Frankly, I've been exhausted & not inspired. But thanks to a spitfire toddler & coffee this morning, I finally have some motivation to post. So much has gone on in the past month, so I'm not going to even attempt to bring things up to speed. Let's just focus on the past week, shall we?
Abby started a new season of swim lessons on Friday. She LOVES it! She has definitely missed the water for the few weeks we had off. She could barely stand to wait for class to start. She kept trying to be sneaky & scoot to the side of the pool so she could put her feet in. She is doing really well at being passed under water. I'll pass her between the teacher & I, and Abby will reach out to grab onto our arms and pull herself up. I'm excited to see how much she'll learn this season!
This weekend was chilly & raining. C'mon, Seattle! It's almost August! What gives!?!?!? So we spend the entire weekend indoors. B took Abby to a gymnastics class, I went to lunch with the 'rents & went shopping. Then, I got home & felt like getting Abby out of the house & figured she'd enjoy shopping. Because, she gets SO excited when we ask her if she wants to go shopping? She throws her hands up in the air & says "SHOPPING!!!!" Then runs for the front door. Such a girly girl! 1 hour and 3 tantrums later, I determined it wasn't such a hot idea.
We started out at Old Navy, because I had a Groupon that was about to expire. Abby loved shopping the racks, but refused to leave the boy section. It's like she knows the exact part of the store I have no desire to be in & decides to plant herself there. She found some PJ's with a turtle, and obsessively carried them around the store with her. She screamed at me any time I attempted to take them from her. She also felt the need to try on every. single. pair. of. shoes. I mean not just each style, but every size of each style. She's obsessed with shoes! Then, she demanded to try on a very cute navy blue polka dot dress. The only problem was it was a 5T & she couldn't carry it without stepping on it, but she wouldn't let me carry it, nor would she let me give her a smaller size. Sigh...
We finally made our way to the dressing room. For some reason the store clerk gave us a normal dressing room & not a family room. The difference? Family room = door that kids can't crawl under & lock on the handle. Normal dressing room = Abby opening dressing room door repeatedly while mommy scrambles to hide her fat thighs mid-change. Needless to say, all of our purchases were for Abby. As mom didn't think $20 Old Navy jeans were worth the flashing risk.
On our way out of the store, Abby spotted a store display, that must have been surrounded by blinking lights & arrows saying, "Kids! Look here!" It was a display of Elmo pj's. GASP! Oh. Em. Gee! She HAD to have them! She immediately started reaching for Elmo saying, "ELMO!! ELMO!!! ELLLLLMOOO! MINE! MINE! MINEEEE!" Ok, ok, kid. We'll buy Elmo. They were of course in the boy section, go figure. At the checkout counter, the store had another genius selling tactic designed to force a tantrum & thus a last minute purchase in order to shut the kid up. It was cartoon themed lunch boxes. They had Mickey. Need I say more? They were also $10, and Abigail won't need a lunchbox for...3+ years? So no. I wasn't going to get them. I already had shoes, turtle pj's & Elmo pj's - all of which she didn't exactly "need". Thus trantrum #1 ensued.
For some reason I didn't learn my lesson at Old Navy. I decided to be brave & head over to Macy's. And actually, Macy's went fine. Abby found a newborn layette outfit that she thought would be absolutely precious on her baby. She carried it around the store & followed me like a little lady. Everyone was commenting, "Oh what a cutie!" I was a puffed up proud momma like, "Yes, She is adorable. No kid has ever been this cute & no kid ever will be."
I found a couple pairs of jeans & a dress on sale, and Macy's happened to have a family-sized dressing room. Score! Abby was mostly happy to play with the clothes that previous merchants had left in the room. I was able to try clothes on without breaking any public nudity laws. So far, quite a successful trip. Then, Abby realized the door to the dressing room was on a slider. She promptly kicked me out of the dressing room, "Mommy! Go-way!" Closed the door & then opened it again, saying, "Hello, Mommy!". I let her do this about 10 times in a row. But then I got bored & my arm was getting heavy holding our purchases. And within no less than 2 seconds we went from this:
To this:
A random Macy's employee walked by & gawked in horror. No doubt thinking to herself, "what a brat! I can't believe that mom lets her child throw such fits!" Which is exactly what I used to think, before I had a toddler of my own.
I scooped her up and carried her over to the checkout, sure that someone was going to call security & report me for abusing my child. The checkout lady handed Abby a box of tissues. Which Abby threw to the ground. I was mortified. At that moment I added shopping to the same list as eating out & grocery shopping.
I guess this is what they call the terrible two's. Just happening a bit early for us. It's quite the balance though, because she's so amazing & entertaining when she's not throwing fits. And it completely makes up for the bratty behavior. She has been really using her imagination which is so fascinating! This morning she was running around the bathroom doing figure 8's, with her arms out wide, saying "shhhooom!" Then she stopped, looked at me & explained, "Airplane."
Last night, she entertained herself for 20 minutes by reading herself a story. I have no idea what it was about, but I think it had something to do with a bad baby & an awesome mommy!
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