I was distracted when I wrote my Mother's Day post and failed to give a shout out to my own mother, who I deeply admire. However, today I was reminded of just how much I love her. She always tells me what I need to hear and today I needed her.
A picture is worth a thousand words right? Well this picture actually isn't even from today, but perfectly depicts the phase Grant is in. This is the classic Grant Pout. He crosses his arm and puckers his lips out. Sometimes failing on the ground or crying is also involved, but when confined to the carseat we just get a lovely "no." On this particular day I had an early meeting for Grant's speech stuff. As a treat to the kids I took them to McDonalds for breakfast before Elizabeth's school started. He had just finished his burrito and we had time to play. Elizabeth crawls all over the playland. Grant has only made it to the top once and I had to retrieve him that time, so I don't ever really encourage him. Today I looked up and he was proudly at the top. I truly believe he is trying so hard to keep up with his big sister. He was smiling and the two of them crawled around for awhile. Elizabeth would descend but Grant stayed up. It was approaching departure and I told them it was time to come down. Elizabeth promptly comes down and I look up and there sits Grant. "Help me." I stayed cool, calm and collected for the next ten minutes as I tried to coax him down. Elizabeth tried to get him down. At one point I even told her just to pull on him, but he had a death grip on the edge and wouldn't move. Of course there is a lot of crying throughout all of this. I am starting to loose my cool. Elizabeth is going to be late for school and he will not listen to any sort of reasoning. Let me share with you what I am wearing...you guessed it, a skirt. It's going to be 90 degrees today and I was dressed for the heat. An older gentleman had brought his granddaughter for breakfast and is witnessing all of this. I know there is no way I can crawl up to the top without giving grandpa quite the show, but after 15 minutes (ok, maybe it wasn't that long, but it felt that long!) I gave up and started my climb as ladylike as possible. I think Grant was quite surprised to see me at the top. It didn't take long for us to get down and I carried him out with no shoes on and any mother could have read the look on my face. I informed him when we got to the car that I hoped he enjoyed his playland experience because it would be his last one for a VERY, VERY, VERY long time. In my family we refer to this as David's ShowBiz Experience (like ChuckECheese), where he refused to get out of the ball pit and Dad swore he would never take us back and we really never went back. Of course Elizabeth found this news unsettling, but as an older sister who received a similar punishment from her brother not behaving, I survived and she will too.
Next on the agenda was to get Elizabeth to school and Grant ready for swim lessons. We successfully got EB dropped off and then Grant was ready for battle again. We came home and he had gone to the bathroom so he came out with only his undies on. I gave him the choice of putting his shorts back on or we could go ahead and change into his trunks, his response "nothing." Ok, perfect. It is important to give strong willed children choices, I gave him a choice, why won't he make a good choice!!! I give us both a few moments to cool off and try again, "shorts or trunks?" Again, "nothing!" Pops is on his way to pick him up for swimming so I wrestle him to the ground to get his shorts on. Fun times here. Again more crying. Thankfully a big red truck drove by that I was able to distract him with and he stopped crying. Pops pulls in and I say "Good Luck!" We hadn't had a successful swim lesson yet and by successful I mean without tears. Apparently, he got them all out this morning because he called me after lessons and he made it through without any tears and even went under water twice. YES!! I will take this one and put it in the win column. Yay for Grant and yay for Kenny Pops!
How does my mother play into all of this you are wondering? I whined to her about this less than perfect morning and she listened and she listened some more. She empathized and sympathized with me and then she told me exactly what I needed to hear. "Alison, be grateful your son can climb to the top of the playland. You don't have to take him back for a long time, but you have good kids and you are a good mom and it will get better. It is a phase and this too shall pass." Oh the wisdom of a mother. When you are in the trenches you can't always see your way out, but leave it to mom to help you see the light. Thanks Mom!
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