The Terrible Two's

I apologize for the delay in posting. I have been working on a research paper that was due for my Economics Class last night. We had a very busy weekend an when we got back I needed Sunday to rest, and Monday and Tuesday to work on the paper.

Some of you know by now from phone conversations that we are experiencing the terrible two’s right now at full throttle, and Saturday was a rancor day in the life of our child. We had been planning this day for awhile. As former residents of Omaha, NE, we had always vowed to bring Jackson back to visit the Zoo. Omaha, for all else you can say about it, has arguably one of the top 5 zoos in North America. (Remember Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom?)

So we booked a hotel in the Downtown / Old Market area and headed off on the 3 hour trip from Kansas City to the big O Saturday morning. We were in the zoo parking lot when Jackson started to turn ugly, and were walking out of the zoo in total disgust and embarrassment at right at 1 hour. I will not entertain you with an articulation of his behavior, but suffice it to say we were those parents you occasionally pity in public places who are struggling to contain a wrathful child.

So back to the hotel. We were very thankful we had booked through Priceline and gotten it for a song. We used what was probably one of the most beautiful days we could have asked for to watch the Georgia Football game and take a family nap in a hotel room. By the way, hotel bathrooms are ideal for timeouts.

Feeling brave, determined, and stupid we then took Jackson down to the Old Market for dinner. After walking all around the Old Market, we ate at the Up Stream Brewery. As part of his abnormally strange behavior, Jackson was a perfect gentleman at the restaurant and allowed his parents to have their first meal out in sometime. Technically, it was our first family dinner out (just the 3 of us) since Jackson was an infant.

The night at the hotel was hell. Jackson took forever to go to bed. Then at 2:30 a.m. he awoke in a fit, barreled his way out of bed, crawled under the drapes, and yelled at us at how we wasn’t doing to sleep in the bed. We didn’t argue with him. But after 30 minutes of us being scared we would be kicked out of the hotel from his tantrums, he finally quieted down and spent the rest of the night on the floor.

Sunday morning was another interesting performance. It took awhile to convince Jackson that the only way to get food was to leave the hotel room. But when we did eat down in the hotel restaurant, he was well behaved and even entertained all there with a toddler’s rendition of “Monster Mash.”

Thank the Lord Jesus; he slept for 2 of the 3 hours back to Kansas City. We made the most of an opportunity to literally drive down memory lane for Darin, grabbed some Runza’s to go, and then headed home.

Sunday afternoon we had our first event with the Kansas City Swiss Society (August 25th post). As parents we were more concerned our little terrorist would blow up the place than the impression we would make on the group. But again, Jackson was wonderful. He absolutely charmed the lot. He played well with the other kids, was respectful to the adults, and except for the ten minutes it took us at one point to convince him that taking off his clothes was not a good idea, he was well behaved.

Jackson’s behavior has been tyrannical for about 2 weeks now and we can’t wait till he passes through this. We realize that could be when he graduates high school, but we are hoping for age 4. Jackson regularly gets put into timeout at school now and we receive bad reports at pick up time with his behavior. He even kicked a young girl in the face this week for reasons no one could infer; just walked over to her when she was trying to stand and kicked her. If you Quincyians don’t see us at Thanksgiving, know it is because we are trying to contain the menace.

This Friday is Jackson’s annual school trip to the pumpkin patch. Michelle and I both are going as chaperons just in case. We’ve also moved Jackson’s bedtime down to 8pm from 9pm. With this I wait to study until after bedtime and we both are there and involved with him. We are hoping these changes give him more sleep and structure. Pray for us please.

We did take our new camera with us over the weekend. Michelle ruined her Christmas surprise by reading the American Express bill for the first time ever. Later tonight I will load pictures from the Zoo and Schutzenfest in the Photo Album for all to see.