Child for sale...

For Sale: One 16 month old little boy, very handsome, with a toddler attitude problem.

Any takers?

Just kidding.......sort of.

I apologize that I don't have any new pictures of our little man to post today. But let's face it. Who wants to take a picture of a red faced, crying, temper tantrum throwing boy? And that's basically what we've been dealing with for the past few days. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I share this with you. I certainly hope that you don't think less of us as parents for wanting to run away from home over the past few days. Most parents of toddlers I've spoken to say that they've been there, and some (God bless them) suggest that this will eventually get better.

I have no theory on Joshua's problem over the past few days. Perhaps it's teeth. When all else fails, blame teething, right? Perhaps it's the aftermath of our trip to Hershey last weekend and Joshua hasn't fully recovered. I hope he's not getting sick, but I suppose that could be it. Whatever it was, it turned our wonderful, fun, giggle box of a little boy into a maniac this weekend. Every little thing turned into a dramatic fit. If I'd walk from the room (literally, no exaggeration here), he'd flip and turn on the waterworks. If we'd say "no" to him, he'd throw his fists and then hit us, or worse, bite my leg (his new favorite anger technique). He was getting into things at the house that he hasn't touched for 6 months. Taking things off of the tables and unplugging things that he clearly knows are off limits. And while it doesn't sound like a big deal, and I guess it really isn't, it gets a little tiring and tries your patience after the 87th time you pull him away from the same thing. He went to sleep (under protest) crying and woke up crying. It was a fabulous weekend.

And while I'm venting, let's talk about the Daylight Savings Time issue. One would think that when you turn the clocks forward, Joshua would have awoken on Sunday morning around 6:00 or 7:00. I was dreaming and thought I might get lucky and see 8:00 because of the grouch he was on Saturday. Reality hit when at 5:00 am....yes, that's right (really 4:00 am)...he awoke. Evidently he thought you were supposed to Spring BACK instead of forward. I wanted to cry. Let's just say that with his crying and emotional breakdown at the idea of me walking away for a second or two, I never managed to get a shower for the day until about 2:30 when he finally went to sleep. I told Jason at about 1:30 when we were struggling to get a very sleepy, cranky little boy to go to nap that if he didn't go down soon I was packing my bags and running away from home. That seemed to be the best option.

So, welcome to our world. Please don't think less of me for having written down what many feel, I'm sure. I just want to have this recorded for sometime when my grandchildren do this to their daddy. And then I can say that paybacks are tough.

He was already a completely different child this morning when I left for my meeting. He gave me a big hug and a very wet kiss and said "bub" which I believe is short for "bye bye". And suddenly it all disappeared...or at least faded into a funny story to write about.

Pictures tomorrow I hope.