Wiping Sticky Hands: April 23, 2013

My Day

by Jenny Gouveia

We went to the 'swim house' today for swimming lessons. So FUN, right?

((Scoreboard buzzer))

Nope. It was life jacket day.

Never, ever spring a life jacket on a two year old without ample, ample warning, several demonstrations with stuffed animals, videos on YouTube showing kids swimming and having a fabulous time in a life jacket, a few Little Critter books with illustrations of life jackets, and a couple songs with hand motions about putting on a life jacket.

Levi saw that jacket coming and about crawled up my nose. He cried the entire, entire time. The other kids clearly have been through this particular class several times, and were used to donning the life jacket. They swam and played the games and participated in the lesson, and poor Levi bawled the whoooooole time.

He was fine as soon as it ended. While we were in the locker room we had an intriguing conversation with a woman who was here on business from another state. She made no attempt to hide her disdain for Holland. I dried Levi off and started putting on his diaper. She made her disdain about THAT clear as well, and asked how old he was, obviously the reason for her disdain.

Have you ever felt like an epic mom fail???? Nope, he's not potty trained, has no desire to be potty trained, doesn't want to talk about potty training, and his potty chart is blaringly void of stickers. On top of the fact that I clearly don't expose him to enough life experiences to be able to handle a surprise attack by a life jacket.

We left. Matt had come to watch swimming lessons, so we all walked out together, the life jacket incident forgotten and all was well. Until we got to the exit. Meltdown, meltdown, meltdown over not being able to open his own door (Levi, not Matt).

Several minutes later, I'm pulling the vanny out of the parking lot and firmly lecturing Levi on how throwing such a display over not having his own way is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

**Silence from the back seat**

Then...

"I like swimming."

Okay. ????

Luke seemed a whole lot better today...until late this afternoon. He cried...and cried...and cried...and fought sleep...and cried....and fought sleep....and cried....refused to let me put him down....cried....fought sleep...pretty much from 3:50 until 7:30 (through pumping, a visit with nursing students, etc) when he finally gave it up and fell asleep after much rocking, much singing, walking, shushing, patting...I think he was just absolutely over tired. He took a huge long nap in the morning (which he usually does in the afternoon), then a half hour nap in the afternoon (which he usually does a shorty in the morning), and couldn't pull it together for a nap before dinner time, and spun out of control. Matt Ergo'd him through dinner, and tag teamed with me until he settled down for bed (do I have an incredible husband or what?!). I don't think he has an ear infection or anything else 'wrong.' But I was like, for reals. Levi sat and watched Mickey Mouse cartoons on "LouTube" (as he says it) through the late afternoon, which made me feel like a REAL supermom (can't handle a life jacket, isn't potty trained, AND watches cartoons...may as well just hand him his own bottle of Mountain Dew to round it out).

Poor baby Luke. Some days you just need your mama and your monkey.