Tiny Tantrums

What was supposed to be the first week back to school post-vacation quickly turned into an extended break for the boys. Both Scott and Robby enjoyed school cancellations on both Thursday and Friday, translating to a one day school week for both of them. While every male in the house was delighted with the unexpected vacation, I have to admit to being moderately frustrated. Typically I love snow days and having everybody home, but on the heels of a long Christmas vacation, all I wanted was for my house to clear out so that I could start to put it back together again.  Hopefully this week the weather will cooperate with my house purging plans!

Timmy relished having everybody home, although he wasn't thrilled with being held inside. He saw some snow Friday morning and wanted to play outside. As much as we tried to explain that it was simply too cold (a wind chill of -5 would not be fun for anybody), he refused to accept our answer. Much of Friday was spent by my walking around the angry mass of screaming toddler in my path. When I left a room he simply followed me, threw himself down again and continued screaming. If I closed the bathroom door he sat at the entrance and resumed crying as soon as I unlatched the handle. If it hadn't been so frustrating it would have been comical!

Saturday was a tad better. While I still wouldn't let him play outside, I did bundle him up to visit the Animal Park. We didn't visit the outdoor exhibits but instead he spent several hours on the indoor climbing structures and playing in the activity room. He enjoyed petting the chinchilla but was not amused when the zookeeper invited him to touch the snake. Suddenly my brave and fearless little boy ducked behind me and started to emphatically chant "no no no no snake." 

The zookeeper encouraged me to force him to touch the snake, but I opted against her recommendation. Scott and I constantly warn Timmy to stay away from snakes out of fear that he will encounter something wild in our woods. Since we seemed to make an impression, I didn't want to undo it by introducing situations where it is okay to touch something that we taught him may be dangerous. When he is older he will learn the difference between good snakes and bad ones, but for now I'm perfectly fine with his "avoid at all costs" reaction.

Today Scott and Robby are returning to school, finally giving me a relatively quiet house. Fingers crossed that Timmy the Terrible won’t construe the calm as an invitation to wreak havoc!