The Silver Lining

I feel like "The Silver Lining" should be the name to my blog instead of just this one post. Too often I have slumped into the state of being grumpy, ungrateful and just. plain. tired. Everyday there is a fight of some kind with Matthew. Get a pull up on. Take a pull up off. Get out the front door and in the car. Get out of the car and leave your toy because we will lose it. Get in the shopping cart. Put on your shirt. Eat your food. Whatever it is, by the end of the day I'm so physically and mentally exhausted, I'm ready to punch something or someone. Unfortunately, that's about the time GIJoe comes home from work....poor guy.
So this week, I'm going to look back through my pictures and try to remember what happened and see how many things I can spin into a happy memory...

We met Angie at the Library last Thursday and did the little toddler activity that they do for the public. A lady from the library did an excellent job of reading some book about a pig trying to get an apple off a branch, which Matthew (and most of the other kids) really didn't appreciate her effort. The fish tank was more exciting. Then they glued apple jacks on the letter A...or in Matthew's case, ate them. This picture is is what survived the activity and the walk out to the car. What this picture doesn't show are all the sweet little girls who were at the activity tables quietly coloring, painting, and gluing while the moms chatted and enjoyed a nice time talking about how precious their children were, while Matthew pulled book after book off the shelf, ran around in circles around the reading bench, and shoved his fingers up his nose and snorted to show off his talents. There were only a couple other boys there Matthew's age, and now- I understand why. 

 We had huge fight we had to get him dressed and in the carseat to get to the library, another fight to get him out of the carseat (because he had to leave his car behind) and then a screaming/crying fest we had through the long parking lot to go back to the car after the activity. I got him back into the car with a couple techniques like the well known elbow pull, and the new "bribery with elmers glued apple jacks" to take a couple more steps. One of the mothers of 3 precious little girls who were all strapping themselves into their carseats and asking politely for a book to entertain themselves glared at me as we went screaming, dragging past her car as if to say "contain your child". I gave her a look that said "eat it". It's amazing the amount of language that can be communicated with others without saying a word... I will pretend that she was one of those women that write blogs with sympathy for mothers like me who are just trying to survive day by day. I think the biggest plus from this experience is that we have an empty A to hang up on the fridge, and that I actually went to an event so I can feel better about the effort I put into educating Matthew. That's about it. I survived...check!

After the library, we ate at Chickfila...They had a really neat little play area for kids his age and he did a great job playing on his own and being nice to the other kids around him. It wasn't until I decided it was nap time and snatched him up did he become grumpy....but once he did, let me tell you...Everyone in the resturaunt looked up with the noise he was making. He kept pointing to the play area saying "slide!" He then managed to knock the bag of food out of my hands as we were leaving and then promptly sat his butt down right in the middle of the door way as I was trying to gather up the dropped bag and pull him out of the way. He kicked, screamed, became limp and pulled out all the stops. I think I mumbled "it's nap time" to a few people who were trying to get through the door and stepping over him to get to their food. But the plus side, he ate! I'm not letting my child starve....check!

Most of the time when we are faced with the huge need to get out of the house (because I have a boy that needs to move and not be cooped up inside for too long or else all hell breaks loose) we go to the church. They have a dog, a little trough with frogs, a couple horses looking for carrots, a slide and a plenty of trees for me to sit under. This particular time Matthew insisted that I follow him around for all of the 2 hours we were out there. I was ready to collapse inside the church and lock the door and have him fend for himself....but then again, there is barbed wire, and a pool and several other things that little boys can get into, that require a responsible person to be paying attention. I guess since I was there, that would have to be me. So, silver lining....he's alive and sufficiently worn out for the day. Nap time went well.

Keeping up with the "I'm a creative mom" idea, I allowed matthew to do some finger painting. He pretty much pulled the paints out and sat himself down while saying "please" so, I was politely wrangled into it. I drew a tree, put some paint out and let him dab his colored fingers on the paper while I did a little baking. Remember that post a long time ago that talks about me eating nothing but healthy food? Forget that...these are Teas sheet cake cookies and the best cookies I have ever eaten. Be jealous....that's why I posted a pic. I ate my frustration about having to clean up paint spots off everything away with these suckers. 

GIJoe had to work all week (even over Labor day) and when I say work, I mean WORK. He was home around 1:30 in the mornings and then would get up to go back around 5:30 am. He was gone a lot. It left me in charge of keeping the ever grumpy toddler semi-happy, the house clean and whatever else falls onto my plate when there is no help around. So I snatched said toddler up and brought him to my parents house for an afternoon and let him run around with my dad. Here they are looking in a hole in the backyard for bugs. They later announced that there were no bugs and marched off somewhere else. It was a nice break for me. So silver lining here is that Matthew spent time with grandparents and I got a few minutes where I could just. sit. check!

That was our week in a nutshell. It's been physically challenging, and mentally exhausting, but there are a few things here that I will look back on and smile. And the moral of this post is that if you have a little girl, please, please don't judge the moms of boys who just can't be perfect little angels like your children are. We're trying the best we can to survive the little tornado that runs our lives.