Sunday, February 14, 2010

Best of Intentions

It seems to be a theme with our family right now. We have these great grandiose plans, and then the shit hits the fan, and we have to scrap our plans. I'll give you an example. Today, we went out for lunch, and I thought "Hey, it's a beautiful day outside (75 degrees and sunny. I'm sorry to everyone else who is miserable with winter.) Why don't we go to the park? Sutton can run around, burn off some energy, etc."
Fast forward to lunchtime. Sutton refuses to sit in the highchair, preferring to sit in my lap. I know that I could have forced him to sit in the chair, but I honestly did not want to deal with the screams that would have ensued. We did get him to sit in the chair when his lunch came. He sat, and devoured the fruit that came with his grilled cheese sandwich. He took a few bites of the sandwich, and ate about a quarter of my cheeseburger. He's on this kick where he loves to try anything that I'm eating.
Then he started getting antsy. We knew that we needed to get the check quick and hightail it out of there. I'm sitting there, watching all these other kids who are sitting nicely, eating with no complaint, not crying, etc. And I'm wondering "Why can't my child be like this?" I know, I'll drive myself crazy thinking like this.
So we're leaving, and I'm trying to get Sutton to walk next to me. He insists on being carried everywhere. I think it's because Dave carries him around, afraid that Sutton will take off and destroy something. So to prevent that, Dave carries him. Well, Dave outweighs me by quite a bit. And he's much stronger than I am. But when we're out, Sutton only likes to be carried by ME. And he weighs close to 30 pounds now. OK, maybe 28. My arms hurt just thinking about it. So I'm coaxing Sutton to walk. But here's the problem we have. Our stubbornly independent child wants to walk in the parking lot by himself. Doesn't want to hold my hand. Flops on the floor when I try to take his hand. Gina calls this "noodle legs." Good description.
Sutton tries to take off, and starts heading for the parking lot. I grab his arm, and he tries to hit me. I grab him by both arms, get down into his face and tell him "walk nicely or no park for you." You guessed it, we came home. Sigh.
I always build these great plans in my head, and get discouraged when they don't work out. I'm sure it's a common theme with most moms, but it's so frustrating.

Another frustration-I'm having a lot of trouble keeping Sutton entertained. I don't want Sutton to watch too much TV, but it's very difficult. I try all these plans to get him occupied, but his attention span is too short. We've tried crafts, cooking, outdoor play, etc. It's good for about 10 minutes before he wants to do something else. And he always ends up back in front of the TV. Now, he only watches PBS and Nick Jr., so thankfully, it's still not so bad. But my guilt gets overwhelming when I see him sitting on his beanbag chair, practically zoning out. And when I ask him if he wants to do something, he says "uh-uh."
What do I do? Sarah and Gina and Jamie always talk about these fun activities that their families do. Mine just isn't interested.

Sigh. Right now the rest of the family is napping, so I should get some cleaning and packing done. I'll post more later in the week.

4 comments:

  1. I usually carry Jack everywhere, too, because dude! He will walk off and destroy something. The other day, I put him down at preschool to get Harry's swim trunks out of his back pack and put them in his cubby, and when I stood up, Jack was GONE. I looked in the bathrooms and inside one of the other classrooms-- no jack. Another mom walked him back toward me and said she found him PUSHING THE ELEVATOR BUTTON AND GETTING INSIDE. I asked him what he was doing, and he said "elevator, down." WTF????

    Good for you for following through, and hang in there :)

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  2. OMG!! I think that's what Dave is afraid of. But oh, my aching back. And of course, being the lame brain that I am, I always forget to bring the stroller. Even if it is in my car!
    Is it just little boys?
    Yay for Jack saying more words, though!

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  3. Hi Cory,
    I... well I totally feel like a stalker because I've been reading this blog and not commenting. Time to put an end to that.

    Sutton is super-cute, and, the attention span? Sounds like he takes after Daddy. ;) KIDDING!

    I so enjoy your writing. You make me smile.

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  4. Cory, I know what you're feeling. Restaurant melt downs are the worst. My suggestion to you is to find a moment when Sutton is happy and relaxed and talk about the "rules." I've found that it gets through much easier when it's totally a separate, calm, learning moment. I'm also queen of setting expectations when I know that we are going to go somewhere and what type of behavior is expected. But then again I think 2 girls are TOTALLY different than boys. Who knows? Hang in there!

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