It's All Falling Into Place

I knew it would get easier. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, and life still isn't where I would like it to be, but it's getting easier.

Ian is finally in a place where his schedule is somewhat predictible. We still have to put him back to sleep occasionally when he wakes halfway through his nap but 50% of the time he sleeps his whole nap through. That's a whole 50% better than even last week. It's a challenge to get him to sleep until 8AM; he's waking up at 6:30 or 7:00 crying like he's hungry but is only taking a couple mouthfuls of milk before drifting back to sleep. This morning I gave him his soother at 7AM (it took me getting out of bed 4 times before he actually held it in his mouth) and he went back to sleep until Big Brother made a social call and woke him up at 8. Oh well, better than waking up at 7 I suppose!

So Shaun and I schemed together last night before he went to bed and we made all these plans for a special date this morning. The plan was to leave Ian with Daddy and go to the library, TSC Store to check out some diggers, and then Dollarama to buy some much-needed craft supplies. The morning started out not so good: Shaun refused to eat his breakfast. On a normal morning I wouldn't have an issue with that because I'd just leave his breakfast on the counter and when he asked for a snack mid-morning I'd give it to him. Since we were going out I didn't have that luxury. Strike one against Mummy.

Once he finally ate his breakfast, he asked to go to TSC first. The plan was not to buy anything, just look. He knew that but still wanted to go there first. I wanted to head there last in case he had a fit at not buying anything but figured, 'he ate all his breakfast, let's go there first and start the morning out on a more positive note.' He ended up having a fit, of course, and we left the store with Shaun in a grump. Strike two against Mummy.

Next was the library. I played his favourite music in the van on the way to the library (Bananaphone by Raffi, and Spiderman by Erick Traplin) in hopes of lightening his mood and removing the cloud of grump that was hanging over his head. It wasn't to be. We quickly picked up our item on hold and left. There was no way I was going to try and find stories with a crabby 3 year old! He was being so crusty he didn't even want to sign out the hold item. It is Toopy and Binoo, a DVD movie that we've been waiting weeks for since it's so popular. He was furious that I signed it out after he said he didn't want it. In hind sight I should have left it at the library but I was thinking more towards later in the week when he decides he actually did want the movie afterall. So now he's even more miserable and I'm feeling not so chipper myself. Strike three against Mummy.

So we came home. There was no Dollarama trip and I promised myself that I won't plan a special morning with Shaun for a long, long time. It seems every time I plan to do something special with just me and him, it blows up in my face. The most special times we share are the ones that are spontaneous. So much for my type A personality trying to plan everything.