Toddler Tantrums...

I fully expected to sit down yesterday during naptime and be able to upload some cute little pictures and a video and blog all about the wonderful time that we had on our playdate at Monkey Joe's. But life is different than I expect sometimes and yesterday was a day from you-know-where. :(

I should've expected that yesterday wouldn't be all fun and games. James would not go to sleep on Tuesday night. He has a cough (remnants of the stupid viral infection + allergies + asthma = a cough that just won't quit). He couldn't settle down. He wanted Daddy, then he wanted me, then it was too hot, then he was too thirsty, etc. etc. I finally left him in the rocking chair with Eddie and I headed out to the garage to run on the treadmill. When I came back in at 10pm, he was still up. :) Awesome, no? So he slept from about 10:30-6:15. Not enough sleep if you're a growing boy!

We had plans to meet a friend and her little boy at Monkey Joe's at 10AM. James was whiny all morning and told me that he didn't want to go, but we'd INVITED THEM so I couldn't just call and cancel because I had a whiny kid. So we met them and James refused to play with P and he didn't really want much to do with the jumpies. I tried to kind of laugh it off and just enjoy being out of the house, but James was not well-behaved and I was embarrassed. James even had to sit in TIMEOUT at Monkey Joe's because he screamed at me because I wouldn't pay to let him ride the carousel again. I had one of those screaming, crying, laying limp on the floor kids yesterday. I wasn't sad when the other mother (whose child behaved!) said they needed to head home. She was probably ready to get away from us.

Yes, he is in timeout in the picture on the left. When Eddie asked him about it last night he said he "Sat in timeout and got to watch tv..." because there was a tv next to his seat. It sure made an impression, huh?

The highlight of Monkey Joe's was the couple of times James climbed up the BIG slide by himself and went down. I also had to rescue him from an obstacle course at one point but he was just a little scared and it was fun to slide with him. (Maybe next time I should find someone to leave Will with and we'd have a better time? I dunno. It doesn't excuse bad behavior.)

So we go home and James is so exhausted that he literally fell asleep at the table. I moved him to his bed and he slept for 45 minutes. If you're a growing boy who only slept 7.5 hours the night before, a 45 minute nap is not going to cut it. And I knew immediately that it wasn't enough because Mr. Whiny himself showed up again. *Sigh* I tried to let him lay in my bed and watch a movie, but he just wasn't having it.

I will leave out the details of the remainder of the afternoon, but suffice it to say that toddler tantrums and defiance are in FULL FORCE in my house. I heard someone say the other day that at two they have all of these emotions that they're not sure what to do with and at three they've learned what to do with their emotions and they just try them out all the time. I really feel like I'm living with a twelve year old girl sometimes. Crazy mood swings here. :(

We talked about our bad behavior this morning on the way to school. (I say our because I, too, lost it yesterday.) We made an agreement that we're going to have a GOOD behavior day, we prayed about it, and we've talked about what we'll do after his nap if the good behavior stays. He's excited about the reward and I am, too.

Toddler rearing is NOT for the weak. Whew! It is a challenge and a gift every single day. Here's hoping our afternoon is better today than yesterday!