It’s been one of those days. It ended with Quinten spitting on my sweatshirt when I put him to bed. That’s a pretty accurate summary of his day. Some days can be such a challenge. Or maybe those days when you’re the only parent are really the ones that are challenging. Yesterday was A Day in itself. A super tired preschooler gave us both flashbacks to his 2-year-old days. So many tears at so many random things. We all thought today had to be better after a full night of sleep. It kind of was, except during the night Maximus lost all of his listening skills. All of them. I can’t count how many times I repeated myself today. Or how many times I said, “please use listening ears. Mommy doesn’t want to yell or repeat herself. Please listen.” I can count how many times Quinten was in time-out…three. And how many times I found him on the deck, going down the stairs, or in the grass…three. By the way, it was cold and rainy all day. Not a good day to play outside, even though we all wish it were.
Sometimes at the end of a long day, happy meals are the only answer. In an effort to feed them before they got hangry {hungry + angry}, I stopped on the way home and used it as a distraction. It’s a little out of character for me and maybe the second time I’ve been involved in them getting happy meals. It did result in a couple of cute brother moments, but only because Maximus didn’t complain {this time} about Quinten sharing his chair. I also didn’t have to threaten to put Quinten in his highchair during that meal! Maximus was also pretty nice when he offered the rest of his sandwich to Quinten {who had been asking for more sandwich.} Unfortunately, it didn’t buy me as much quiet and togetherness time as I’d hoped. In fact, it resulted in one of the Quinten escapes into the grass.
I know there’s a learning experience all kinds of character building in the 2-year-old and 4-year-old ages, but some days it’s hard to make it through a day without raised voices. Not that they help any. It doesn’t seem to matter if I talk quiet or loud or repeat myself many times, those little ears are not into listening right now. So I take the Starbucks as they come, try to sneak in a couple of minutes of reading, and be calmer the next time I’m repeating myself for a second and third time.
