I'm glad it's Monday!

No, really - I am actually glad that it's Monday! While this weekend was very, very nice - it was mentally and physically exhausting. I took Kiddo and Little Bit with me up to my Sister-in-Law's house on Friday night. We went to bed shortly after we arrived because it was late and the kids were already tired. We slept, the three of us, in one bed - which actually worked out quite well. I brought the bed-rail with me to make sure no one fell out of bed. Kiddo slept on one side (by the bed rail), Little Bit slept in the middle, and I slept on the other side. Other than Little Bit smacking one or both of us multiple times during the night, we all slept rather well. On Saturday morning, we got up and had a lovely breakfast (eggs, bacon, and biscuits) and set about having our fill of fun. Kiddo spent a good portion of the entire weekend in SIL's basement playing with the multitude of toys she's kept from when her son was small. He was happy as a pig in mud. Little Bit spent the entire time (the whole, entire weekend) screaming for me. She would not let me out of her sight and rarely let me put her down. The following is a list of words she screamed to anyone who would listen...and that was everyone, because she's really loud!: "No!" "Mommy!" "Wait!" "Me, too!" "Up!" "Down!" These were repeated over, and over, and over again the whole weekend. You can also mix them up and use them together. "No, Mommy! Wait!" or "Me, too, Mommy!" By the time Hubby and I got her to bed on Sunday night, I was ready to crawl under a rock and hide. She clung to me like a monkey clings to a tree. I know, now, what it means to have a monkey on my back...in the most literal sense. She wanted up, then she wanted down. When I put her down, she screamed to be picked up again. When I turned my back, even for the smallest portion of a second, she screamed bloody murder - like I was going to leave and never come back. I couldn't go to the bathroom unattended. I was, by some miracle, able to get in a shower this weekend - but I'm not sure how I managed that. It was extremely frustrating. Frustrating as it was, however, there's just something about being needed by your children, however irrational or desperate that need may be, that you cannot say, "No" to. I hugged and held her more this weekend than I have, I think, since she was born! Well, it seems that way, anyway. It tore at my heart to hear her screaming for me like that - like I was going to abandon her. I wanted so badly to just let her know that I would be right back - I told her this over and over again - but she's really still to young to understand that. I take it for granted, sometimes, that my kids seem to be hyper-aware. They have both understood things well before all the "experts" say they should. I forget that, while she understands a good portion of what I say to her, she still doesn't really grasp the actual meanings of things like, "I'll be right back." She knows that if she tells me, "Wait!" that I stop and wait for her. She knows if she says, "Blankie," that someone will go find her blanket. She knows that if she says, "Eat," that someone will feed her. But the less literal things, like "I'll be right back," still are too far out of her realm of understanding. She'll get there - probably sooner than later - but right now, it's very hard. It just was easier to pick her up and bring her with me rather than listen to her scream, or to subject anyone else to listening to her scream. My other SIL took me outside on Saturday to show me her new car and I don't think we were gone for 2 minutes before my BIL brought both kids out to see where we were. He said, somewhat sheepishly, "She was screaming at the door for you, so I brought her out." So much for my 5 minutes of quiet time. I feel sorry for everyone else who had to listen to her this weekend. Kiddo was never like this. I don't remember a single time that he screamed and cried for one or the other of us. Is it just because she's a girl? Is she more needy than he was at her age? Is it the fact that she's cutting three teeth at once? Is she getting sick? So many questions...so few actual answers. TTFN JMS