone went to stroke his lovely curly locks he looked at them with a combination of indignation, warning and general pity for their lack of manners and said 'no, no  mine hair'. I love it. 'Don't touch the hair, the fortune is in the hair' he's so funny...