Toddlerhood ... toddlerhood

Remember the theme song for the 80's sitcom "The Facts of Life"? I'd like to alter the lyrics just a little bit.

"You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have ... toddlerhood ... toddlerhood ..."

The good: I went to pick Biscuit up at daycare the other day. When I walked in, he was pushing a lawnmower around the room ... making car noises, of course.

As soon as he saw me, he dropped the handle of the lawnmower and took two steps toward me. Then he stopped and looked back at the lawnmower. I couldn't figure out what he was doing, but then one of the teachers said, "Are you going to put that up before you go home?"

As soon as she asked him that, it's like something clicked in his little head. THAT's what he was trying to figure out ... which do I do first ... run to mama or put up the lawnmower?

I was so proud when he walked back around to the lawnmower and pushed it up against the wall, almost like he was parallel parking it. Then all of a sudden, the four teachers in the room all started clapping and said, "Yaaaaaay!" Biscuit got this huge grin on his face. He knew he had done the right thing.

Then he ran to me, and we went home.

The bad: I have dinner with three girlfriends every Tuesday night, and when Jeff has to work, Biscuit comes with me. Biscuit has been struggling with the time change (who would think an hour could make such a difference?), he's getting some back teeth (which must hurt like crazy), and he's getting over an ear infection (or so we thought).

So after about 40 minutes at the restaurant, Biscuit was done. He started whining and crying and just all-around grousing. One of friends let him walk to the drink machine with her to get a refill. He thought he was big stuff walking on his own through that restaurant. And that helped for a little while.

But finally, I realized, we needed to head home ... RIGHT then.

As I was getting the car unlocked and opening the door to get Biscuit into his seat, he sat down on the sidewalk and wailed. Then when I reached for him, he laid down face first on the concrete. I have never witnessed this before, so I was a little taken aback.

But I knew he was tired and had a sore mouth, so I scooped him up and wrangled him into his car seat as he fought me tooth and nail. Once the car was in motion and the radio was on, he was fine. But boy was it stressful trying to get out of that restaurant and into the car to go home.

I do need to cut him a little bit of slack, though. When we took him yesterday for an ear infection follow-up appointment, we found out that his ear infections weren't any better than they were before he started the 10-day round of amoxicillin. The doctor prescribed a different antibiotic, so hopefully, he'll be feeling better soon.

All in all, we're very lucky. Our boy is in a good mood more often than not, so I guess he's allowed to have grumpy days, too. Let's just hope that those continue to be fewer and farther between.