Rough Day

 Well... more like rough afternoon. 

 A woke up early -- which kind of moves his internal schedule forward about an hour.  We had a full morning walking to the post office to mail things.   Then it was time for A's last art class.  The instructor brought her two (very small but jumpy) dogs.  I'm not sure what she was thinking, because all the toddlers wanted to play with the dogs and not really explore their inner abilities with art supplies.   

By lunchtime A was pretty much ready to pass out -- and he pretty much did after two River Bend stories.  But then he only had about an 80 minute nap (usually he sleeps a full two hours).  He wanted to see M, who was at work, and I made the mistake of announcing that we'd go pick him up.

Talk about clock watching.  A didn't want to do anything else.  He's also been eating oddly -- I haven't yet found the latest Wonderful Food (it used to be bananas, or jelly sandwiches, or cheese...), so making sure he eats enough can be a real chore.   At a certain point, he's so unfocused on food that I have to feed him myself.  

So we went to pick up M and then it was off to Target for a new car seat.  Despite feeding him before we left, and then again in the car once we had M, Target kind of didn't work (note to self, don't shop during the dining hour).  After A broke a display, M left with him while I paid for the new seat.  

After dinner, I thought A had evened out and that we'd have a nice time in the back yard; but then he deliberately tested me, made three bad choices in a row, and so I carried him inside to a waiting bath.  High Drama.  

I think some of this has to do with the "I want to do it all by myself !" stage toddlers go through.  Man, teaching him to nicely say, "Thanks, but I can do it myself," instead of whining is going to take some doing.

On the up side, A still likes reading quite a bit, and really likes it when we read Jane Yolen's "Ballad of the Pirate Queens"  (although it's slowly dawning on him that pirates are bad guys, or at least not always nice guys)   and "The Golden Storybook of River Bend".