Super Mama

The Smartest Man Alive is out of town coaching a high school girls lacrosse game. So, Little Man and I have been on our own today. I was dreading this day because I thought surely this will be an epic disaster. Little Man will be grumpy, I'll lose my patience and there will be TOO MUCH to do. Turns out, I was wrong. There was still too much to do, but we both managed to end the day without any tantrums (from either of us).

Accomplished all by 7:35 p.m.

*Worked from 7 a.m. until 2:45 p.m.

*Picked up Little Man from day care.

*Went back to work with Little Man in tow to tutor kids afterschool.

*Drove home AND remembered which roads were closed due to construction.

*Made dinner -- Spinach and ricotta ravioli with spaghetti sauce and dinner rolls.

*Unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded it, washed all of Little Man's dishes and cups.

*Bathed Little Man

*Played with Little Man

*Put Little Man to sleep

*Packed for our trip to Orlando tomorrow.

*Made lunches for both of us.

So, yeah, I'm amazing.

Silly Mama

Little Man needed to go back to the doctor today to make sure his ear infection was gone. While we were in the waiting room, he picked up an Animal Babies book. We flipped through it about 100 times looking at the animals.

Little Man flips pages like a maniac, so quickly in fact that he usually misses a few pages without realizing it. Thus, I can look at a board book about 10 times and still discover new pages!

During about the 10th viewing, we came across a picture of a kangaroo and a joey. I read to Little Man about how mama kangaroos keep their babies in pouches. We looked at the picture of the baby cuddling in the mama's pouch and I told Little Man how much I wished I could keep him in a little pouch.

He looked up at me and laughed. Silly Mama!

Ladies' Man

We went to a new church today. It has a nursery for infants and pre-schoolers that is perfect for Little Man. We go to Mass while Little Man plays with the other kids and enjoys a snack. It's in a Kindergarten classroom and there's plenty of things to play with and room to explore.

I was a little nervous about dropping Little Man off this morning because it was smack in the middle of his naptime. He gets shy around new people anyway, and I thought he might get whiny, clingy, and tantrum-y. But, apparently he had a grand time. The nursery volunteers reported that he was very well-behaved and he was bouncing in the arms of a older girl when we picked him up.

As we were leaving church, we passed a group of middle school girls who were standing near a church bake sale stand. The Smartest Man Alive overheard this: "There he is! That's Logan." That statement was followed by pointing and oohing and ahhing.

My son, the ladies' man.

Bad to the Bone

Things my dear, sweet son has accomplished this week:

1. He grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator. Seriously. Thankfully, it was one of the plastic bottle kinds (we are classy people) and I was standing there to intercept the contraband.

2. While we were in a toy store with my dad, he grabbed a few toys that were sitting out as displays and headed straight for the door. My dad caught the little shoplifter as he was making his getaway.

Isn't this enough to make a mama's heart swell with pride?

A Gold Star for Mama

Little Man had two public meltdowns today. I've been dreading the day that this occurs and I pictured myself getting sweaty, frantic, and dashing out of a store without looking back. But in reality I was calm, patient, and we both survived.

Scene #1: Snip-Its, a hair salon for kids.

I've been meaning to get Little Man shoes for about a month now, but he's been sick, we've been busy, blah, blah, blah. So today we went to Viera, an outdoor shopping mall about 45 minutes north of our home. We got there a little after 9 a.m. and discovered that most of the stores didn't open until 10 a.m. (Side note: Seriously, business owners, 10 a.m. is ridiculous. We've been up since 6 a.m. and we're itching to get our errands done, so get your lazy butts out of bed a little earlier and open your stores!) We stopped by the book store and walked around to window shop.

Then, we discovered Snip-Its. It's a children's hair salon that is decorated with toys, colorful contraptions and animated movies for little guys and girls to watch while they get their hair trimmed. So, I figured we'd quickly stop in, get a quick hair cut and then buy our new big-boy shoes. Little screamed nearly from the time he hit the swivel chair. At one point, he actually wriggled out of the safety strap and nearly made a getaway. Nothing would appease the dear child. No amount of bubble-blowing, video-watching, lollipop-bribing would work. He just reached his chubby little arms out to his mama and screamed. It quite possibly was the longest hair cut of my life, but just kept repeating soothing words.

"It's O.K."

"It doesn't hurt."

"We're almost done."

"Awww. It's tough being a big boy."

He finally got his lollipop, I paid and was relieved we were done.

Scene #2: The shoe store

By the time we made it to the shoe store, Little Man was contentedly sucking on his lollipop. The store was filled with little boys, so he smiled and was making friends while his mama perused the shoes. He consented to his foot being measured. He smiled sweetly for the sales lady when she put on his new shoes. But, he did not like the shoes. He stomped his feet, pounded his little fists, laid on the ground and CRIED hysterically. He absolutely refused to stand or walk in the shoes and he only stopped screeching when I put him back in his stroller. The nice sales lady assured me that he was not the worst she'd seen, and I breathed a quiet sigh of relief. By the time we got home, he had recovered from his shoe opposition and was happily walking around the house.

Mama survived both meltdowns. Now, where's my gold star?