Where did he go?

Since we have returned from camping Bright has been not his usual carefree, happy go lucky self. he has been replaced by "Angry Boy". With mood changes too frequent to count, and crying jags that tear your heart out- not to mention drive you bonkers because they happen over the seemingly silliest of reasons, our past week has been terrible. We have had our first down on the floor temper tantrums with arms and legs flailing and screams to wake the dead. Sometimes you can shift his mood by offering an alternative or just letting him go while you walk away. Other times his tantrum just follows you, too upset to be away from his source of frustration which also is his source of comfort. His spiritedness has increased ten fold as he bounces from forbidden thing to forbidden thing in the apartment, even when they are way out of reach. He climbs, jumps, chews on (always a favorite...) everything. Yes, I am sure it's mainly teeth- all of his molars have come through but are not out entirely, and his bottom eye teeth are coming through too, but some of it is just a behavioral phase. You can see it in his eyes as he screams out, "Climbing..., get down" while climbing onto the coffee table, as warning of sorts that he is up to no good, while also reminding himself that he isn't supposed to be up there. This too shall pass, right? The part I dislike the most is not living in a house, but in an apartment. Sure we have more yard and open space than most people have for their house, and the lake out back is great, but sometimes, when your kid is older he needs to run outside and not have to worry about a parking lot, or people watching him, or me worry about what the neighbors will think when he truly deserves to be hollered at... ugh. So, staying home with him has its pluses but the lack of a second income and the things it allows you to do is never far from my mind on days like today.

Oh, and I got bit by a damn alpaca at Alpaca Days celebration. That was just the icing on the cake. Tomorrow will be better. It has to be.

Pictures

Some pictures of Bright from not too long ago...

Bright with one of his Bob the Builder toys. He could sing that theme song all day long....
We have not cut his hair yet, but those shaggy curls are getting longer and longer every day.

On his 18 month dr. appointment Bright had a terrible time- cried for the whole time the two of us were there. We came home to find that daddy had lined up all of his little people figures as a surprise for Bright to find when he returned. This may actually be only a portion of his guys.
Bright has been taking a fancy to eating peanut butter and jelly crackers- well, really just taking them apart and licking out the insides and then giving us back the crackers for more jelly and peanut butter to be added on.

Setting up the tent with daddy.


Camping seemed like the only reasonable excuse for letting him eat junk like Pringles and chocolate pudding. Unfortunately he developed a strong love for the chips right away and can say "Pringles and Pudding" very clearly.
This is the face of two struggling people, each trying to maintain control over the other. Who do you think won this time?

Camping was great!

We had a great time camping on Saturday. Bright played and played at the play parks, climbed in and out of the tent a dozen times, ran around the picnic table, lifted firewood, got into mischief whenever possible and didn't trip and fall into the fire. He also fell asleep without much fuss even with being dressed in his footie pjs and snowsuit. It got down into the 40s at night and we had puddles of condensation on the floor from us breathing in there and all the moisture in th air too. All in all it was better than we had imagined it would be so we will definitely do it again next year. Pictures to post later in the day. Bright just said "Tibby, post, relaxin', get her!!" Better go save the cat...

wish us luck!

Today we are going camping with Bright! I am very excited and so is Bright! We put up the tent last night in the yard just to see if we could fit all three of us inside and he was all revved up after that and barely slept last night. We are not going very far from here but it's a good location on the lake with three new play parks also. It's nice that he is getting old enough to do these kinds of things and chats about the things he wants to do while he's there.

Where we have been

It seems as though life has become much busier now that Andy has gone back to work. I didn't think that could be possible since we had been really bouncing around all summer long but now that Bright and I are on our own again we seem to fill our days up pretty fast. A day with a toddler full time is a challenge in itself. A teething toddler adds another layer, and then a talking element just boosts the craziness level. I cannot get over how much fun Bright is right now. Four weeks ago I was worried that he was not learning to talk in the appropriate time frame. Then four nights ago we hear him say "Combine... wheat... bread" at the dinner table, from one of his books. He has been stringing three words together quite well in the last few days. It all started with the party at Mom and Dad's place when Kyle, Pam and Shay were here. Andy and Bright were picking apples off the apple tree and throwing them into the corn field when they came across a really buggy one. Bright kept saying " Bug... Apple" for days to follow. He must have figured out that when he says stuff like that that we will talk to him about it and we understand him so he wants to say more and more. Child development in action is pretty cool.


Now with tooth #17 coming in Bright can eat lots of things like grownups do.Bright loves the lake and will go in whenever we are will to brave the now chilly waters. This is the beach at our place. (Thanks for the pic Pam)
We went back to the museum of play with Kyle and Pam and Shay right before they left. Bright had a great time in spite of his runny eye that day.

I think I will be posting once a week or so from now on. Keeping up with Bright has been an amazing task lately and at night I just want to relax. Tonight Andy and I watched Darjeeling Limited for Movie Night. I give it a 10. Must has struck just the right chord in me at the right time. Makes me doubly sure that I want to take the train across country in a few months!