It’s one week since I’ve been back at work. It hasn’t been as bad as I thought. L has got through daycare not too badly. He has come around and has eaten a little bit and has drunk all his milk and water. I gave a few of my own snacks like dry cereal and a banana and he was able to eat those and sampled a bit of the daycare’s lunch and snack. We shall see how this week goes.
With this new change though L has gotten VERY clingy with J. J does the drop off and pick up so I think when they get home L doesn’t want to let J out of his sight. I don’t mind, I get a little break now, but it’s driving J crazy. He can hardly go out of sight before L freaks out and starts running after him yelling Daddy Daddy and crying inconsolably. Nothing makes him feel better until Daddy returns. It hasn’t been an easy week in that respect. J isn’t a very patient person so he cannot deal with this well at all.
On Saturday night we went to a family wedding and L was just unmanageable. He wouldn’t sit in his seat while we ate but wanted to run around and around. Which I totally get, most 21 month olds can’t sit for long. But when you try to explain to him that he can’t run around and he needs to sit for a little bit he throws a major tantrum. He gets all jelly legs, throws himself on the floor, runs away, screams and cries. But it wasn’t just at the wedding, he does this at home too whenever he can’t do something. No amount of talking to him, hugging him, anything will help.
At the wedding when I went to change his diaper in the washroom it was like he was being tortured. It literally took 4 women to help me hold him down and try to get his diaper on. It was embarrassing for me and I felt really frustrated. I felt like I was the most incompetent mother in the world. Some of the older ladies just smiled and said don’t worry. Others said they were shocked and had never seen a child act like that. I hated it. I wanted to scream at L and say why couldn’t he just be a good boy and let me change him. Or why couldn’t he just sit still when we needed him to.
On Sunday we were running a bit late for lunch and when it was ready all I got all set to feed him but he wanted nothing to do with me but only J. Again another tantrum. I didn’t know if I should give in or just let the tantrum ride out so I could feed him. After 20 minutes we switched and J fed him. And he was happy. Until J left the table to go upstairs and he freaked out again.
I’m hoping that one day this will all be a very vague memory and that things will get better. They have to.
It’s the age. It really, really is. Another 3 months and you’ll be on to different problems