Toddler Tribulations

Aunt Wendy came by a couple of weeks ago to visit with us. She brought David some surprises. He got some new clothes, a coloring book, a giant Tigger, and this cool car pool float. Once I got it blown up and he realized that the horn honked, he was all over it! He has carried it all over the house and loves crawling in and out of it. At this rate, it may never see the pool.

Yeah, yeah, it's a month late and I'm a bad mom. I had to reschedule it a couple of times due to floods and such. So anyway...we went to the doctor this morning and he was an angel in the waiting room. But as soon as the nurse called his name, he started crying. I can't really say I blame him. Nothing good ever happens to him when we take him there. He doesn't always get shots, but it never exactly rains cookies and raisins there either. (It's our new favorite snack. Go with it.) He cried all the way through the weighing an measuring too, even though this time he got to stand on the scale by himself like a big boy. His is 32.5 inches tall (85th percentile). His head is 19.5 inches around (95th percentile), and we are holding steady at 28 pounds (90th percentile).

After the nurse left he was all sunshine and roses. We played with all the toys and read some books. When the doctor came in, David got to hold the ear and eye scope thingys and play with them. The doctor handed them over willingly, but it made me nervous. I can't imagine those things are cheap and I kept imagining it hitting the floor. David showed the doctor how he can throw things away. He tore the paper off the exam table bit by bit and took over and dropped it in the trashcan. And he stomped his feet and danced around for the doctor.

Then the doctor left and the nurse came back in and he went hysterical again. Of course he wasn't happy about getting the shots. We didn't have a bottle this time because we only do bottles in the morning and at night, but I gave him a snack and some juice and that fixed him right up. He was fine as frog hair by the time we got to school. He ran around playing with his friends for a little bit. When I left, he had flirted his way into being picked up by his favorite teacher. But I did manage to get a good-bye wave.

For the past couple of weeks, The Boy has been going to sleep at a decent time (before 10:30) sleeping completely through the night for at least a couple of nights a week. So I was thinking The Boy was all aboard the sleep train and we could ride it for awhile. Yeah, well, we've had a major derailment. Catastrophic even. And did he ever pick a doozy of a time.

So we're sitting at home around 7:30 on Saturday night when I get a phone call from a coworker saying our building is flooding so I need to go up there. David, being Captain Helpful, says he'll come too because he may be able to turn the water off. (I have since suggested to him that his motives might not have been entirely unselfish as he had been with The Boy since 7 am. I got a shrug and a half grin in response.) So we have no sitter, the three of us loaded into the car and headed off. Yep, there was a flood alright. There was water pouring out of the doors and under the windows.

Most spots in the building had at least an inch of water and it was spouting through the floor in the warehouse like a fountain. What that meant for me was a lot of work to come. What that meant for The Boy was a parking lot full of water and a handful of cars. He was in hog heaven for about two hours. He had tons of fun running though what was essentially one giant puddle. Then the sprinklers came on and that was awesome too. He was soaked by the time he and Daddy had to leave because it was bedtime.




So I finally left the office around midnight, wet and sweaty and soooo tired. I showered and crawled into bed, only to be awakened two hours later by The Boy. Apparently he decided it was time to get up. No amount of rocking or patting or milk or duct tape was getting him back to sleep. So the two of us were up. For two hours. And was up and raring to go at 8! He only took a 30 minute nap between 8 & 4 and he was crabby and whiny all day. Then he slept til 6 and was up until 11:30. I'm telling you this kid fights sleep like nothing you've ever seen.

So Monday rolls around and it was a wretched day of hurry up and wait at work. The building had STANK all over it. It was humid. The carpet was soggy. There were fans and dehumidifiers running so you couldn't hear anything. And one of the A/C units went out. Oh, and I worked until 10:30 - that would be PM. I left thinking how nice it would be to get home, take a shower, and stretch out in the bed. The house was all dark when I got home, which was a good sign. I tip-toed in and took my shoes off, but noticed that David wasn't in bed. Hmmm...I turned to go into the living room, and there was a little face looking up at me over the kiddie gate. And it kept looking at me til midnight!

So, the last two days, he's been so tired in the mornings, I've been able to get up and get everything ready for us to go. And The Boy is getting to eat his breakfast in the car. Thank goodness for Gerber Cereal Bars! If this doesn't change soon, I'm going to be mainlining caffeine and NoDoze. I'm not exactly sure what we did that got his sleeping schedule so out of whack but I never want to do it again.

We have such a big boy! My mom loaned us a small table and chair set (acutally doll furniture) that he was using at her house. He had so much fun dragging it around the house and sitting and reading at it, we decided we really needed to get him a permanent set. So shopping we went, which Daddy loves like a root canal! But The Boy and I prevailed and we ended up at IKEA, which Daddy loves like a rabid possum. Apparently everyone else in the DFW area was also at IKEA, which made it so much more enjoyable.
But the childrens' area has all of the furniture out so David could climb all over it, which he really liked and we could see how sturdy every thing is. We ended up with a Svala set. The real fun came when we got home and it was time to put it together. Normally, I read the instructions while Daddy does the assembly. But this time The Boy decided to be Daddy's assistant. He has his own set of plastic kiddie tools, but he quickly abandoned those in favor of the "big boy" tools.