Meltdown

Mine...not Noah's. However, partially due to Noah's many meltdowns. On Tuesday, after getting up with Noah 3 times during the night to go potty (a recurring theme for the last 5 weeks), I hit my wall. I don't do well after not getting good rest, and Noah's been more whiny than usual, Callie's cutting 3 teeth, I've had showers, birthday parties, meetings, trying to paint the church in my spare time, maintain the house, prepare for my mom's visit, and all the day in and day out stuff that constitutes my life...and then on Tuesday, I broke. I mean, I couldn't stop crying, could do nothing else but just sit there and meltdown. Dave was WONDERFUL. He saw that I was well beyond my limit, so he took care of ALL the kids needs: diapers, lunch, nap, potty, playtime. He even unloaded the dishwasher, kept the house straightened up, and saw to all the little needs that usually make up my day. And, I...just sat there. If you've ever seen Overboard where Goldie Hawn has that really bad day, and the dad comes home to find her going, "buh-buh-buh-buh..." That was me.

I tell you what. After I had cried significantly for everything and nothing, I felt SO much better. It was like the dam had finally burst. They say that you release toxins in your tears, and I totally believe that. I released A LOT of toxins that day. At the end of the day, I talked to my old roommate and really good friend, Sara. She get's me. She's also seen me in this state before. We talked, and laughed and I finished out the day on a really good note.

Can I just say again, that my husband is fantastic.

So, yesterday, my mom came to visit and to shower the kids with their birthday gifts. It was a nice visit. It turned into an overnight though since she was planning on staying in town (unbeknownst to me) and ended up sleeping on our couch last night.

So, today...I've literally done nothing but try to return my kids and myself to normalcy. Callie took a morning nap, just as I was getting Noah down, she woke up. Figures, I was actually hoping to take a nap today. Dave got NO sleep last night at work, so we are letting him rest today in his room with no interruptions.

I think I may have had a breakthrough with Noah. Last night the idea hit me. I am SO tired of his whining. It's the only voice I hear these days and I can't stand it anymore. I KNOW that there is a big kid voice in there somewhere. So, this morning as he was whining because he wanted a baby spoon instead of a big kids spoon (and ended up winging red yogurt at me), I had had enough. I warned him that he needed to stop. When he didn't, I used a baby spoon (it's what he wanted) and gave him a spoonful of salt. It seemed to work. He obviously hated it, and when he continued whining I threatened him with another spoonful. That seemed to stop him. We talked again about why he got the salt and that if he continued to whine, he would receive more. The rest of the morning has been filled with pleasant big boy conversation. When he started whining a bit, I asked, "Are you whining?" He would immediately stop and move on. Whew. Let's hope this lasts.

If anyone has something different that I could try instead of salt, I'm open to the suggestion. I don't want him to hate the flavor of salt forever because I used it as a punishment. At the moment, I couldn't think of anything else.

Thankfully, Callie is just sitting on the floor, "reading" a book. She has started cruising on her little push cart. Here comes my lion crawling over to me with a big grin, I had better go. :-)