I was talking to one of my friends about Claire missing her nap and how she was fine that day and then throwing temper tantrums the following day. I wondered if there could be a correlation.
My friend said it is quite possible! She said that whenever her little boy missed his nap, he was fine that day, but the following day or two he was “very delicate.”
That’s a fabulous and perfect description.
Daddy and Grandpa got the attic fan (mostly) installed on Thursday. We both worked all day on Friday. He got more done than I did, because Claire really missed Granny and Grandpa. Saturday, we were supposed to go to a party from 3pm to 7pm, so Daddy worked all morning wrapping up some finishing touches to the attic fan – putting an extra gable vent in on the east side, etc. – and I helped him during Claire’s morning nap.
I was feeding Claire the last of her lunch (we had enough time that we could finish the gable installation and then the three of us could get ready and we’d leave for the party). Daddy comes bursting out of the laundry room yelling, “We have an emergency!!!” Jasper had gotten into the attic! In one of the trips up and down, Daddy had forgotten to close the laundry room doors, and Jasper had figured out how to use the ladder, clothes dryer and shelf to get into the attic! This is BAD, because it’s full of fiberglass insulation. Luckily, Daddy had seen him, (it would have been horrible if we’d gone to the party and didn’t know he was up there!!). Unfortunately, Daddy had on his overalls and his big facemask, so Jasper was scared to death of him and ran. Daddy finally caught him and locked him in the bathroom.
So…Daddy stood in the kitchen to make sure Claire finished her lunch without falling out of the high chair, and I gave Jasper an emergency bath. Giving Jasper a bath is normally a two or three person job, so it was a challenge, to say the least. Needless to say, that put us a little off schedule, but not too much. (I still feel like I have fiberglass insulation in my skin, but I scrubbed and scrubbed, so hopefully it’s all out. AND, Jasper threw up twice yesterday, but not at all today…so hopefully he’ll be okay and didn’t ingest too much of it in trying to clean himself before his bath.)
We had a GREAT time at the party! Claire did SO WELL at the party, even though it was smack-dab in the middle of where her afternoon nap was supposed to be. You couldn’t even tell! We left around 8pm, and she was asleep about 5-minutes into the car ride. We got home in pretty good time, put her PJs on and she went to bed around 9pm. She slept until after 8am, so that was good.
Yesterday, we got a little glimpse of what it may be like to live with a two year old. One of my sisters got to “witness” the first tantrum, since I was wrapping up my phone conversation with her when it began.
Anyway, Claire had two little temper tantrum episodes that were pretty funny. They both involved something that she wanted and didn’t want at the same time. As both you and I know, that’s not possible. Apparently when you’re almost two, you think anything is possible, and you get really pissed off when that’s not the case. The first meltdown was over a piece of bread. She wanted it (and I gave it to her), and as soon as I gave it to her, she didn’t want it (so I took it – she’d handed it to me!), and as soon as I took it, she got all mad and wanted it back (so I gave it to her) and that just made her angrier. I even laid it down so she could either take it or leave it, and that didn’t appease the beast either. It was pretty shocking (and yet oddly funny) to see such a meltdown over a piece of bread. The counselor in me kept telling me that this couldn’t be about the piece of bread. It had to be about something else…but I really think it was about the fact that you can’t have and not have something at the same time. That’s a concept we get, but she doesn’t. The second meltdown was over the fact that she wanted to sit on my lap and stand on the floor at the same time. 
Again…not quite physically possible.
I always thought tantrums were caused by a lack of communication (or not understanding what they want)…little did I know they could also be based on irrational or broken logic. Greaaaat.
Daddy thinks it’s because she didn’t get her nap the day before, which could be true, or it could just be wishful thinking. Either way, the meltdowns didn’t last long, and I was able to get her calmed down. It will be interesting to see how long they last in the future.
“Do I smell like an old man?” my hubby asked me the other day.
“Huh? I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I thought I smelled an old man at work, and then I thought I smelled an old man in my car, and then when I was outside, just now, mowing the yard, I smelled an old man again! That’s when I realized it might be me.”
Granny and Grandpa were here for almost a week, and we had such a good visit. Claire loves playing with them, and she even has her own names for them. Grandpa is “PaPa” and Granny is “Daey.” Huh? Let me explain that last one.
We call Daddy’s Momma “Granny” and Momma’s Momma “Grandma.” Both Grandpas are called “Grandpa,” and if we have to refer to both of them at the same time, we add last names. Anyway, Claire’s version of “Grandpa” is “PaPa.” That’s pretty easy to understand. “Granny” is a bit trickier for her 18-month old tongue, and a lot of words that start with the hard “G” sound come out as a “D.” So…Granny would become “Dranny,” which would become “Danny,” which Claire has shortened to “Daey.” So, “Daey” it is. Granny doesn’t mind what she’s called, and Claire doesn’t mind as long as she gets a reaction from the proper person.
So, today was the day they decided to drive back home. We waved good-bye to them from the sidewalk, and Claire was all happy. She didn’t realize that they weren’t really coming back, and we won’t see them until July. That’s just over a month away, but she has no concept of time.
She went down for her morning nap without any trouble, and when she woke up, she really wanted PaPa and Daey to read to her and play with her and feed her lunch. They were nowhere to be found.
“PaPa? Daey? Papa bye-bye? Daey bye-bye?”
“Yes, Grandpa and Granny went bye-bye, but we’ll see them in July!”
After lunch, she really wanted PaPa and Daey to read to her and play with her and still, they were nowhere to be found.
Even after the big alligator tears and sobbing, they were still nowhere to be found.
“PaPa? Daey? Please Momma…”
It’s going to be a long day. 
Setting the scene:
I was working in my office, and Claire and Granny were playing in the living room. Grandpa and Daddy are installing an attic fan in the hallway, right outside my office. Daddy is in the attic, upside down in a pile of fiberglass insulation, trying to wire up the fan, and his helper was standing down here in the hallway.
Daddy: (yelling from the attic) “Mmmmmmmmumble mummble circuit off? Mummmmble mummmble.”
Grandpa: (yelling from the hallway and repeating the question back to him to see if he heard him correctly) “Is the circuit off?”
Granny: (hearing Grandpa’s question and yelling from the living room) “Yes, I turned it off.”
Grandpa: (not hearing Granny’s answer) “I don’t know. It won’t electrocute you. It’s only 110.”
Daddy: “MMMMMMMMMMMBLE! OFF!”
Grandpa: “You’ll be fine. It’s not like you’re standing in a bucket of water.”
…Wastin’** away again in Margaritaville,
Searchin’ for my lost shaker of salt.
Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame,
But I know it’s nobody’s fault.”
Thank you Jimmy Buffet and whatever cell phone company it is that allows its subscribers to do this rather than make people listen to a boring old-fashioned, so not-cool ringing in their ears. I call over a hundred numbers a week, and I never know what surprise is waiting for me on the other end of the line.
**I did a non-scientific poll of google lyrics results, and it’s tied 50/50 for wastin’ and wasted…you decide. Or have another Margarita, and it won’t really matter. 
You know it’s stuck in your head now, too.
You’re welcome.
Guess what Claire is saying today?
A few days ago, we had a conversation about bras. Yes, bras. She loves them, points them out and declares quite loudly, “BRA!” One of her favorite books is my Victoria’s Secret Catalog.
Today, I was getting her dressed, and I said, “Okay, sit up. We need to put on your shirt.” And she said, “Bra?” I said, “No, babies don’t wear bras.” To which she replied, “No babies no bra.” HA. So, then I said, “That’s right! Babies don’t wear bras. Mommas wear bras.” She said, “No babies no bra. (shakes her head vigorously) Mommas bra! (nods emphatically)”
She’s been saying this all morning.
Thank goodness I had a girl.
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