My son turned two today, so my husband and I took the day off to spend it with him. Our goal was to make his day really special and to have one last day for just the three of us to share before our second child is born next week. Oh things did not work out that way at all. My son was difficult…all…day…long. We took him to get pancakes for breakfast which turned into a trying experience. Then, we took him to an interactive children’s museum. He was good there and had fun. However, that was followed by an hour in his crib but no sleeping. Then, we gave him a gift, and his response was ‘more presents’ and a tantrum. We had to run to the grocery store before our families came over. While there we bought him some Dora the Explorer yogurt. He did not want to wait until we got home to eat it, so he screamed ‘Dora…Dora…’ all of the way home. And so on…and so on… It was a tough day, and I felt bad because I just wanted to have a nice, fun day with him. I did not want to spend the day taking deep breaths and giving him timeouts. My husband jokingly asked me at the end of the day if I still loved him. My response was ‘I do love him very much but I absolutely need a break’.
Because of the way the day turned out, I didn’t really even take any photos. This blurry shot of him blowing out his candle was the best of the day. You can just see in his poor little eyes how exhausted he is.
Thanks to everyone for their wonderful comments and favs on my shot yesterday. I really appreciate it!!
this is a beautiful shot. Best laid plans. . .have you ever read the Berenstain Bears books? there's one that fit my kids to a tee when they were younger called "Too Much Birthday". . .We used to get a laugh. Sorry your day didn't turn out as planned.
Well I feel for you! Most of my days are like this with our two and a half year old. You do need a break! Taking care of little kids has got to be one of the top five hardest jobs of all time!
I can understand the trying day...all parents have them and, no matter what age we are, we all have tough days...even at 2. I lovewhat you did with this shot! Happy 2nd to your son!
Poor baby : ( Poor mommy. Have you tried using the word 'soon' with him? I've found my son can handle 'soon'. He understands that it means yes, give mommy time so helps with things like grocery-store meltdowns.
Happy Birthday for your son, yesterday. He does sound as if he was so overexcited he didn't know where to put himself. My daughter was much better if I gave her lots of downtime and time to be herself, rather than dragging her out and about all the time - that downtime could have been riding her bike around outside to use up her energy, but she found being with people and on best behaviour dealing with everyone very difficult. And she then got so overtired and overexcited she couldn't wind down to sleep, which had all those knock on problems.
@echoia I will have to try 'soon'. I have tried 'in a minute' and that does not seem to work very well. We didn't really buy him anything because he got so much stuff for Christmas and his birthday. He did get a bunch of books (he loves books), clothes and some toys. He loves trains, so I had a canvas of this shot http://365project.org/egad/365/2011-12-13 made for his room. He was pretty excited about the 'choo-choo'.
Super shot and whatever @maggotx Mag says this will get easier. As they get older they still have the occasional moment but they tend not to be quite so exhausting ;o) xx
Happy Birthday, little one. What did he get?