Readjusting

I think Andrew is going through withdrawal. He has all the symptoms; the shakes, the irritability, the cravings, the irrational behavior. Sometimes it gets so bad, he just collapses on the floor in a heap. Who am I kidding? He collapses AT LEAST once every 30 minutes. He is in a word: a mess.

He is withdrawing from attention. All the attention that was heaped onto him during our Christmas vacation. Not only did he have both parents for 2 weeks, he had the undivided attention of grandparents and aunts and uncles etc etc etc. We got back home and he had a day of both mom and dad...and now this. Just mom for 2 kids. WHAT?!?!?

So let's see, yesterday was a pretty bad day. Bad enough for me to call Jeff and ask him to skip his haircut and come right home...if he ever wanted to see his son again. Andrew was just pathetic. He was aggressive, throwing toys that didn't play his way, crying and thrashing on the ground in the middle of playing. I tried to play with him a lot...Lily was really sleepy yesterday, so I actually had the time to do it. But he refused to play with me. I'd think of a really cool idea, and halfway to getting it out, he'd collapse on the floor and refuse to move. Huh? What am I supposed to do with that. He was always "too tired to do that, Mommy". We even had a play date in the morning (which I had to literally drag him in and out of his car seat for). At playgroup he refused to interact with ANY of the children. Lovely. So nap time came...and not too quickly. He then tells me he isn't tired. Bull-finny! So I drag him upstairs (my counting didn't work for once). He is up there for 10 minutes and I hear strange noises. As I listen outside the door, I hear money being thrown against the wall. I try to get in the room, and Andrew lies in front of the door so I can't open it. Arghhhhh! I shove him aside and find that he had climbed up to get his piggy bank, opened the bottom of it, and thrown change EVERYWHERE. Then I notice that he has torn all the pictures off his walls (they are just stickable decorations...but still). I was FURIOUS. In 10 minutes he had accomplished this much destruction???? So I glared at him, grasped my hands together so as not to hit the boy senseless, and left the room. He had worn my last nerve...I was shaking with rage. At a 3 year old. Seriously, get a grip. 10 minutes after that, he is knocking on his door, needing a diaper change. He finally fell asleep after that...for about an hour. Ugh. The afternoon was more of the same. Long day.

Today started out better. We had a fun morning of playing outside (56 degrees in January?), going to the grocery, and trying out a class at the local My Gym. But his nap lasted only 40 minutes, and he was a BEAR the entire afternoon. More collapsing, thrashing on the the floor, and just general disagreeableness (is that a word?). The kicker was that Lily was also fussy all afternoon.

On a positive note, at least we had the morning. I'm hoping that the withdrawal symptoms start fading soon. But I have a sinking suspicion that this may not be withdrawal as much as 3 year old behavior. Only 11 months to go! (until he's 4!)