Screaming Part Two: The Tantrum

There was a time when I opened Microsoft Word, along with various other programs on this computer of mine purely for pleasure.  I’d troll through websites, read about Will’s development and even lurk on message boards.  Heck, I even played games on this thing.  Now?  This is the first time in weeks that I’ve even lugged my laptop out of my bag at home.  I mean, it’s much easier to drag it back to the car in the morning if it’s already put away.  But now I spend all day staring at this screen, frustrated at why I can’t upload an excel document onto our web page, even after I’ve converted it to a pdf.  I’ve learned to do things on a computer I never dreamed, (mail merge comes to mind).  So when I come home at the end of a long day, opening up my laptop isn’t exactly on my list of priorities.  

Then there’s also the little problem that Will won’t let me near my desk for two seconds without screaming at levels only dogs can hear.  Okay that’s an exaggeration, if only dogs could hear it, the screaming wouldn’t be intolerable.  

So although Will isn’t screaming as much at night, but he certainly makes up for it the rest of the day.  I feel like someone came and stole my sweet little baby and replaced him with a little screaming tyrant.  Oh wait, there’s a word for that, toddler.  

He threw a huge tantrum today.  It’s been extremely hot the last few days, especially in my office with no air conditioning and com puters running all day.  So I took the kids down to the beach after dinner.  Well, the tide was so far in, there was about a foot and a half of beach, and you had to duck under trees just to be down on it.  But it was a little hike down there, so I figured what the heck, go nuts.  Both kids waded for a while, and Will found an enormous stick.  When it was time to go, I scooped Will up and he screamed all the way up the hill.  We stopped to look at some deer that had wandered into the park, and I swear, they just stared at Will and me in disbelief that noise like that could come out of a human.  A change out of wet clothes and some juice seemed to help his disposition, but isn’t he too young to be having tantrums about this?  Ian and I say all the time how “Will” sure fits this little guy well, he’s got a lot of it.  

But the more Will becomes independent, I’m reminded of how much I did like this age with Emily.  Despite all the screaming and tantrums, he is really becoming more of a reasonable person.  I can actually envision a year from now, you know, going out in public again.  

Did I mention that?  I think we’re going to go ahead and not go into public with Will for a while.  Especially restaurants.  Last weekend for my birthday we took a wonderful trip with my family to the ocean, luckily we had one of those hotels with a kitchen, but we did eat a few meals out, and each involved Will being carried out of the restaurant screaming, and then taking turns eating, while I at least, felt resentful for missing out on a nice meal.  But that isn’t fair to us or him.  Will’s not the problem, it’s the expectation for young toddlers to be able to sit quietly for extend periods of time.  It just isn’t going to happen.  So if that means Ian and I will be taking advantage of more babysitting, hey, I’m okay with that.  

Emily has been screaming a lot too lately, and it might be compounded by Will’s screaming, but I have even less tolerance for the fits she’s been throwing about teeth brushing of all things.  (we switched her from kid’s toothpaste to adult, because I honestly can’t imagine that blue sparkly crap actually cleans teeth) So, it’s a battle every morning and night.  

Hopefully soon the screaming will cease, and I can go back to the slightly less boring subject of how fast the kids are growing up.  Until then, buy stock in earplugs.