Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Lemondrops and Clover

The past couple of days with a 3 year old...

Sunday night: The Plan: Get kiddo in bed early if possible (8:30ish) so I have time to take a shower and get everything together and ready to go. Purpose: Monday morning play date at a pumpkin patch over an hour away. Long morning will produce tired babe who must nap at least in the car on the way home because the evening we will spend 3 hours at our church in a Membership Seminar and Kiddo will be in childcare during the time he normally is getting ready for bed.

How it Went: After a screaming match and literally having to drag Kiddo to the bathroom, he was in the shower by 8:00. He decided he didn't want to play in the water at all, so I scrubbed him down and he was out and done by 8:15. Then he wanted me to play, and I was frantically trying to avoid/ignore his requests while I buttoned up the house for the night. While I was shutting down everything and getting his jammies/sippy/nighttime diaper/my water/lights out/dinner put away, etc. he, unbeknownst to me pulled out his "washable" markers and proceeded to color all over his freshly cleaned body. Of course, "washable" doesn't necessarily mean "washable" when referring to skin, so now he looked like he spent the day in a vat of dye. Hands, legs, neck, ears and face were all a new bright color! Hubby went out in the back yard to retrieve forgotten cars in the dirt, and in the process of walking barefoot back to the house stepped on a snake! He says it felt like it was about 2 inches in diameter - yikes!

9:00 I sat down to shut off the computer and got caught in an IM conversation that, though I really wanted to talk, I kept getting interrupted by the Kiddo and I couldn't concentrate on what I needed to say. Finally wrapped up said conversation and hustled Kiddo to my bedroom so he would settle down. As he was climbing into my bed he kicked over Hubby's drink, causing it to spill all over his bedside table, ruining his alarm clock and causing quite a mess on the floor. Hubby bit his tongue to keep from cursing and then offered to clean things up. Finally got Kiddo to bed at 9:45.

Came back to my own bedroom, jumped in the shower and then got ready for bed. Decided to put everything together the next morning. Gave Hubby my alarm clock because his was fried. Fell asleep as soon as head hit the pillow.

The next morning: Woke up and looked at the clock. Thinking it was 7:30, got up early and fixed coffee. While trying to wake up realized that Hubby set the clock 15 minutes fast and it was really only 7:15 - way earlier than I needed to be up. Kiddo woke up and went to my room to do his usual "crawl into bed with Mommy and sleep for another hour" routine only to find me missing and came running, wide awake, into the dining room. He was up waaaaayyy too early, and it made him cranky. He refused to eat anything. I got everything together and we were out the door by 8:30.

He cried almost the entire time we were at the pumpkin patch because he hardly ate anything for breakfast and his empty tummy was making everything anger provoking. All he wanted to do was feed the goats. Once I got some lunch into him he was much better, but by then I was exhausted. On the way home he slept in the car for all of about 30 minutes and then promptly woke up when we pulled into the driveway.

I couldn't get him to eat anything for dinner (he wanted cereal) so I fixed myself something and while I was eating he got in the pantry. He rustled around in there for a minute, then emerged with the inner bag from a box of croutons. As he was munching away, I sighed and wondered how many times moms get to the point that they just don't care. At least he was eating something - so I cut up a chicken dog and some cheese and let him be. Just before we left to go to the church, I rubbed him down with a washcloth, all the while hoping the farm-animal-and-garlic-crouton smell was all a pregnancy induced scent sensitivity and not what he really smelled like. Thankfully he was good in the church childcare (or so they said), but as we were leaving he decided he wanted to go "play music" in the sanctuary (where he got that idea I have no clue - must have been from when he played with the instruments at G&H's church) and when I said no he began to cry. He screamed the whole way home and it was terribly difficult to get him to bed. By the time we got home he had hit his second wind, and didn't go to sleep till almost 11.

Moral of the Story: When you have a 3 year old, never plan anything and keep lots of coffee on hand.

Until,
D :)

3 comments:

Jill said...

Hmm my kiddos weren't in the best spirits at the patch either nor did they sleep well the night before, perhaps it was in the air. Let's all hope for better days tomorrow!

OhTheJoys said...

Yeah. My kids don't do plans either.

Carrie said...

Plans are made to be broken :) Or is that rules? Both are true with kids, aren't they?? My husband sets his alarm 15 minutes ahead too. It drives me nuts! So glad to read your posts and know you're doing well :)