The Day After

(Again, this happened last September, but exactly one day after the last post)(Exactly)

Well I just have to give an update.

Obviously, last night I was at the end of my rope and as Mom would say "and I'm trying to tie knots in the threads at the end trying to hold on!". I was geared up for anything today. Getting ready to try the crying back thing.

Nothing.

He was great all day. Super lovable, smiling, laughing a lot. Only one tiny outburst but it was over pretty quickly.

Then out came J. asking if we wanted to go to dinner with a potential client tonight, in Seattle. I asked repeatedly - does your client KNOW we have a time-bomb? And where have you been the last week where you have even a remote idea to take this kid out to dinner with a POTENTIAL client?

Nothing. L. was charming, polite, talkative, cute and only fussed when the noodles finally came out and they were too hot to eat. No screaming. No crying. Nothing. The nice doctor even commented on how great L. was, three times. We're even pretty sure that J. got the sale. . . left downtown Seattle at 8, well past bedtime, with a content, happy little boy who acted like he's never been possessed as he obviously was the last four days.

No fussing during his shortened bedtime routine, and when he smacked me too enthusiastically he immediately said "sorry Momma" with no prompting. And went right to sleep.

Makes me wonder if I've been hallucinating or something. . .

or is this just part of the pattern that I must endure??!!

This is the message that started this Blog "Does this I'm-2-stage ever end??"

(I have to preface this; this event, and the next to follow actually happened in September 2008. It is the "event" that prompted me to create this blog since I was trying to share this story with anyone I could. I ended up sending this as an email to my closest girlfriends (who all had kids before us) and my sister-in-law (who's got 5)).

So when does this "I'm 2" stage end????

Maybe I should have wished for L. to be just a bit more trouble in the last two years because holy moly holy cow I'm going insane now. Every "your child may be experiencing this" thing we've all read about? L. goes through it all about twice a day. The tossed you-name-it. The broken piece of apple (with the half he wants reattached already eaten by him). The I-want-X-and-nothing-else. The constant whine (It's not whining because whining actually indicates an end point). The non-stop crying (it just breaks up the whining). The "I wanna see X right now!! ahhh, X scares me!" The singular focus. The squirmy snake dance when putting him in the car seat. The crying and trying to tell me what's wrong but crying so hard I can't understand him which makes him cry harder and louder and he tries to tell me what's wrong but he's crying so hard I can't understand him which makes him cry harder and louder and he tries to tell me. . . .

He just seems soooo unhappy. Everything makes him mad. Everything. And nothing I do works. Gently talking - nope. Empathizing - nope. Ignoring - nope. Yelling back - major nope. Crying - haven't tried it yet, but perhaps tomorrow I might. Sometimes putting him in his sanctum of his crib works, but most of the time he gets so upset because he wants in, but he doesn't want in because he wants me to hold him but put him down. It's like he's pregnant, teething and a schizo teenager going through PMS all at the same time. And I still have to remember who's boss.

He sleeps well at night (relatively). For that I am eternally thankful.

You should have warned me better. Especially every time I gushed over one of your cute kids.

The loss of Magic.

So these past few weeks have been alllll about the "kiss it and make it better". Everytime L. gets a slight bump now, he runs to one of us "Momma, kiss it". And of course everything is "All Better!" we even get him to kiss our bumps and magically we are all healed.

Yesterday he woke up crying hysterically holding out his foot and barely getting out "Momma!! Ki-ki-kisss it!!!!" which I oblige him and still he kicks that foot out at me "kiiiisssss ittt!!!". This goes on for an agonizing 5-10 minutes when I realize that his foot has fallen asleep - an obviously new sensation - and that every time I kiss his foot, he's looking at me thinking "You deceiver!!! Your magic is no good on this!! Why, you don't have magic AT ALL!!".

This, of course, has only made the situation worse. Magic kisses no more.