Rough

It has been pretty rough lately. First, following a pretty good healthy streak, we all came down with the stomach flu this weekend. Though it was fairly short lived (about 8 hours for each of us), it still wasn't pleasant, especially for a holiday weekend. Luckily we were all well enough to visit with my parents for a bit on Saturday (before Drew got ill) and go for a drive on Monday (just after I recovered).

Then yesterday I got a call from daycare that they thought Griffin might have another ear infection. They said he had been falling asleep randomly during class, had been crying inconsolably, and was pulling at his ear. Of course I left work to pick him up and take him to the doctor only to find out there is nothing wrong with him. NOTHING. But while we were there, I had a revelation. Griffin wanted to open and close all the drawers in the examining room while we waited (and WAITED) for the doctor. When I wouldn't let him do as he pleased, he rewarded me with one of his new brand of temper tantrum. These are intense rages that turn him bright red and stiff as a board with guttural screams. No amount of redirection or soothing with console him, he just needs to get it out. When the doctor came in, Griffin was still in the midst of his performance, so the doctor said "oh, no. Is he in that much pain? Or is he just nervous about being here?" And I explained "no, actually, he's upset about not being able to empty your cabinets" to which he replied "WOW. Already? At 16 months? Well, at least you can take comfort in the fact that he's actually cognitively advanced!" Yeah... that's something. Anyway, I realized that what happened at school was probably one of Griffin's new tantrums and was not actually a sign of pain (though I can see how you would think so). And he was probably falling asleep all day because he is MEAN and has been waking us up at 4 am the past few mornings just to hang out! I am TIRED! Unfortunately, coming up with those answers didn't make wasting my afternoon and paying a co-pay for nothing any less annoying.

The only bright side over the past several days was our picnic last night. We decided that during the warmer months, we will have a picnic in the park once a week to change things up, have a little family adventure and get us outside. Last night's was our first of the season and we had a BLAST. We carried dinner down to Parfet Park and ate and played and laughed and forgot about every difficult thing in our lives for awhile.

Then we stopped for frozen yogurt before walking home. PERFECT night. Cant wait for next week!