Well Thanksgiving itself went as well as could be expected, given that Kate had to nap in the car on the way there and back instead of her usual two hour in-the-crib nap. When we arrived at Mother-in-law’s Kate was very quiet and a little overwhelmed – her cousins were there already, people were cooking food and setting up the table, and Kate just wanted to be held by Den or I. She was in an okay mood, just a little clingier than usual. But by the time we sat down to eat she had woken up fully and realized she was indeed quiet hungry, and that girl put a dent in it! She ate everything, from turkey to stuffing (bread and meat types) to squash and mashed potatos. And she wanted more. Finally she announced she was “done” and “dow(n)”. She played quietly while we finished. Her cousins weren’t nearly so quiet, but they ate more than her! They love their food.

After the meal the kids were running around playing, Kate included. Much more outgoing and energetic than when we arrived! Though she did have issues with her cousins trying to play with her toys. She was getting really tired by the time we left, though not really showing it too much – just rubbing her eyes and getting a little whiny. She napped on the way to Father-in-law’s, then had a pretty decent evening there, too, with a few minor meltdowns at being bonked by random people as everyone was running around. Dallas won the football game, so at least Den was in a good mood when we left.

When we got home she seemed really excited to have all her toys to play with, as we hadn’t been home all day. But she was wired and refused to go to bed. I tried. And failed. At 11pm(!!) I finally had to put her in her crib and we went to bed. She was angry but after a while realized that she was indeed exhausted.

However yesterday – Friday – sucked. She slept until a decent hour, but it was just such a friggin bad day. She whined all. Day. Long. Non-stop. Oh, wait – except for when she stopped whining long enough to throw the biggest tantrums she’s had to date. Over stupid things, too – she wants to grab a picture off the shelf, no you can’t have that, tantrum. She wants to be picked up right-this-second except I’m trying to screw a shelf bracket in the wall, tantrum. Nap time she was clearly tired but again refusing to sleep, so I again had to put her in her crib and leave. She slept for 2 hours. Clearly tired. Maybe overtired? But when she woke up her mood was really no better for the rest of the day – in fact I think it got worse. Some whining is irritating. Hours upon hours of sobbing because I left the room and told her to stop climbing things made me want to throw my own hissy fit.

Part of it, I think, was because we were trying to take advantage of this long weekend and get the house cleaned out. I cleaned out a closet, organized the bathroom cupboard, cleared off my desk, installed a new shelf to put things on it, finally cleared off the dining room table. Meanwhile Den was clearing out our breezeway and cleaning out part of our kitchen…. a lot of stuff moved to storage or just chucked out. All of my stuff was within this one area, though, so it’s not like I was leaving Kate locked up somewhere, she was right beside me “helping” (and there were times when she was pretty funny and helping me sort things), but I wasn’t paying direct attention to her. Normally that’s not a big problem. Yesterday was not normal.

Today was ten times better… twenty. She had her moments of foot-stomping wailing, but she was generally in a good mood. I tried hard to pay a lot of attention to her and play games with her, it seemed to help a lot. I even was able to put up our new tree (without tantrums!). I wasn’t too terribly worried about Kate and the tree – all of my ornaments are non-breakable because of the cats anyways – but we have a serious space issue in this room. So I ended up getting a smaller tree today and setting it on the dining table. I miss the big tree, it’s so pretty, but I do kind of have to accept our space limitations here. I’m still concerned about the cats, though. One of my cats especially is obsessed with christmas trees. At least this one is too small for him to climb (I hope).

The good news is that Kate took a while in the dark to wind down at bedtime, I had to just lay there singing lullabies, but finally she crawled over to me and layed down on me. When I moved her to her crib (fully awake, but relaxed) she whimpered once and didn’t cry when I left! That’s a good step up from the last few days. I really need her to get a good night’s sleep.

I’ll tell you, though, if that’s what the terrible twos and threes are like all the time, well… it’s a good thing I’m already pregnant or I might be re-thinking the whole idea of adding another!