Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Tantrums and Snot

This has been my day: tantrums and snot. It's been a week now since the kids came down with colds, but the noses have not stopped running. I can mostly control the goo and grime with casual attentiveness and a good supply of tissues. Until the tantrums and tears start, that is. And man, have there been tantrums. Abby's tendency towards them has been building over the past few weeks, but it's as though she's decided in the last two days that it's time to finally unveil the stage proper to her new age: the Terrible Twos. I've heard it said that age three is actually worse, but I fervently pray that that will not be the case for Abby, because the Twos are proving to be pretty terrible, indeed.

Add to that Michael's growing tendency to get aggravated after about an hour has passed without a bottle and/or nap, and absolutely nothing will placate him short of a stroll around the room, which I am far too tired to humor him with nowadays. I'm hoping that his crankiness can be attributed to teething, because then I can cling to the hope that just maybe, when that second top tooth appears, we'll have some temporary respite. The first one, on his right-hand side, finally broke through on Abby's birthday, after teasing us for weeks as it peeked out just far enough to show it was there, and then edged back up just far enough for the gum to heal back over the spot again.

The timing of my children's outbursts is often such that I joke that they're holding a relay and passing a baton to indicate whose turn it is to start the hysterics. Just as I coaxed Abby out of a 30-minute long tantrum this morning, Michael started up, and cried his eyes out in my lap until nap time. The same thing happened again this afternoon.

The snot, though? The snot makes it so much more fun. Because tantrums and tears lead to more snot, which I then have to clean up, and the clean-up process only encourages further unhappiness.

I haven't had much luck keeping anyone happy today.

But, I did manage to vote. Now, all I can do is wait, and see what the future holds...