Spirited Toddler and Crowds ~ Not such a happy mix

Every year I look forward to attending the garden show with my mom. The last couple years of course the little monkey has come with us as well.

I really was looking forward to the garden show this year. I'd had a rough week and was really excited about having an adult to talk with during the whole day. Not to mention looking at gorgeous flowers and other gardening "stuff".

Gardening gets me so excited for spring. It reminds me we will not be cooped up in this house forever, and it really will get warm again.

Of course my excitement was somewhat shattered when Miss La La decided to have "one of her days". She refused to walk, she refused to ride in the stroller (which I only brought because my mom thinks she should be happy to ride in a stroller).

***** momentary rant ******

It's only been almost 2 whole years my mom has known this little person. Why doesn't she believe me when I say she won't ride in a stroller? Why doesn't she believe it when EVERY time we go out and she makes me drag the stroller and Miss La La won't ride in the frickin thing? So here I am not only carrying a toddler but pushing a stroller as well. ARGH.

***** rant over ********

Ok so I totally meant to have the husband grab the patapum out of the truck before he left for work this morning. I figured it's a busy place she might do the whole you have to carry me thing, and the backpack would have been great. BUT I forgot. So NO patapum. :(

On top of me having to carry Miss La La everywhere, her screaming at the top of her lungs and not putting her feet on the floor if I tried to put her down, my mom gets the brilliant idea to give her a frickin lolly pop~ What's up with that.

I'm getting worn down. My mom knows I don't feed her sugar and all that crap. But no, pops a bright blue sucker in her mouth with a big fat tootsie pop in the middle.

So now I have blue sticky stuff all over my hair and shoulder and all over her face, hands, hair and clothes.

My mom just keeps saying ~ well I thought it would make her calm down, and stop screaming.

What on earth kind of thinking makes you believe that feeding a ball of sugar on a stick to a child who never gets sugar is going to make her "calm down" now COME ON!!

Anyway . . . needless to say the garden show was not all I had hoped it would be.

At one point my mom looked at me and said (sometimes even in her meaning well she never ceases to amaze me) "You know I used to think that children acted that way and it was all the parent's fault". I said "and now you think?" and she replied. "Well I have even more respect and admiration for you now than I ever have, I just don't know how you deal with her".

This "I don't know how you deal with her" has been a theme frequently visited recently.

So we leave the garden show and I decide to go grab a slice of pizza at this great little place in the middle of Kansas that actually serves pizza by the slice and it tastes almost like New York Pizza.

On the way there Miss La La starts SCREAMING ~ like insane OMG I'm gonna die screaming. Flailing against the car seat like she's trying to get away from something. I was like Holy shit, what is going on with her. (I had actually never heard this scream in the car seat before) My mom freaks out, pull over pull over. I'm in the middle of rush hour traffic mind you.

Then two seconds later she's fine, smiling eating her apple again. ~ my mom's mind is BLOWN.

We pull into the pizza place ~ my mom's nerves are so messed up she has to stand outside and smoke a cigarette. Then she says to me ~ and this is the first time all day her comments have actually made me mad ~ That's freaky ~ she's freaky. What was that all about? and of course ~ I don't know how you deal with her?!

I was like ~ don't you even call my kid freaky. She is not. She is who she is, just like you are who you are, I am who I am and hubby is who he is.

We ate pizza I dropped her off and was very glad to once again be alone with my child. (who thank the maker slept all the way home)

It's such a dichotomy, my life with this spirited toddler. I want so much to spend time with other adults, but as soon as I do they say things and do things that annoy the hell out of me and I just want to go home and get away from them.

The whole car thing was very weird. In fact, it kind of got to me as well. Not because she was screaming like a lunatic in the car ~ I'm used to that ~ but she had such fear in her eyes and in her voice.

The intuitive hit I got when it happened was someone from the other side had come to visit. It was someone she was "unfamiliar with" or something that scared her. It left ~ she calmed down. I sometimes forget these days to make sure to put up some protection when we go out. She so sensitive in so many ways. I think it's just too much for her to handle.

Does any of this feel familiar to you? Did I lose you at someone from the other side? I'd love to hear how you are managing with your spirited toddler. :)

Anyway ~ that was Friday, now it's Sunday. The weather is a little warmer. I think we'll make lunch and go to the playground. Hopefully there won't be too many other people there. ;)

Until next time ~