Thank You, Lord, For Bedtime.

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like your child has acted the worst possible way every place you went? Dear Lord, today was that day, and it was so embarrassing. Jake, for the most part, is a very well behaved child. I have been told countless times that I should consider myself lucky. And I do. But today, I am afraid I got a little inkling of what Jake's terrible twos may look like. I am going to go ahead and blame it on the molars that have been trying to come in for literally MONTHS (just because you can always blame bad behavior on those dang teeth!) and the shot he got yesterday. However, excuse or no excuse... the kid was a nightmare today!!!

Forgive me for venting. :)

We started off the early morning with lots of fussy sleeping. Sometimes he does this crying while still sleeping thing. It's really awesome when you're a light sleeper. I don't feel comfortable enough yet to not use the monitor, so if he is crying, I am awake. What makes the fussy sleeping even more awesome, is that he actually slept in today. He slept until 8. But I was awake at 6:30 when he started a 5 minute fuss. Awesome. He is normally a 7am alarm clock, and nearly always sleeps in when Derick is home with him. True story. Then at nap time today, he fussed for nearly 40 minutes before finally falling asleep. This is not incredibly uncommon, BUT we had a lot of errands to run and it would happen on the day we had things to do. Our first stop, he acted alright. But I also had a friend with me. When we were leaving, though, he pitched a fit in the parking lot. I am in no way opposed to spanking my child. I don't really like to do it in public yet because he's so little and for now, it's actually not even that effective. Most effective is for us is time-out. I wish there was a way to do time-out in public. If any of you have input on that, please, feel free to let me in on it! Anyway, so I am trying the ole walk away and ignore it thing. Well, for one, it's hard to walk away from a one-year-old... let alone a one-year-old that is as fast as he is. So, I just make it obvious that I'm not giving him the attention he wants. So far, nothing is successful in stopping his ridiculous fits other than time-out. I love time-out. :) Second place we went was to a store. Whined and screamed nearly the whole time we were in there. Third place we went was to visit Derick at work. Whined and screamed when he didn't get his way. Then pitched a fit outside as we were leaving. Last place we went, he pitched a fit in front of everyone and it was awesome. Not to mention, the child that LOVES to go places and is either singing, talking or sleeping in the car, was screaming at the top of his lungs today. I understand that he's not gonna be perfect 100% of the time, but man... he really let me have it today!

You know what makes all of this even more awesome? I was reading a hand-out that the doctor's office gives us with each well-visit... it said that soon the child will start to throw tantrums and fits. HA! Soon?? We've been at this for MONTHS. Funny story... I had a couple friends over recently who both have 3-year-olds. They were telling me that around 18-24 months they start throwing themselves down on the floor and throwing fits. I told them we were totally already there. I don't know if they were thinking that I just thought he was throwing fits, or what, because when he actually did have a fit for them, they were like...ooooh, he does throw fits! Yes, yes, he does. He is barely 15 months old and he will jump up and down, waving his arms, screaming and whining, and then sink to the floor slowly. He always puts his head on the floor as if he is in agony, or something dramatic. This is kind of mean, but I think it's kind of funny when he does it in the tub. Hehe. He forgets for a second that there's water. It's like it catches him so off guard that the fit is instantly over. Maybe I should get a water bottle!!

And you know, despite all of this... this is still my most favorite stage thus far. Maybe because the rewards are greater? Challenges are getting more difficult, but the rewards are even better. :)

Anyway, some days are awesome. Like yesterday, he was great yesterday. Today, completely different child--whom I still completely love and adore... especially now that he's sleeping and we get to start over tomorrow.

This mom is off to bed early tonight.

***UPDATE***
The very next morning, we woke up to find our very first molar. :)