Letters from the Evans: Thanksgiving "Break"

A break for teachers - not for mommies! :)

Today was a busy one. I woke up to a very crabby toddler and yucky weather (38*F and raining). I knew it was going to be an exceptionally rough day if we didn't get out of the house. Cabin fever is real - only it's my stress level that goes up instead of my temperature.

I started out by taking Clara to the Children's Museum in The Woodlands. Usually they let people in at 9am. Apparently that's not the case on holiday weeks. I can't believe the lady didn't say anything while I was taking off my coat and Clara's coat, and putting up the umbrella, but she didn't say a word until Clara was off and running and about to play. "Excuse me, ma'am? We don't open to the general public until 10. Right now we're having a Thanksgiving Camp." - why would she not say something earlier!? Clara was so, so, so sad to leave without playing. There was betrayal in her eyes.

I couldn't just go home without us doing something fun, so I took her to The Woodlands Mall play area. Which, by the way, doesn't open until 9:30. Oh my gosh, people. What does everyone else do in the mornings!?

To keep her occupied for 15 minutes, I let her climb all over Clifford. I was going to let her ride it, but it ate my 75 cents, and I sure wasn't about to try it again.

Phew. 9:30am and the playground is open. Clara was READY to play!

She climbed all over the place for 45minutes or so before another mother and I had a disagreement. Her son tackled Clara and she shrieked "no" at him (instead of hitting him - hooray!!) and she ranted at me about me not controlling my child. (Say what!?) Plus she said I wasn't keeping my child safe by letting her climb all over the place. Well, what else is the playground for? My 17 month old is perfectly capable of climbing on everything in there safely. I know because she's done it before, I'm only a few feet away, and I don't know what else to expect from a toddler when you take them to a place with lots of cushiony things to climb on .... it's just a "duh" thing to me really.

Anyway, I told her that she did exactly what I've been trying to coach her to do (say "no no!" instead of hit or bite) and that I was proud of her. Then I let her slide down face first one more time for good measure before gathering our belongings and taking off. Clara was pretty pooped after all that exercise anyway.

Funny note: I noticed HER child trying to do the exact same thing as I buckled Clara into her stroller :)

Also: I stuck to my guns about all of my parenting decisions this morning - she HAD to wear shoes, she HAD to sit in the stroller, and she HAD to buckle up in the carseat without running into the street first (an obvious one). This may not sound huge to you, but people - when you've got an independent toddler in public it's sometimes temping to let a few small things go to keep the peace instead of making her obey every single command. Well, by golly, I did today. And it was tantrum city. But I didn't ask her to do anything unreasonable, and I followed through - including a 1minute time out. Parenting is tough! But she survived and gave me a huge grin and hug when we got home, so I guess she's cool with it too :)

We played for a little while once we got home.

And had Lunch Part A (we split lunch into 2 parts - prenap and postnap)

Then after a 2 hour siesta (which I took part in as well), it was time to meet Ms. Lauren and Landon at Chicfila for Lunch Part B, where she consumed an entire kid's meal. It's amazing people. How does she stay so petite and eat that much!?

Toddler Lunch Date

Then we drove over to Ms. Amber's house for playgroup. She was running a few minutes behind and it was cold and rainy, so Clara and I joined Ms. Lauren and Landon in their car where the kiddos played and had a good time cranking up the radio, turning on the blinkers, and adjusting the A/C. Thanks for being so understanding Lauren :)