Up and Down

What's wrong with this picture? This is how I found my son this morning - sans shirt. I'm not sure when he lost the shirt, but I know he had it on when I checked on him about 1000p last night. After that, I can't be sure. He might have gotten bored this morning. Or hot. But I was surprised. He hasn't been that helpful about removing his shirt on his own. Maybe he's just holding out on us...

After MDO, we went to the playground. John and I had a good time. We played chase and rode the slides, climbed the ladders and drove the "ship".

And then we went to the grocery like we normally do on Mondays.

And on our way to the parking lot we had to stop and watch the bees collecting pollen from the little white flowers. The bees don't seem too bothered by us and John finds the action fascinating. I did caution him, though, not to get too close.

And all was fine until 513p when Daddy walked in the door and I was thinking about whipping up a cake. The "Hold me! Hold Me!" crying / whining chorus began. But Daddy wasn't good enough. Only Mommy would do. We tried the "Do you need to go to your room?" with John agreeing and heading towards his room. He'd spend a little time in his room with his blankie and paapaa and then would rejoin us only to repeat the whole sequence again. After about 20 minutes or so, he finally got over the need to be held. John and Daddy went to the living room to play until dinner was served a few minutes later.

During dinner, John fed himself his yogurt as he'd fed himself most of his applesauce this morning. And while he was done way before us, he managed to sit and "visit" with us until we were all done with dinner. The rest of the evening went pretty well. We read some books and then it was time for the bath routine. And the "Hold me! Hold me!" chorus was revisited. Since it was Daddy's turn to brush teeth and bathe, the crying escalated beyond control. This was much like it was one day last week. John wasn't happy with his paapaa in the bath. He wanted his blankie and would not understand why he couldn't have it in the bathtub. There was no reasoning with him. He was totally crazy hysterical. He even cried harder when we took the bath towel back to the bathroom to hang up to dry. Totally bizarre. Needless to say, I gave in and rocked him and put him to bed. And he was content. Not even any complaint when I finally put him in his bed. Does anyone have any advice? There's only so much one can handle. We walk the line between being compassionate and holding to our routine so as not to give in to his desires, which I think is the base of the problem. He doesn't get his way, so he pitches a fit. And then he loses all control of his emotions. If this is what 21 months is going to be like. Can we go back or just skip ahead to 24 months?

-EBP-