First off, let me inform you that I mean the title of this blog both literally and sarcastically. We'll start with the literal part.
Last week Shawn took Thursday and Friday off of work. He hasn't had an assistant manager in about 2 months and his new one finally started that Monday so he bounced. He really deserved a break and I'm so glad he agreed to take one. We decided we would go down to the Sacramento area for the long weekend and do some fun things and see my parents. We left on Thursday morning and headed straight to the Sacramento Train Museum. Hudson really likes trains (like, really) so we thought he would enjoy it. We were kind of wrong. He was totally freaked out by how big they were and spent a lot of time trying to run away. Luckily, they have an upstairs area that is all train tables with lots of Thomas stuff to play with so we spent most of the time up there. He tends to be really timid of a lot of things at first, so I'm sure when we go back he won't be as scared. That night Shawn and I went out to a nice dinner. It was nice to have a date night and uninterrupted adult conversation.
On Friday we went to the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town. Hudson couldn't really care less about the zoo and pretty much just sat in the stroller and ate Cheerios. I think it was because most of the animals were sleeping so they were kinda hard for him to see. So we headed over to Fairytale town, which is basically just a big playground. He liked that a lot better. He's super into slides right now so we went down every one we could find multiple times. It was really great (and long overdue) to have a couple of days just having fun as a family.
On Saturday I left my boys and went down to Vallejo to my sister-in-law's baby shower. This was very exciting for me because a baby shower means a baby is getting close to coming and in this case this baby will make me an aunt. Um, I'm pretty jazzed about that. Like really jazzed. Anyway, it was fun to see my sister-in-law all good and pregnant and anticipate the addition to the family.
Sunday we just took it easy in the morning and then drove home. It was a really nice and relaxing weekend that I think we all enjoyed. It's a good thing I did because I had no idea what was in store for me in the days ahead.
This is where the sarcastic fun times comes in. So, generally Hudson has been a super good kid since he was born and I definitely realized this and was very thankful for it. I don't know what crawled up his ass on Sunday night, but boy is it nasty. He is like a totally different child. He is suddenly doing everything he knows he's not supposed to do. Like, constantly. It's his entire day. Then when I tell him no, it's apparently super hilarious and discipline is the funniest thing he's ever seen. There is no putting this kid in his place. I feel like I've been doing everything that darn parenting book has told me to but it's not working. It's about to end up in the garbage disposal. We have agreed not to spank Hudson so we are trying to think outside of the box in terms of discipline. We haven't yet found what works best with him, which I think is probably pretty normal for a kid this age. The last few days have been entirely exhausting and I'm actually counting the hours to bedtime which I haven't really ever done before. I know he's just testing us and his boundaries, but DAMN.
Luckily, it didn't rain today so we went to the park. We left after he threw two handfuls of sand right in his friend's face (sorry Haile). It was way too long until nap time to go home so I took him to Barnes and Noble to play with the train table. That's always good to kill a couple of hours but that big positive is always met with a giant tantrum when it's time to leave. It was definitely worth it today though. I got some sanity because he was distracted the whole morning. I know it's probably just a phase and that is what is helping me get through this. I'm sure once he's 16 I'll be wishing my worst problem was him throwing sand at the park.
**As this went to press, Hudson was on time-out.**
