Tyrannosaurus Liam

On Wednesday, when I had to take Mallory in to see Dr. Bailey for her one-month checkup, I had my first public toddler tantrum experience. Not that we have had many of these at home, and as a result, I felt woefully unprepared. All started out well, but when the nurse called us into the examining room, Liam didn't want to stop playing with the train he had found in the Neat and Tidy Room (kids' section of the waiting room). I offered to let him bring it in with us; no dice. He wanted to stay in the Neat and Tidy Room. Because I am sure there are just as many child snatchers here in my small hometown as there are anywhere else, that was not going to happen. Ialready had Mallory in hand, as she was fussy, and then I had to try to drag Liam down the hall to our appointed room. He basically broke down in tears and arched his back and dragged his feet and yelled "No!" oh, about a hundred times. A kind elderly man came up and offered to carry Mallory down the hall for me so I could scoop up Liam, and I was so distraught by then that I actually let an elderly man carry something for me. My daughter, no less. There are so many things wrong with that, I don't even know where to begin.

Liam calmed down, some, in the exam room; but threw a couple more fits for good measure - one when Dr. Bailey took too long to come in after us, and Liam decided to try to make a break for it back to Neat and Tidy Room, and another when I had to stop at the receptionist's desk on the way out to book another appointment, and he tried to make a break for the parking lot. I was taken by surprise each time. It was so NOT like him, I was completely caught off guard.

Liam had been exhausted the night before, and slept terribly, so I was hoping to chalk it up to sheer exhaustion. However, today Chad and I attempted a family road trip. Chad needs a new passport and decided to apply in person at the Windsor office, and then we wanted to do some shopping afterwards. The passport part went OK and lunch went OK, but both kids were cranky by shopping time; and how much fun can parental clothes shopping be for kiddos, anyhow? So Liam pitched another fit or two today. This is either the Terrible 2's kicking in right on time, or perhaps some latent sibling-induced moodiness coming out in him. Tomorrow we have to travel a distance to a family birthday party, and I was really hoping he would be well behaved for it... heaven help us.

For her part, Mallory is deep in the throes of infant acne (a.k.a. A Face Only a Mother Could Love). She has it much, much worse than Liam ever did. I took this photo a couple of days ago, but it is so much worse now - this is just the tip of the iceberg (and she's showing her good side here, too):

Poor little peanut... I was hoping she would make it through the first dozen years or so before having to deal with this!