Maximus loves his grandparents. So much that lately when they are around he tries to get them to take him bye-bye. It doesn’t matter if they are at our house or if we are out in public, he wants to get as far away from his parents to ensure that his grandparents don’t leave. Tonight we were at a birthday party for two of my nephews. It was at a bowling alley and obviously he’s too young to bowl. One of my nephews let him take a shot at it once, but he just stood next to him as he granny rolled it down the lane. That was cool enough for him. And with a toddler, if they are happy don’t push your luck! After almost an hour he got kind of bored with watching all the five year olds bowl. He started asking my dad to go bye-bye.
Fast forward two hours after cake and running around like a toddler on a sugar high. People were starting to leave. He knew that it was only a matter of time before we were next. If Bryan had been with me, we would have braved the tantrum and had him home close to bedtime. Since I’ve had a long day and this was my second party with him today, I let time pass. He quickly found my mom and later my dad. He wasn’t going to let them out of his sights in case we tried to sneak a departure past him. At one time he was asking where my dad was and my dad was basically standing behind him. He was so worried about him escaping that he wasn’t paying attention to what was right in front of him.
My dad is helping with a pick up on Monday so I had given him our second car seat. I thought it was all done in a stealth manner, but somehow Maximus convinced my dad that they should go bye-bye so my dad said he’d meet me at home. I don’t blame him. I know they hate hearing his blood curdling cries when they leave him. {My dad told me it’s the same thing my brother did at that age and it was the hardest thing he’d ever do. I’m sure those emotions come rushing back every time Maximus does it.}
It went pretty typical at home. I tried to take his shoes off and he got mad at me and said grandpa needed to do it. I changed his diaper and my dad put his pajamas on. My dad read him a puppy book and then tried to sneak out of the room. I asked him to lay down in his bed and my dad came back in to cover him up. I won’t complain because he listened pretty well and didn’t have any major meltdowns. {Unlike his afternoon nap that was two hours late due to a baby shower. Oh boy was that a sad start to a nap!} I know if it had just been me he might have put up a big fuss, especially considering it was pretty much an hour after his bedtime.
The real kicker is the story my dad told me after Maximus went to bed. As him and Maximus were walking to his truck {opposite side of the parking lot as my car}, Maximus was holding a couple of balloons. He may have thought he was only taking them to grandpa’s car. Once they got to the car, Maximus started whispering to my dad. He kept saying, “Grandpa bye-bye.” My dad was pretty sure he was whispering it so I wouldn’t know what they were doing! As far as Maximus knew, I was still waiting for them on the steps. So, it appears that my toddler has already learned about the efforts of persuasion. But he’s also working on becoming the master of conniving!
My second favorite story from tonight was convincing him that he didn’t want to go bye-bye with my dad because it was time for my nephews to open presents. He wasn’t into the idea until I told him there would be cake. Since his birthday, he LOVES cake. {He got upset at the baby shower when I only let him have two cake pops.} He did pretty good during the gift opening part, but did start to get a little bored. He quickly came back into the room when he heard the cake was happening for real! He was wearing a button-up shirt {why don’t I ever take pictures?!} and asked me to take it off. I said no so he worked on his buttons for a while. The next thing I knew, he was taking his shirt off completely. He brought it to me and had no qualms about walking around a room shirtless. Granted, our family was there, but he didn’t know the kids and their parents’ in the other room. I have no idea why he decided he needed to take his shirt off, but it made for a very easy cleanup when he was done eating. My brother-in-law enjoyed sitting next to him and spent the first five minutes just watching him devour his cake! If we had made him go shirtless for his birthday two weeks ago I would understand. But, I don’t think we did… Now I can’t remember. Either way, it was a funny thing to do and everyone got a kick out of the two year old running around without a shirt!
The next week is going to be very trying for me. One day down. I made it and tomorrow is a new day.
