Baby Claire's Blog: Terrible Twos or just a bad day??

Days like Sunday are days that I question my parenting ability.

Claire woke up happy in her crib, but it seemed like as soon as she started her day outside of her crib, her world just fell apart. One minute she would be happy and playing so nicely, and the next minute, she would be screaming, falling on the floor, throwing things, etc. An all-out fall out or heeny hiney as we say in our house (also known as hissy fit). Trent and I would just look at each other like we couldn’t believe this was our child. Then she would eventually get straight for a little while. But if something didn’t go just her way, it was screaming match again.

I thought maybe she wanted to go outside since that is her favorite thing to do and always makes her happy. We put shoes on and walked out the door, but she would not let me put her down on the ground. She had a vice grip around my waist with her legs. So I finally got her on the ground, she turned and walked up the front porch steps, and walked right back in the front door. Nothing was making her happy.

So as a last resort, I took her out to the car. We just sat in the car and watched her DVD and she was content. We did this for a little while as Trent came out to check on us frequently. I even pulled my car into the shade. It was time to get ready for church, so I took Claire back in the house where she had another fit. We finally got dressed and I told Trent we would just meet him in the car whenever he got ready. That was the only place Claire seemed to be happy.

She was an angel at church. Happy, dancing, singing, smiling. She almost sat through the entire service which normally doesn’t happen. I took her out about 10 minutes til noon just to let her run around the nursery for a few minutes before the ride home. She was so happy! She fell asleep on the ride home and slept about 45 minutes in her crib. But then woke up from a sound sleep to screaming her head off.

At this point I am thinking maybe something is hurting her like her ear or molars. No more than about 10 minutes after she was awake, the power went out with the storm. Seriously??? More screaming ensued with flailing and throwing. I called pediatrics and asked if we could be seen since I had no idea what was wrong and thought maybe her ears were hurting. The receptionist could hardly hear me over Claire’s screams. Y’all know how much I HATE to take her to the doctor because I know she will freak out. But I thought something seriously must be wrong.

We loaded up in the car and she was completely happy again. No tears, no fits, nothing. Happy as a lark. We rode around in the pouring rain watching Elmo until it was time for her appointment. Of course she started crying as soon as we walked in the door this time. The nurse could hardly weigh her without Claire almost falling off the scale. The nurse didn’t even try to get a rectal temperature on her this time. No way that was happening. So she got an ear temp of 99.5.

Claire was shaking from crying so hard by the time the doctor came in to examine her. He checked her ears, mouth, throat, and listened to her heart and lungs (not sure how through the bloody murderous screams). He said everything looked ok. Her right ear was fine and her left ear was a little inverted but not infected. Her throat looked ok. Not sure if he got a look to see if those 2 year molars were coming in. It took me holding Claire down like restraints for him to even try to look at her. He mentioned how strong she was and that even he was sweating trying to wrestle with her. Doctor appointments are NOT our favorite things y’all.

So after all that, he pretty much said she maybe had some gas but everything else looked fine. He asked if I had changed her diet and I laughed because even if I tried to change her diet, she won’t eat anything but the same fruits and cereals every day for all 3 meals and snacks. After we left though I remembered I had run out of her organic milk and had to give her some regular milk this past week a few days (too lazy to go to the grocery store). So could the non-organic vs. organic milk maybe have given her gas or a tummy ache?? I don’t know. But I won’t do that again.

When we got home the power was finally back on. Claire freaked out again when we got home and got out of the car. I thought maybe she was hungry since she wouldn’t eat lunch earlier because she was too busy rolling on the floor. I got her to eat a banana and some crackers. After that and the rest of the night she was happy. Like nothing had ever happened.

Needless to say, she wore both Trent and I out yesterday with her tantrums. It’s like one minute she’s perfectly happy, then the next minute it’s like someone has ruined her entire day. We both just looked at each other in disbelief and confusion after she went to bed. Like what in the world just happened today?

Someone at church asked us yesterday if we were going to have more children. On days like that, it’s easy to answer the question with a “no”. But then I look at Claire and she is so precious and pretty in her sweet curls, beautiful handmade smocked dress, white sandals, and big hair bow all dressed up for church. And I question my “no” and it turns to a “maybe, we’ll see.”

Not sure if this is the start of the “Terrible Twos” or not. But I was warned yesterday when I posted something about it on Facebook that the threes are much worse than the twos. And that’s just groovy great.

And I stop and think how in the world did we make it through all of those hard, stressful times at the beginning and not feel this crazy!?! Or maybe we were that crazy, it was just so common and on a daily basis, we didn't realize it. Now when it gets out of control one day, it seems so hard. I guess that's a good thing - that life is getting more and more "normal" for us.

I didn’t stop to take pictures of the tantrums so you get lots of the happy church moments yesterday with one hissy fit picture thrown in when I wouldn’t put her in the car fast enough. Enjoy!!!

Happy hanging out in the car in the driveway

Not happy at all

You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl! (Meaning she is all dressed up so cute and sweet but has a big Mac truck book in her hands)