Honestly, they are mostly good, but we have times where we’re both willing to pawn them off on the first sucker who bites. I can only think of twice that I’ve actually done that and both times I was very pregnant and our toddler was a handful. I only did it because I knew we needed a break from each other and I also knew with certainty that he wouldn’t act that way with his grandparents. We were right. He was perfect and had fun and we enjoyed the adult time.
I try not to focus my Internet life on only negative things or only positive things. Our life really is a good balance of the both and some days I react to it differently. A three-year-old and an active 8-month-old are a lot of work. Mostly good work. Sometimes hard work. Sometimes one is easy and the other is difficult. It’s life. We deal with it. So, if I’ve seemed like it’s always sunshine and giggles, here’s a story to show you it isn’t.
Last night we watched Bryan play softball. Maximus had a bath before the game, which I knew would be worthless once we got there. But, I felt good because he needed to get the weekend dirt off before adding weekday dirt. (Shh…I know it was Tuesday.) He was excited to go and excited to see my parents there. I think the excitement got him wound up. He had a lot of fun running around being silly with my dad. He also had fun not listening to me. I take pride in a well-behaved child, but I find that social situations are very distracting. Even though there weren’t a lot of people, there were enough distractions for him to ignore me. I hate repeating myself and I hate when “Maximus Arthur, please come talk to mommy,” is ignored. I’m not normally that parent yelling at her kids to get them to listen. I find that a calm voice gets a better reaction than any emotion will. I had to chase my child down a couple of times to speak to him while he tried to wiggle and kick out of my arms. That’s always fun and only gets more fun the older / bigger / taller he gets. As bedtime approached he was a mess of movement. He had kicked off his sandals and was rubbing sand on his face and in his hair. Not awesome. He was yelling at Bryan and just being all around hyper. It’s not the ideal mood I’d like to have him be in when we’re out in public, but at least it was a softball diamond and not a restaurant.
Quinten on the other hand was an angel for the first thirty minutes. He was asleep. 🙂 I’ve already established that he likes his mommy. He really likes his mommy when he wakes up and doesn’t know where he is (he fell asleep in the car). Holding a baby who is trying to see EVERYTHING and also trying to get a toddler’s attention. Heh, easier things have been done. Once or twice I was able to pass Quinten off and stay out of his line-of-sight. Other times I was sitting on the bleachers holding two boys. If Maximus hadn’t been so hyper, that wouldn’t have been too difficult. I do it all the time at home. But, with Maximus constantly moving and Quinten just wanting mommy to himself, well, it wasn’t fun. No one fell off the bleachers so I guess that’s a good thing. Quinten was tired and hungry by the time we left the diamonds, which I thought would translated to an easy bedtime!
You risk well-behaved children when you venture out into public close to their bedtime. I thought they’d be able to handle it well since they were “normal children” at home. It turns out, it was just a little too much for both of them. It wasn’t as relaxing as past games, but I guess I’m glad we did it? However, I’m not glad that Maximus finally cried himself to sleep at 9:15 or that Quinten finally went to sleep at 9:45. So, maybe I should have stayed home and dealt with the crazies in the comfort of my own home!
