Monsters!!

Lest you think with all the sweet posts and cute pictures that my boys are angels...that is so not the case. While they have been particularly sweet lately, this weekend their inner monsters erupted!

Saturday was a really good day. Gavin had a good soccer game, and then he and Chad spent the afternoon together doing guy stuff while I worked around the house and Sam napped.

Sunday was a whole other story! Chad worked, and I took the boys to my mom's for Sunday lunch. Sam ate great - the boy has been putting away some serious food lately. Gavin (in typical fashion) ate a pork chop. When Gamma mentioned a special treat she had picked up at the farmer's market I told him he needed to eat two green beans first.

I'm serious. TWO green beans. That was all. This request unleashed the monster. He screamed for no less than half an hour. I really don't know where this behavior comes from - we don't reward the behavior by giving in. We try to just ignore it and not give him attention until he starts to get over it. Threatening (and following through) with taking away his toys/Nintendo, etc - doesn't phase him.

Finally he settled down - I told him he had other options, squash or tomato if he didn't want the green beans. He agreed to eat a tomato slice and finally we were able to move on and enjoy the afternoon.

Sunday night (or Monday morning rather) it was Sam's turn. He has had a horribly stuffy nose for about a week by this point and I finally broke down and tried giving him some Benadryl. Which we are no longer doing, after much tracking, out of the 5 nights he has ever had these horrible screaming episodes, 4 of them he has had some sort of allergy med before bed. That's enough evidence for me to say that it is messing with him somehow.

At any rate he woke up at 1:30 am. Ran behind the curtain and was crying hysterically screaming at me to go away. He wouldn't let me near him. I finally set a blanket and bottle somewhat close to him in case he decided he wanted the comfort and sat on the floor a few feet away. Every once in a while I would ask him if he wanted me/bottle/anything and he would just get more worked up. The minutes ticked away.

Finally at 2:15 am I was done (it was a work day). In a not-so-brilliant moment of parenting defeat I opened up the portable DVD player, turned on the Backyardigans, and offered him some fruit snacks. Anything to stop the screaming.

The monster was happy with the fruit snack offering and sat in my lap and settled down and finally went to sleep at 3 am, only to wake up for half an hour again at 5:30 am and wake for good at 6:50 am. sigh!

I'm happy to report that today he has succesfully gotten over the cold without it turning into a junky lung cough OR an ear infection! While his nose was pretty darn congested (had a hard time drinking and breathing at the same time) the fact that it cleared up without meds - just lots of saline and suction and that we don't have the lung hack for a week following (or neb treatments for that matter) gives me great hope for this winter. We see the ENT today which will be a good check to make sure the tubes didn't get clogged in the process.

Gavin has also had a pretty good week.We've been seeing some really great papers coming home from school and the other night I was so impressed with his reading skills. It's amazing watching them grow and learn!!