He protests everything, even things he wants. He won't share, unless it was his idea first. He loves some of his possessions enough to throw a full-blown, fists clenched, wailing-and-thrashing tantrum if he can't have them (and the possessions he loves change daily).
He doesn't want cereal. "No, no no. No cereal. Toast mommy." (Whining begins.)
"Daddy Jam." Means he wants Marmite... why, I don't know. It looks like British lip balm for coal miners. It tastes like axle grease.
I am not British, so I didn't learn Marmite application in the third grade, so I put it on too thin, or too thick.
"No mommy, more Daddy Jam."
I slather on more Marmite and give it back to Liam.
Liam sees it and wails, "Broken." Now I've put too much on and he won't eat it.
He screams until he realizes he's not getting more toast. Then he quietly asks for cereal. I comply... pour the cereal, then the milk. He digs in, literally. He ignores the spoon and sinks his hand into the milk, where he grabs a mini wheat and shoves it in his mouth. Milk runs everywhere: down his chin, shirt, pants, chair, table floor, dog.
I shouldn't complain too much though;
Yesterday was supposed to be the nicer of the two weekend days, so we drove up to Mt. Vernon to see the tulip fields. We went for the first time when Liam was a few months old. We met Joya and Suri for the adventure, seeing as they live pretty close to the area best known for it's tulips. When we went two years ago, parking was free. This time, both lots we tried required $4/car to park, and of course, we hadn't considered this possibility back in the land of ATMs. Between us, we had $4 bucks and change, and two cars to park, so no deal.We also had screaming children. Liam was upset that Suri was not in his car. Suri was in Joya's car, perhaps just melting down because she was in the car. We needed to let them run around. Luckily we found a little market, got some cash, and found a much better place to see tulips... Tulip Town! (The irony being that Tulip Town has free parking and takes debit card.)
Tulip Town had a beautiful display of red, yellow, orange, white, purple and pink tulips. The flowers are planted in wide rows, with a valley in between each line of flowers, accommodating the passage of a curious two-year-old. The farm also had a barn and pasture of horses, which fascinated and frightened Liam. A tractor circled the field, giving rides to Tulip Town visitors. (Liam especially liked this part.) The tracor bumped along past the kite display, where the wind carried all kinds of bright kites. Despite the rain earlier in the day, the ground was dry and packed. Suffice to say, we had a lovely day.
That was until the ride home. Liam was hungry, tired, bored and we tried something silly: we stopped at a grocery store. In the grocery store, Liam spied a toy that he wanted (a hockey stick just like Devin's). He carried it around the grocery store, and then totally lost his abilty to carry on with life. We didn't buy the hockey stick, and Liam took it personally. He screamed 'ah-key-tik' over and over and whined the whole way home (well, until he fell asleep somewhere in downtown Seattle). It occurred to me that he might have been sad that the fun day was over... or that he was overtired.
Sure enough, he forgot about the whole thing by the time we got home, just after his bedtime. So today we went back to the grocery store where Devin got his, and Liam was so pleased to have a hockey stick just like Devin's. The only problem? Devin's on vacation until next week.
Life is tough for everyone.
