I've discovered that I need to plan on leaving the house ten minutes before I actually HAVE to leave. I realized this when Avalyn was still an infant. There is always about 20 million things that have to go in the diaper bag- including enzymes, a spoon and applesauce- and once all the items are packed, there is bound to be a diaper blowout right before we get to the door.
Lately, I've made a new discovery. Avalyn doesn't have ANY concept of time. Duh, right? She also doesn't understand what "hurry" means or why she needs to do it. And, guess what's her favorite thing to do to me right now?
Run away.
Even if I'm telling her we are going to the park! So, I've realized that I can't be in a hurry for ANYTHING. Nope. No things are urgent when you're a toddler mommy.
Here is an example of how this plays out:
This morning, I wanted to take her to the park. Not the one with the playground where all the kids run around screaming and pushing each other- I wanted to take her to a nice grassy park. Where she could run around and pick grass and kick a ball. Then we could also get some really sweet one-on-one time with each other outside.
Now, I know she can't read my mind. So, I described the park to her. I asked if she wanted to go and she exclaimed, "yeah!" then ran over to her shoes, yelling, "Shoes! Shoes!"
She then proceeded to pick up her shoes and throw them in the direction of the door, then turned and ran in the opposite direction.
I had an armload of necessities, of course. So I continued on my path to the garage door. I said, nicely, "Avie come here, we're going to go". She turned and ran toward me. Once at the door, I set my armload down and picked up her shoes, asking then, "Would you like to go to the park? You know, the one I JUST told you about?"
She said, "Yeah!!" Then ran screaming away from me with her fists in the air... like a very confused superhero.
"Um.... Avie?" She turned and looked at me, "The park is this way, babe"
And then she continued to run away.
I could HEAR my blood pressure rising. I kept telling myself that there was no rush, we had plenty of time before we needed to be back home for lunch. I tried to remain calm, and we repeated the process probably two more times. It's like she was the bus from the movie, Speed. Can't go under 60 MPH, or she will blow up!
I finally had to scrape her up off the floor (because the next logical thing for her to do at this point was to lie down) and carry her to the garage. Once in the garage, she did get into the car willingly and then we were finally on the road.
It took us 20 minutes to get out of the house. This included a nice park description, packing the necessities, our fun new "run away from Mom game", putting on shoes and buckling the car seat. We played at the park for only 45 minutes.
Oh, the joys.....
P.S.
This is her new pose. Squatting down and saying, "Cheese!" I can't even get a PHOTO of her standing still!
