Friday 5 August 2011

Y3 - 309/365: At the End of the Day...


Our little mite has been OFF THE WALL today -- more so that his typical "off-the-wall" self. It seemed every little thing frustrated him and usually a little viewing of RaaRaa gets his mind off why he was upset...but not today. Distraction was not his kryptonite this time. So Mommy did a lot of talking and a lot of attempts to soothe and calm him. Most of it worked, but it took a lot longer than it usually does. I'm thinking some recent late nights, last night in particular, have attributed to this.

He was a bit better after his nap, but as the hours went on his patience was fading. When he came to me and grabbed my hand at one point, I thought 'I'll run with this and see where he wants to take me.'

He walked me to the gate, so I opened it. Then, he walked me to the front door, so I asked him, "Outside?" He smiled and replied, "Yes," with the little lisp I've noticed. So I opened the door and he was leading me down the steps when I realised we were both in bare feet -- crap! HUGE meltdown as I took him back in and tried to explain that we needed shoes...SILLY MOMMY!

Thankfully I was able to distract him once again by counting the stripes and Velcro straps on his Adidas trainers as we booted him up and I grabbed my trusty Old Navy flip flops. He pointed to his quad on the way out the door and even though the battery was drained, I didn't want another fit so I brought it along.

We weren't down in the garden long before I heard a car pull across the gravel and stop at our gate -- Daddy was home! I suggested to Ryan that we go "look" to see who was here and once again we joined hands and walked up the path toward the gate.

Sure enough, there was Daddy, but no longer in the tiny car from my mother-in-law. Instead he was in a much roomier, 4-door car that is graciously being sold to us by my father-in-law. He picked up his new car near Oxford yesterday and knowing how we've had issues with cars and finding a new one, he is allowing us to purchase his. He's had it about 8 years, according to Matt, and it *ONLY* has just over 20,000 miles on it! We figured we wouldn't get a better deal than that. Plus, we know he has taken care of it, so that is reassuring.

Immediately Ryan wanted to hop onto Daddy's lap and take him for a spin. So, Daddy obliged enough to let him steer and play with the wipers. Thankfully my face only got a little wet from the spray.

After dinner Matt said he was popping out to see Daz so I was on my own for bedtime. This was also about the time that all the tears and tantrums from the day seemed to ebb and fade as my little guy did a series of sweet, reduce-Mommy-to-tears, things.

It began when Matt gave him a kiss and walked out the door...Ryan ran to the window and stood there for at least two minutes waving and saying goodbye, "Buuuuuuuuh, daaaaa....buuuhhh buhhhhh daadaa." Then, I told Ryan we needed to go upstairs and to say night-night to his toys. One-by-one, cars included, he walked around gently patting his toys and said "buhhh-buhhh" (bye bye) to all of them. He even put his teddy, duck, Elmo, and Yojojo inside the Peeka Pod and put a "blanket" (tea towel) over them, once again patting them gently.

Isn't that precious?! (I know other mama's will understand this.)

Finally, after his bath we retreated to his room where he pointed and asked me to put on his fan. We dried his hair and read a little of Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? when he picked up Peekaboo Baby! and opened some flaps as I improvised while still drying and dressing him. When he got to the end, there is a flap that opens to show a baby asleep in her cot and it reads 'Puppy and his friends are sleepy. Are you sleepy too?' Then you open the flap and it says 'Shhh. You are sleepy too. Goodnight.'

My little boy...my 19-month-old clever cookie...pointed at the WORD 'shhh,' held up a finger to his lips (without any prompting) and said, "Sssssssss," like the most darling little snake and I felt a single tear well up in my left eye and slip down my cheek! I kissed him so sweetly on his forehead and told him, "You are SUCH a clever boy and Mommy and Daddy love you so, SO much!"

I didn't want to leave his room after this. I wanted to crawl in that cot with him (if I knew I wouldn't break it into splinters) and snuggle up next to that darling little boy, who drove me a bit batty today, but who is allowed to do it because I still love him endlessly and beyond words, at the end of the day.

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