I have a bunch of posts in draft right now, but I’m having a hard time expressing how I’m feeling at this point in quarantine. My head is in a fog, my feelings change by the day or by the hour, and so expressing it coherently is a struggle.
So I won’t.
Not today.
Instead I’ll tell you about our weekend. We didn’t really do anything, of course. We never do, but it was okay just the same. We went outside and got dirty and did some cooking in the kitchen, although not as much as we have been doing lately. I think the only thing E helped with was pancakes. He’s getting excited about his birthday, and cannot wait to have cake. Which means I need to get his cake from a hypothetical vision in my head to something with a bit more of a plan to it.
One thing I do know, is that it will be very blue. This kid is on a cookie monster obsession, and we are fully embracing it for his birthday. I started decorating this weekend, and E was so excited he was shaking with happiness. Everything from giant pictures on the walls to “Cookie Monster’s hanging from the ceiling” (at E’s request), the house looks pretty cool.
He’s asked a few times for his best friend to come to his party, which is devastating because she won’t be here, but I’m fairly certain that he’ll be happy with cake and presents. And even the presents could be negotiable. He loves seeing them wrapped and opening them, but he doesn’t care much what’s inside them. Toys are cool, but yesterday both kids entertained themselves playing a game they made up with balled up socks.
I’m serious. G started it by taking all of his socks and throwing them one by one over the baby gate. I’d then open the gate and let him out to collect them all back into his sock bucket. (Hush, yes I’m sure there are better places to store socks, but he gets a bucket). Once E was done with his bath, he ran over to join. He was having so much fun, and I honestly haven’t seen them work together better than that in weeks. E kept saying “G do you want to help me, please?” to his little brother, and they would wait for each other to walk through the gate (instead of shoving someone to the ground). I’m not sure what the point of the game was, but they were both completely entertained.
That bath, by the way? Was supposed to be just for E. G wasn’t really dirty and didn’t need one since we’d bathed them both the night before. This was more a learning experience to teach E how to give himself a bath, so I took G straight to his room to play before bed. Whelp he figured out what was going on and FREAKED OUT. Screaming, tears pouring down his cheeks, the biggest tantrum I’ve seen. His face was bright red, he was banging on the baby gate, trying to get out, and screaming “BATH! BATH!” over and over.
Guess who also got a bath last night?
I know that giving into the screaming is not the answer, and we desperately need to get a plan together to deal with his loud shrieks, but I’m pretty sure baths are his favorite thing right now, and it was pretty mean to not let him in the tub for a few minutes.
As much as G loves baths, we found something that E does not love, and I’m blaming it all on quarantine. We took a drive this weekend - half for something to do, and half to make sure my car still starts. You remember my car? That thing we just bought and spent so much money on? That we absolutely don’t need anymore? Yeah that one.
Well I was getting on the highway and all of a sudden, the screaming started. E was freaking out in the back seat. Panicking, hyperventilating, screaming at us to stop and slow down. He kept screaming that he didn’t want us to go faster, that we needed to slow down and then he just sobbed “ALL DONE! ALL DONE!” over and over. So that was fun. Apparently it’s been so long since we’ve gone anywhere, our almost 3 year old is terrified to go over 30 mph in a car now.
And trust me, we’ve tried a few times. He’ll be perfectly happy while we’re driving and I’ll hit 31, 32, and the tears start. Just another complication added to our life right now. At least we have the sock game.
