Tag: frustration

children, mommyhood, tantrums, terrible threes

Mommy Instinct

WFAM

We happily survived our visiting nephews. There were some tense moments here and there, but overall, they are good kids. It is fun to talk to them and hear their ever-expanding take on the world around us.

The boys have a movie night with their cousins. Popcorn anyone?

Grandma and Grandpa picked all the boys up (T.Puzzle and Full Speed included) this morning and took them to church. With all the activity we’ve experienced in the past few weeks, my mommy-instinct was on high alert that little T.Puzzle needed to attempt a nap today. I tried to explain this as clearly as possible to Mad Dog who chose to politely ignore my warning. As we headed to pick up the boys, Mad Dog decides that this is the day he HAS to sync Grandma’s phone. A phone sync can be a long and tedious process. I knew, I mean really, really KNEW, we were running out of time concerning little T.Puzzle.

“Do the phone sync another day,” I urged. “T.Puzzle needs some rest time, pronto!”

It was like I wasn’t even talking. Mad Dog was convinced the phone sync would be fast and we’d get little T.Puzzle home soon enough (I strongly disagreed). Well over an hour later the phone was still backing up and little T.Puzzle’s mood had hit the danger zone.

So, when little T.Puzzle reached his inevitable level-10 meltdown, guess who had the honor of dealing with this disaster? (And it got very ugly, fast.)

Me.

Never doubt the mommy-instinct. Those who go against it inevitably will have an irate wife experiencing her own meltdown. Or something like that (insert your own worst nightmare here).

children, life in pictures, mommyhood

My Puzzling Child

WFAM

Here is a list of little T.Puzzle’s morning grievances:

1. He not like the shirt I chose for him to wear.

2. He not like the way I did his hair.

3. He not like the pancake I prepared for him (this one brought him to tears).

4. He not like that I said he had to take a nap today.

Well, tough cookies, kid.

He wore the shirt I chose, kept his hair the same, ate the pancake I made and rested quietly.

He eventually got it together and did his favorite activity which is putting together puzzles.

Fortunately for everyone involved, he actually liked those…

bad day, mommyhood, potty training

‘Nuff Said

WFAM

My day started with little T.Puzzle absolutely refusing to wear a protective cape at his haircut. He kept yanking and yelling. The poor stylist was ready to go toe to toe with him. I told her to let it go and we’d deal with the hair fall-out later. She had no idea what she was up against.

Then, as we are seated waiting for Full Speed to finish weapons camp little T.Puzzle looks at me and declares, “I have to pee-pee.” This turned out to be a teachable moment. He in fact was in the process of peeing everywhere when he made this announcement.

“No, little T.Puzzle, you meant to say ‘Look at me everyone, I am peeing all over my chair, the walls, the floor and let’s not forget my shoes.” Okay, so I didn’t really say that but man, was I frustrated.

The lady sitting next to me says, “Looks like he was really saving up.”

Um, yeah.

I look in her direction and say, “I’ve got extra clothes in the truck.” I was kind of hoping that she would help out in some way. I mean I didn’t expect her to wipe up the pee, but maybe offer to go grab the clothes, or offer to watch little Frick while I ran to the truck? Or something? Anything? Anyone?

Nope. She looked at me like I was crazy with a ‘k’.

Super.

Suddenly, out of nowhere another mom swoops in with paper towels at the ready. She hands me towel after towel until the initial mess is somewhat controlled. She offers to care for the garbage and sends me to the truck with little T.Puzzle.  I get him cleaned-up and changed and when I return to the scene of the crime, she already has some cleaner on hand so I can properly disinfect the area.

And you know what? She didn’t think I was crazy one bit.

And you know why? She has three boys.

‘Nuff said.

mommyhood, potty training

Big Boy Underpants

WFAM

Potty-trainging little T.Puzzle has become the bane of my existence. I’m giving it until the end of this week and then either I’m going to go on a huge bender (you are more than welcome to join me) or I’m putting him back in pull-ups. I can tell there has been some maturation and progress on his part (ironically, my maturation and progress seems to be diminishing). He only screams and cries for a minute or so before he starts telling me that ‘I not poop!’ or ‘the poop is hiding, Mommy!’ Before, he would just scream and cry the entire time I left him on the potty. He also told Mad Dog while we were at a movie this weekend that he had to pee. They raced to the bathroom and made it in time. So this is moving in a positive direction.

However, the pooping (oh! the pooping!) is still not clicking. I mean he still is pooping just mostly in his pants. As I was putting away laundry and fussing around the house, I came across him sitting next to his brother watching Frack play computer games in dirty, wet underpants. Apparently, he could care less about how disgusting that really is.

Thus, my huge bender approacheth!

bad day, children, mommyhood

One of Those Days

WFAM

I’m having one of those days that if I have to take care of one more need of someone other than myself, I could possibly spontaneously combust into angry flames (Mad Dog will vouch for my less-than-sunny demeanor).

I can’t handle another demand, another ‘poop-in-our-big-boy-underpants’ incident, or any other sentence that begins with ‘I need’ or ‘I want’.

Unless it’s my own sentence like the following: ‘I need a vacation’ or ‘I want a full-time nanny’.

Then, I might be onto something.