Year 2, Day 89: Terrible Two's

Wow!  We've always said the 3's were harder than the 2's, but I think this last baby is proving that theory wrong.  Abishai had many moments of unhappiness or craziness or "my way or the highway" bits that just purely exhausted me and had me caving in to his wishes just so he would stop fussing.  Yes, I am that mom.  I can only wrestle a 23 lb snake so long before my aching fibromyalgia body starts throwing a fit.  It started with the cereal and only wanting the marshmallows out of it.  Then, after playing hard for an hour at an indoor playground, Abishai wanted his water and Mommy forgot his sippy cup.  We offered him a water bottle, and he would not take it.  Nor did he want to go play.  In fact, he tried to put his shoes on so we could leave to get it.  And leave we did because he wouldn't settle down.  And because home was further away from the golden arches, we went to McD's to get a drink with some Happy Meals.  (It was close to lunch time).

We had two other errands to run, the library and the grocery store, and both were about 20 minutes away from the playground.  Abishai then was stir crazy at the library when I was trying to herd Keturah and Justin in and out of the library (Justin is another whole paragraph worth of crazyiness).  We then went into Aldi's with a "short" list of groceries, which ended up being half a load.  But Abishai didn't know if he wanted to be in the seat of the cart, or in the big part of the cart, or sitting or standing, or sitting forward, sideways or backwards.  Thank goodness Aldi's is a small store and I don't have to make many decisions as to what brand to buy and which is the better deal.  When we finally made it home, it was after 2 pm, and Abishai beyond done and ready for a nap.  We got the groceries in, while Abishai said hi and bye to his cars (and put Keturah's new mini Barbie down for a nap, too.  See pics below).  Thank goodness for naptime!

We were able to collect ourselves after Mommy had a time out and the middles had Bible class.  Then we waited for Daddy to get home so we could have movie night.  I couldn't sit still through it, especially with Abishai would definitely wasn't sitting still.  We borrowed the new, live action Jungle Book from the library.  The others had seen it, so it was really just me watching it for the first time.  I saw most of it.  It was a pretty impressive movie. I have seen the original, but only a few times and a very long time ago, so I don't know how it compares or what the "easter eggs" were, etc.  I just kept thinking, "how much of this is computer generated?"  Most of it, I think.  I miss old fashioned movie magic, but that's a topic for another post.

Ok, Justin, I have no idea what I am going to do with Mr. Spacey!  I went to check out books at the library and told Justin and Keturah to finish and follow me.  Well, they didn't.  Justin didn't even realize I had walked across the library.  I then told him to check out his books while I went back to look for Abishai's McD's car.  When I couldn't find it, I went back to see if Justin was done and I literally said, "Justin, did you check out your books?"  He said, "Huh, what?  I didn't!"  Then he tried checking them out and, get this, he couldn't because he ALREADY CHECKED THEM OUT!  What?  Clueless!  Totally clueless!  I guess I was a bit spacey when I was his age.  Benaiah wasn't this bad.  I know it's a phase, but it's quite annoying.  It's like he has a severe case of ADD (no offense to those who really do have that diagnosis).  I will tell him ONE thing to do, and he'll go to do it and....SQUIRREL...he gets highly distracted.  It's frustrating, but also intriguing at how someone can be so clueless but knowing it's because his brain is changing.  I'm a people watcher, so I do find this interesting, now that I know not to panic about it.

I didn't see much of Benaiah today because he was doing yard work for Grandpa.  And Keturah just came along for the ride and did her homework.  Sigh.  I think God gives you kids to refine you and grow you but boy is that growing hard!  I'm exhausted!

The kid can climb up the side of the chair and through the arms.  He thinks he owns the place.  And well, he does.  I'm really enjoying this "last kid/baby of the family" fun.  He's so spoiled and we know it!

The playground we found is at Brookville Road Community Church.  They open it for almost all day every day to the public for free!  It was super busy today but it's the last day of spring break, so I'm not surprised.

Abishai did a great job climbing today!

He insisted I climb up and down the slide with him.  We tried the places where there were nets, but his foot would have gotten caught so I didn't encourage it.

Go, Baba, go!

These blocks were a bit slanted, so I really thought he wouldn't be able to do it.  He proved me wrong!

Monkey see, monkey do!

Keturah, too!

Lots of cubes with bubble windows and netting between them.

Peek a boo!

Toddler area!  He head to learn to be patience and so did the other toddlers.

At least at this age, toddlers like to be helpers.  He put in about 1/3 of Justin's books for him.

Yes, Justin read this many Pokemon books in two weeks.  No wonder his Bible Bowl studying has suffered.  We had to have a little chat about that.

This picture is blurry, but it proves that Abishai really does like helping.  The bag is actually empty.  We only had 4 books to pick up this time, instead of 50!

Head in the cloud of Pokemon.

Sleepy baby!

Yes, I bought a 5 lb bag of Enjoy Life brand of Dark Chocolate chocolate chips, not to put in recipes, but to just eat as a snack.  They are soy free and dairy free.  So, overall, they aren't cheap, but I think they are cheaper buying them in bulk on Amazon Subscribe and Save.  I LOVE having Amazon Prime and being able to buy specialty foods online!

Abishai loves watching the vloggers I like with me.  He and I were watching a video this morning while we ate our breakfast.

Cutie on the counter.

Keturah got a mini Barbie at McDonald's and gave it to Abishai.  He was playing with it, and I told him to put it night night so he can go night night.  I then grabbed a few things from the make believe kitchen box and he proceeded to put "blankies" on her.  One time, it was like the "Princess and the Blankie (instead of the pea)" because there were 10 dish rags on her!

Then we put his cars night night, too.

Keturah's creations today.

Pokemon battles.

Abishai is definitely an extravert/relational/caring/big hearted kind of guy.  He loves playing with doll houses and role playing.  He notices babies and gives hugs.  He gets upset when he hears the door open and close and Daddy doesn't wait for Abishai to come over and say goodbye again.  (Yes, that happened today and Abishai cried for 5 minutes afterwards!)

And another blankie.  Which, later on, he tried putting on Justin when we were watching the movie.

Night, night cars!

I think Abishai and Justin both have big, caring hearts.  But, Abishai is definitely more extroverted.  Again, I love watching how he interacts with people and his surroundings, copying the real world.  I'm sure the others did it, too, but I think Abishai has more examples to follow.  I love family dynamics!