Yup, another one

I wasn't going to post again tonight, but I actually accomplished something today and I wanted to share.

So today started out okay. Jayden got up a little early, but nothing terrible and he was pretty cheerful.  By the time we got downstairs he was a hot mess.  He cried, more or less, for about 30 minutes straight.  He refused to eat.  He refused to walk.  He didn't want to sit in the stroller.  He wanted me to pick him up.  But if I picked him up, he wanted me to put him down.  He didn't want to sit in his chair.  He didn't want to sit in my chair.  He didn't want to sit.  He didn't want to stand.  He didn't want to put his jacket on.  He asked for oatmeal and then refused to eat it.  He didn't want water.  He didn't want yogurt.  When we did walk (he was in the stroller), he got mad at me when I put the sunshade up.  He got mad when the sun was in his eyes.  Literally anything I did was wrong.  Finally he sat down in his chair.  And ate his oatmeal in about 42.7 seconds.  Like I guessed, he was hungry.  He finally calmed down.  As we were getting in the car to go to my office, he looked at me and said "Mommy, I no crying anymore.  I-I-I happy."  And I replied "really?  are you sure?!?"  A few minutes later, as we were driving and looking out the window at buses and motorcycles, he said "Mommy, I, I a big boy."  I think Juju tells him to be a big boy and that big boys don't cry.  I kind of hate that message, because I don't want Jayden to think he shouldn't cry.  But at the same time, I'm sure he'll hear that message everywhere and it's just up to me to counteract it.

A quick rundown of the day. Jayden was pretty good - after the office we ran a bunch of errands and had lunch.

Carrying the doggie bags that he picked out.  Turns out giving him a responsibility - a purpose in life - makes him a whole lot happier.

My last stop was at the grocery store.  I wasn't going to go, because it was close to naptime, but Jayden had been wide awake in the car so I decided I'd run in to get it out of the way.  Once again, he wouldn't run, he wouldn't walk, he wouldn't ride, etc.  Finally I got him in the cart and almost immediately he started passing out.  His head kept falling forward or sideways and once or twice he might have hit his head on the shopping cart handle.  Poor kid.  I practically ran through the grocery store, checked out as fast as possible and drove reasonably fast home.  We got home a little before 2 and Jayden slept until 4:30 pm!  So that explains a lot of the disaster this morning and throughout the day.  Thank goodness he had the chance to sleep this afternoon, then.

He still hadn't eaten a full meal with me so I was not looking forward to dinner.  I was making risotto and he wanted to help, so it dawned on me that maybe if he helped me make dinner then he'd be invested in it and he'd actually eat it.  So he brought his stool in, grabbed a second wooden spoon and helped me stir the risotto.

For anyone who might be worried, I was extremely careful and warned him repeatedly about how hot the stove was and that he should only touch the end of the spoon so that he didn't come close to the pan.  I know some people would say I shouldn't let him within five feet of a hot stove.  But how else is he going to learn?  And how awesome is it that he helped me make dinner?!?

...and it worked!!!!!  I was so happy.  I called my mom, even though I'd already talked to her twice today.  Finally, something worked!  And it almost sort of helped me too!  He ate a bowl of the risotto and even had a little bit more.  So that was my accomplishment today.  If I got nothing else done, I got Jayden to eat dinner.  Ah, motherhood.

But then after dinner we had some more time, so we goofed off a bit:

Smiley, fuzzy hair!

He specifically told me that he wanted to take a picture for Gramma, and this is the smile that I got.  Not bad.

And, finally, bubble funnies in the bathtub.  When I didn't take a video, he ended the whole thing saying "oh my gosh."  But of course whenever I turned the camera on he wouldn't say it.  Oh well.  You can imagine him finishing his giggling (and honestly, is there anything better than his giggling?!?) and then saying, almost under his breath, "oh . . my . . gosh."