Mommy Monster
I forgot about making my expectations match reality, which meant we had a super crappy day over here in G’Town. The PMS had a large part in it too. As well as the constant barrage of “no no no no no no.” The boy is getting really good at pronouncing that word. Not that he was bad before, but the enunciation makes it clear he means business.
It all started with a nice trip to the park. I thought I was being Nice Mom and taking him to play.
Oh no.
I was bad mommy. I wanted him to get out of the car. Evil evil evil evil me! How could I dare take him out of the car and let him play at the park? Someone call CPS!
We only got as far as the sidewalk on the outskirts of the playground because he refused to go any further. There are big nut trees (possibly pecan?) all around this particular park and today was the day all the nuts decided to fall down. Have you ever been showered with big nuts? It is loud and dangerous to hang out in a wooded area during nut falling season. I’m surprised Erik didn’t get walloped. Maybe that would have cured him of his tree hugging tendencies (literally, not figuratively).
The park was a bust, so we headed over to the gym. He had a fit when I dropped him off at childcare, then a much bigger fit when I picked him up. I managed to get him outside and on the ground. He took off running, heading straight to the Indian restaurant. I can’t resist the urge to eat Indian if my kid is clamoring for it (better than McNuggets, eh?), but then he had another fit when we had to leave.
Got home, ate lunch, watched him throw fit after fit over every single thing. I was most awesomely pleased with his excellent behavior when he picked up a tomato-sauce coated piece of butter chicken and threw it on the floor, skipping it like a stone across the light beige carpet.
My cork? It blew.
I yelled. I screamed. I made ugly faces. I shook (myself, not the baby).
He laughed.
I decided such an unhappy boy WAS going to take a nap.
You may all roll around on the floor laughing, now.
We fought, he spent time in the crib, we read books, he fought, we sung songs, we fought. At one point he had a book (btw, did I mention he really likes books now? I am very relieved!) and hit my directly in the eye with the corner. I became so enraged that I spanked his little bottom–twice! We are a non-spanking household and I’m ashamed I let my emotions get the best of me, but it’s not like it will scar him for life or become a habit. He cried and I held him, feeling like a total heel. A minute later he totally forgot about it, but it definitely didn’t do anything to improve his behavior.
And on and on it went.
Guess who didn’t take a nap today?
I finally wised up and realized I was working myself into a state that wasn’t healthy for either of us and tried to calm down, but I’ve still been on edge all night. At least the no-nap thing meant he was in bed by eight. I’m not looking forward to the early morning, but I needed some alone time without a kid attached to my face. Body privacy! I need some!
Don’t you love reading posts that are just a big litany of complaints? I’m sure good things happened today. I went to the gym and there weren’t any weirdos there. In fact, we went at the perfect pre-lunch lull when there weren’t many people there at all. I had left over chili for dinner and that was pretty grand as well. You know what? A story needs conflict and there is simply no conflict when I tell you about chili for dinner. It’s a regular snooze-a-palooza if I focus on the positive.