My Whiney McWhinerson

I walked in the back door yesterday evening around 5:30. As I stepped into the living room I practically stepped on Cole – who…was asleep on the floor. I gingerly stepped over him and a few paces later almost stepped on Roark – who…was asleep on the floor. Apparently they decided not to nap during the day and couldn’t stay awake a moment longer. It was cute. Very cute. But not cute enough to make up for the Whiney McWhinerson that Roark became the moment he woke up until the moment he went to bed. I could not look at him without him breaking down into a sobbing mess. EVERYTHING MADE HIM CRY. Dinner? Cry. Milk? Cry? Holding him? Cry. Pajamas? Cry. Diaper? Cry. Bedtime? Well, you get the idea. He cried and cried and cried until he was finally asleep for the night.

I can no longer remember when the boys were babies and they were like that all the time. How did I not kill myself? Seriously. One night of it drove me CRAZY. Oh thank god they actually grow out of that stage. Now we need to get past the terrible twos. Quickly.

My Annoying Toddlers

So the babies? They grow up. They assert their independence. They don’t remain slugs that wither along doing as they are told. And the growing up? It starts at..oh….lets say…19 months, 21 days, 9 hours.

We have had a rough couple of nights with the boys this week. Cole was running a fever (clueless as to why…it appeared and then *poof* was gone 2 days later) and therefore was the king of the complaining. Whiney McWhinerson. All. Day. Long. And nights too. So much whining in the nights. We ended up falling into the great parenting pitfall – we brought him in bed with us. OK – I will be fair to Todd here – I brought him in bed with us. Because I was tiiiiirrred (I wonder where Cole got the whiney genes from?). And he kicked and moaned and kicked some more. But – I could sort of rest there as opposed to downstairs playing legos. And this continued until last night when there was no sign of fever and we were all spent – so we dumped the boys in their beds and headed to bed. And then all hell broke loose.

Roark and Cole howled and screamed at the idea of sleeping. I think they may have yelled “fuck you” – but it is hard to tell when they slur their words so much. The point here is that they were VERY pissed off that we would dare make them go to bed. Cole specifically wanted OUT. OF. THE. DAMN. BED. ALREADY. He kept yelling at us, which must have meant that he was hoping we would wear down and just put him in our bed.

After yelling for all of 10 minutes I heard a huge “KERTHUMP” followed by hysterical screaming, coming from their room. I then knew that Cole had just hurled himself out of his bed. I went upstairs, calmed him down, put him in bed, and left the room…listening to him and Roark continue with the screaming. 2 minutes later? There was Cole standing at the gate to his room – yelling at me. So – back in bed he went, and he proceeded to climb out WHILE I WAS STILL IN THE ROOM. Defiant little boy! There was simply no keeping him in his bed at this point… dilemma.

So at 9:something last night we proceeded to turn Cole’s crip into a toddler bed. Which we knew he would not stay in. We then baby-proofed the room. Of course guilt got the best of us and we did the same with Roark’s bed – thinking how mad he would be that Cole could roam free while he was stuck like a rat in a cage. We then put the monsters in bed, shut the door, shut the baby gate, and went to bed ourselves. Oh! The crying!

We listened to them cry until about 10:30. I could hear them stubling around the room – hitting the door, stomping around. And then, all of a sudden? Silence. Wonderful, beautiful silence. Of course the quiet got the best of me while I lay in bed wondering if they were quiet because they somehow managed to escape out the window, or perhaps pulled the dresser over on themselves – and were now dead. What? Those are not normal thoughts? Seriously?

I finally went into their room to check on them – and would you believe it? They were each in a bed asleep. And – they slept all night long. Until 7:30 this morning. Holy hell, that was nice.

Portugal

Portugal, originally uploaded by ckindsfather.

Portugal is a beautiful country. It is full of winding roads, brick walkways, huge old trees. There are miles and miles of vineyards and farms and pastures. There are countless hills and churches and castles at every turn. The people are quiet, friendly, and purposeful. They cling to family, religion, tradition tighter than anyone I have yet to meet. It is a wonderful place and I feel like more of a person having been there – if only for a week.

My Trip

I am at the airport in the bar. It is 9:30am and my flight is not until 11:45. Can you say “bit of a wait”? Horrible talk shows on the bar TV, alcoholics signing up for their first drink of the day, and grumpy travelers are everywhere.

I have been lucky on this trip. I accomplished what I came here for and had a nice time with my employees, many of whom I now consider friends. I like feeling like the travel was worth it – especially after a night like last night. Last night. Oh, last night. I am not proud of myself. In fact, I have no idea what really happened. I was sitting on the sofa in the hotel room watching TV (switching between American Idol and Friday Night Lights – FNL won out…it is WAY more interesting) working a little, spacing a little…really doing nothing when it hit me. I was an emotional basket case. I would see kids on TV and get all teary eyed because, oh holy hell I missed my kids. Then I would see a marital fight or someone make up and I would start getting misty because, I missed my husband. Then I started feeling like an idiot for being such a wreck and that made me feel worse. It ended in full-swing crying for no known reason. I have to blame the damn prednisone, because there is no other explanation. Have you heard the saying “the dog food commercial made her cry”. Hello. I cried at a dog food commercial. Because…I missed my dogs.

Luckily the whole teenage crying drama thing ended quickly. I took a shower and watched basketball (UT and A&M – go Horns!). There wasn’t really any reason to cry during the ball game – except of course when they went into the SECOND overtime and I was so tired from the crying and the working that I almost cried again. I ended up falling asleep before the game ended – which is probably for the best.

Here’s to travel and prednisone.