Chronicles of a Terrible Two-Year Old Revisited

So in conclusion to our nightly bed time battle routine, the next day I had to do it all again. I repeatedly put my cute little pumpkin pie to bed...over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Did I say repeatedly? Oh yeah, I did.

The little monster, excuse me, adorable little monster was so stubborn. Holy cow. He could barely keep his eyes open and yet, he would consistently come out of his room. I spanked him, cajoled him, lovingly caressed him, firmly reprimanded him, but it still did not matter. I started this process at 6:30pm because I knew he was tired. It did not matter.

Finally things settled down at about 9:00pm. Then it was really quiet and I went to check on him. And I'll be darned, this is what I found.


He was sound asleep in the hallway on the floor. So, did I win or did he?

Rinar came home on Thursday with a new solution.



Which was accompanied by this...He installed it and then installed Eli inside the room. There was a lot of banging and screaming but it sounded like the choirs of heaven.

{cue "Choirs of Heaven" music}

Laaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!

The next night came with a lot less resistance and just resolution, really. He knew he couldn't get out and he knew we were not coming for him. But in a final act of defiance.

Yes, he is sound asleep.

He is two after all.

Chronicles of a Terrible Two-Year Old

Did I ever mention that I have a two-year old? His name is Eli and for the longest time he was like this...


Then he turned two and he seems to know the "terrible" reputation that he supposed to fulfill. By the way, he is doing a mighty fine job of it. So nowadays, he looks more like this...

This is actually a more accurate picture of how he looks most of the time these days. In other words, the kid is a major pill right now. He gets very frustrated because he can't communicate as well as he would like, does not take naps anymore, and goes for the eye gouge when he has a clean shot. Do you know that it really is not very much find trying to wipe the butt of a defiant two-year old and then spend the next 5 minutes trying to get the clean diaper back on him? It also is a tad bit exasperating to then spend the next 10 minutes trying to put pants on the kid. Of course, this is all while you have two screaming infants begging to be held and fed.

Like I said, he is a major pill!

To top off our wonderful interactions today, I had to end the night trying to put him to bed while, you guessed it, two screaming infants desperately wanted to be fed and held. I continually put him back into his bed and he would promptly get right out and scream at me.

"BED!" I would yell at him.

"WHAAAAAAAAA!! NO, NO, MOM!", all while he was emphatically wagging his finger at me.

This went on for at least 30 minutes. He would sneak out of his bed and down the hall and I would march him right back in. I would throw him in his bed, turn off the light, and close the door. I finally decided I would give him a spank on the butt and then put him back in bed. That would show him. This is unheard of for me, because I never, ever spanked Raef or Zach. I was desperate. It seemed to keep him at bay. After three spanks, he seemed to settle down.

I finished feeding the babies and started to put them to bed.

But look who had the last laugh.


That's right. My little "angel" fell asleep outside of his room, in the hallway, with the door open, and the light ON!


Oh well.

Craziness Hits the Road

Rinar went to Boston last week so I decided to take a little road trip. By. My. Self. Oh yes, with my five little angels. Rinar helped me pack everything up on Sunday night and we hit the road at 10am Monday morning. I headed south to Laughlin, NV and we made a little stop at the Colorado river so that the kids could throw rocks in the river, and I could feed the babies. There was also a free boat ride to the casino on the other side of the river so we gave it a whirl. The kids enjoyed it.

Then I decided to drive through Oatman, Arizona which is a chintzy little tourist trap off of historic route 66. There are wild burros that roam the streets, terrorizing the tourists. Okay, they don't terrorize tourists unless you are the lone parent with little ones to look out for, then they charge right in. As I was unloading the kids, which takes me about 10 minutes to do, the white burro in the picture came up and gave Julia a kiss. I guess he decided she wasn't edible. Thank goodness. I can't say the same thing for Eli's shoe. He took a swipe at the shoe, but luckily I had a good grip on it.


We walked around a bit and took some pictures on this old tractor. Jubilation that we are out of the car!
Here is that nasty burro. I only say that because as we headed down to the end of the street, he thought he could pilfer something out of my pocket and promptly bit me on the hip. Grrrrr! They were going to do a gun fight and I didn't want to get stuck in town, so I hurriedly stuffed the kids in the car and tried frantically to get the three burros that were congregated in front of my trunk door to move. Annoying!! Luckily I was able to depart from Oatman with all kids, body parts, and shoes.


Route 66 is a treacherous, windy, slow road to take. I got stuck behind a guy pulling a trailer. Doesn't that always happen when you are taking a road trip?

But the views were spectacular. Take a look. Don't worry, I held up the camera but my eyes were firmly on the road Grandma. Plus we were going a whopping 15 mph.



As you can hear from my conversation with Zach, he is obsessed with the inner crust of the earth and lava and he really has no concept of how far down it is.

We arrived in Williams, Arizona about 4 pm and got some pizza and then headed to the hotel. I was hoping the kids could go swimming, but the pool was outdoors and closed. That might have to do with the fact that it snowed rather vigorously after we checked in.

Did I mention that I packed clothes for the hot part of Arizona, not the snow part. Zach only had flip-flops, Eli had no socks or pants that were clean, and Julia had adorable summer dresses to wear. I was a little anxious to take the kids to the Grand Canyon due to equipment issues, but I forged ahead.
We made it! No wind but it was 38 degrees outside. This is what we saw. These are all the pictures I took.


Okay, so 10 minutes later we were on the road again. But not before we got a picture in front of the official Grand Canyon sign.

Then it was about 1.5 hours to Flagstaff. It was very pretty. There were wildflowers everywhere I looked on this entire drive.



Do you know what movie that was in the background? I am testing your movie knowledge. I am not going to give it away. Leave a comment with your best guess.

This is when my sanity really went out the window. Okay, so we stopped in Flagstaff and played at a park for about an hour. The kids had a lot of fun and the weather was superb. Then it was on to Phoenix. Heather had class till about 10pm, so I decided to get her key at work and then go to my other sister's house in Maricopa. They say it is a suburb, but whatever. It was in the middle of friggin' nowhere. And my sister's house is on the other side of the city in friggin' nowhere. I limped to the "finish" line. The kids played with their cousins while Christi and her husband Thomas and I went to dinner. I had to go to Joe's Farm Grill, which was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It is in Gilbert, which is practically next to Heather's place. Then I had to drive back to get my kids and then drive back to Tempe. I almost rotted in that car.

But dinner was great and it was fun to spend time with Christi and Thomas.

I vowed not to drive at all on Wednesday. So Heather took the day off and we walked to the park near downtown Tempe. It was great except for the fact that they were doing construction on the playground, so it was closed. We walked through downtown Tempe and got some yogurt and diapers. Then Heather stayed with the kids while they ran around the park, while I ran back to get the car.

Eli had fun but I think he was tired. Take a look at this documentation of an Eli temper tantrum. Enjoy!

He went home and slept for about 5 hours without moving. We hung out and the kids went swimming.

Don't worry, I made it back just fine. And except for the fact that Eli figured out how to unbuckle all parts of his car seat the last 100 miles of the trip, it was all fine. But I was never so happy to be home.

Watch Out, Carnegie Hall

Eli is just the gift that keeps on giving.

After incessant badgering and temper tantrums, Eli was allowed to participate in violin lessons with Dad and Zach. This was one of many songs he "played" with them.

p.s. Raef was the cameraman

Eli is 15 Months-Old

In the last few weeks, Eli has discovered the joy of shoes. He likes to put shoes on his feet and walk around. Actually, he only puts one shoe on his foot and then prances around the house. He finds it very entertaining. But the concept of a shoe is really sinking in.

Yesterday, I told him that we were going bye-bye and then I told him to go get his shoe. He looked at me for a few seconds and then turned around and left the room. About a minute later, he returned with one of his flip-flops. He was holding it up high so that I could see. It was really quite a precious moment.

And here is what happens when you take a lollipop away from him...



Tonight Rinar put him to bed and made this little video of the moment. Waving has become a big thing for him recently. He is becoming quite adept at the wave. I just want to squeeze him to death sometimes, my little punkin' pie!