Today has been one of those days. You know one of those days that would never happen to me. Not to this lady. Aidan is going to be the death of me. This is just a couple of incidents that happened today. Actually it all started last night. Aidan went to take a nap at 6PM and woke up at 9PM. I tried to keep him awake and I constantly tried to wake him up to no avail. Brian leaves for work at 11PM (and works until 730AM...I hate grave yard shifts). I try running Aidan around to get him tired, just enough so that I can have a little sleep tonight, plus he has swimming lessons at 0900 in the morning. NOTHING worked. So finally me being the sucker that I am, I asked him what he needed to go to sleep, because Mommy was tired. His response, "Bed, I daddy." What? I had him show me. He wanted to sleep on daddy's side of the bed with me. Cute sentiment but this young child needs to start sleeping in his own bed. So after an hour and a half of hearing him scream from his crib "Bed, I daddy" I caved and brought him to bed with me. Aidan wanted to sing to me and play with me. Once again, cute but not at 2AM! Finally at around 315AM (that was the last time I remember looking at the clock at that time) he FINALLY falls asleep. Remember I didn't get a nap and now I have loads of adrenaline running through my system, so I can't sleep. I got up and tinkered around the house for about an hour before I could lay down to relax, current time 430AM.
Brian comes home at 8AM. He quietly walks into the room and wonders why Aidan is in his spot. I wake up (because I can hear his mind wondering) and give him a run down of the last 8 hours. Brian, the wonderful man that he is decides that he is wide awake and will take squirt to swim lessons so I can get some sleep. At 815AM he wakes up squirt and off they go to swimming lessons. I, however, can not go back to sleep, so I get in the shower and work on other motherly chores. They arrive home around 10AM. They each have a shower and at around 11AM Brian heads upstairs to go to sleep. I play cars, trains, and puzzles with Aidan. Around 12 noon we have lunch and I prep him for a nap (the kid has to be tired right?), no good. He screams! So with Brian asleep we head downstairs to relax. I decide that I need to go to the restroom (sorry folks it happens). I swear to you readers I wasn't gone but maybe three minutes (the bathroom is right off the downstairs family room). I exit the rest room and Aidan is sitting on the couch quietly watching cartoons. YES!! Score one for mom! He is winding down. I start checking email and the such and look over and he is watching television. Then I hear him giggle. What? I turn around and he has some how got a hold of a chocolate orange (we had some HIGH in the cupboard upstairs), has unwrapped it and is eating it whole. Chocolate is everywhere. He devoured it! Apparently he was hiding it underneath his thigh (do all two year olds know to do that?). I freak.
Aidan is now irritable and mad that I took away his chocolate (threw it in the garbage). Still no nap. I have now turned off the television and am trying to get him to relax. We read books, we sang some more songs. Finally at about 2Pm (Brian wanted to be up at that time) I send Aidan upstairs to wake up daddy. I hear him in my room talking to Brian. Ten minutes later Aidan returns with no dad. I look at him and realize he has dirt all over his clothes. What the....? I go upstairs and he had destroyed my tomato plants. He has shoved his cars and other toys into the dirt and has yanked all the roots out the ground. GGGGRRRR! My fault I guess for putting them on the counter (where they have been nicely out of his reach for WEEKS) but today he figured out how to use the kitchen chairs to his advantage (look mom a new trick!).
At this point I am tired and need a nap. I am irritable and frustrated. I put him into his crib for a nice little time out...he can scream now for all I care. I leave the room and retreat elsewhere. Five minutes later I return to check on him and he has fallen asleep. FINALLY! Only I walk in to get a closer look and I notice that he has got a hold of an entire bag of diapers and wipes and has pulled out every last wipe and diaper from there packaging and is laying all over them. Damnit! Who put those there! Ooppss, dad did. He forgot not to put them in Aidan's reach and I didn't take an inventory of the room when I put him into time out.
Aidan sleep from 245 to 630ish. During this time I am a raging mother. I have tried calming down with a book and another shower, nothing is working. So I went shopping. It works for most women right? While I am gone I regroup and come home after a couple hours. We eat dinner around 830PM. Aidan is acting like a good boy for dad and doing everything in his power to test my patience.
Brian leaves for work. As Brian was leaving I walked him to the door. At 11PM I realize that Aidan is awfully quiet in the other bedroom. I go and check on him. Aidan has taken the chocolate out of the garbage can and has it shoved into his mouth. He can barely close his mouth. I get him to spit it out and I walk into the bathroom and flush the contraband. Aidan flips out. "My candy, mine hungry." What we just had dinner?!? I promise I feed this kid. So we go upstairs and I start making him toast. As I turn around to make toast, I hear a crash on the ground and see Aidan looking through the garbage. WHAT???? "More candy." WHAT???? I have lost my mind. Where did he come up with this and what have I done? I have never gone dumpster diving for candy. WTH!!!! I bath him, he eats toast and milk and he is now in bed, against his will.
During all of these moments I haven't really lost my cool. I have yelled a bit but I think anyone would after a day like today. What am I to do? I hope my irritation is coming as a direct result of little to no sleep and Aidan taking advantage of this time. Where does he get this stuff from? Hiding chocolate? Garbage hunting for chocolate? This chocolate we have had since before Christmas so it isn't that we are chocolate/candy fiends. I just hope that tomorrow is better. If not, beware. You may notice a two year old on your doorstep, if you do, please welcome him into your home, his mom is in the asylum, she has gone bizzerk!
5 comments:
What a day?!?! You handled it much better than I would. Two things. First, you give that child too much credit. Kids this age can not be left alone or sent to do something alone. They are far too curious. And will stop at nothing.
Second. Get him on a schedule. It's hard I know. But you will be so much happier and so will Aidan. Be a little selfish. Getting him on a schedule and teaching him to sleep in his own bed will be so good for you, and at the same time it will be good for him. Then maybe you'll eliminate the destruction. Teaching a child to sleep in his own bed is not an easy task, at any age. Trust. But it is so important and SOOOOOO worth it.
I love you and would willingly take little squirt if he ended up on my front door. But you'll be fine. You are such a great Mom; always has fun things planned. Take as many Timeouts as you need. Good luck. The age of the pleaser, (3-4) is just around the corner.
Linds, thank you for your willingness to take him off my hands. I will be FedEx-ing him shortly. :)
I just had about 10 hours of sleep and feel loads better.
Sadly yesterday was a disaster on all accounts. We had a pretty good/normal routine going for us and then Brian goes and gets a job and in the last two months he has switched his schedule four times (maybe five, I lost track). All of this adjustment is making it hard for all participants. Brian went from being unemployed and always around to weird schedules and never around (he's around but he too is adjusting to the new job/schedule). Aidan usually does sleep in his own bed but between redecorating (it was just paint right) and Brian's schedule, I have had to start all over again with the routine. Brian sleeping all day is making everything hard. I thought I could handle this situation but I am not doing as good of a job.
Aidan is normally a really good boy but his lack of sleep and all the changes are taking a toll on him. Thank you for your suggestions. After yesterday I fully intend to regroup and kick some two year old bum (when did I become a pushover?). The age of the pleaser is 3-4, really? Aidan started the terrible twos at 18 months does this mean I can look forward to better days in about six months? I hope so! :)
oh Katie I'm sorry about your rough day! I have to admit that i laughed a little at Aidan's "Stinker-ness" Geeze I hope you all can get on a normal schedule soon! And I get all irritable when i don't get my sleep too.
I gotta say when you called me to report all of this I laughed and laughed. I had to tell everyone at work and your brothers. Reminds me of fun days when your dad was on rotating shifts and you know who was little. It will get better and you will look back and remember fondly. Hang in there.
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