Taking The Good With The Bad...

Christopher and I had the best day today. I should preface this by saying we have had a rough couple of days. His mood had been pretty cranky from about last Wednesday. He'd whine and cry for no reason, then he had signs of tummy trouble. On Thursday and Friday he had temperatures and his diet started taking a dive. Ryan was the one to put it all together; the last set of molars were making their presence known. He refuses to let the toothbrush go near his right side. At the table he would eagerly start eating, only to stop and cry in pain. He lived on fruit all weekend. It was really hard to watch. Thank God for Motrin and teething tablets, or it would have been an even harder week. Then the clouds broke today. He woke up happy, played by himself all morning, had his old sense of humor back as well as his appetite. We went to Storyville after he was emphatically telling me "crab". You see, at the entrance of Storyville (an awesome hands-on library for kids under 5) there is a neon crab sign, which CRW loves. Whenever Christopher sees a neon sign of any sort in our travels he excitedly says "crab!" So I knew what he meant when he said "crab" this morning. We spent over an hour playing there. It had been months since we'd last visited and it is neat to see how he has change in his play. There was a lot of pretending (he'd say "tsss" when he put burgers on the grill) and of course lots of sorting. This time I noticed him organizing magnetic shapes into piles by their colors. He was such a good listener, and he cleaned up after himself every time he was asked. Then we returned home, where he ate a terrific lunch and slept for 2 hours! (I slept too!) In the afternoon he played alone again, stopping to come find me and request "hug". Then he'd return to play again. I hugged him so much today, he'd never let go! I was in heaven. I caught him playing a game with my perfume bottles while I was dusting my room. He'd take one down say "drink", then get another saying "juice", then another "milk", repeating with each bottle "coffee", "water". Then of course he'd return them to the basket and repeat this for 45 minutes! I couldn't stop him, it was just too cute. Of course I couldn't leave him either, in case he wanted to actually try some "drink". To cap off the day, he ate the biggest dinner, played happily with Dada and finally went to bed. As I rocked him in my arms, he rested his sweet head on my shoulder, stroked my hair and never moved. I found it hard to lay him down. The moment brought tears to my eyes, as he seldom is a snuggler. However snuggling seems to be something he is growing into. Sorry for the drawn out post. But there will be a day in the future where I will be at my wits end and I will reflect upon this post to give me the strength to carry on. After all, with toddlers you have to
take the good with the bad.

This was last week. Right after picture was taken he fell, hit his head and cried for the rest of the afternoon. But at least he looks cute in the picture!

This afternoon playing bartender.