Manners, Numbers, and Parking Lot Tantrums

"Don't lick Mommy and Daddy's floss!"   Just one of the many sentences I thought would never leave my mouth.

Moving on...
Teaching manners to Brendan is high up on the list of things I need to show him.  So far he has "pees" down very well, in fact he uses it when not prompted.  Now to teach him that just because he says please doesn't mean he'll get what he's asking for...hmmmm.

B is a boy after my own mathematician heart!  He loves counting and numbers (I mean, who doesn't!?)!  He counts items when we go to the grocery store or if we're playing outside and even while we're driving and passing cars.  It's exciting!  Granted, he doesn't quite understand that the numbers represent amounts yet, but that'll come with time.  However, he recognizes specific numbers.  We have a really cute retro Fisher Price clock toy and as I was sitting at the computer, B sat on the floor next to my chair and pointed at the number 3 on the clock and said "three", pointed to the 4 and said "four", he did 5 and 6 too!  However, 7 was "six".  8 was "eight", 9 was "nine"...and so were 10, 11, and 12.  It was amazing to see him do this, mainly because I have no idea what is "average" for this age.  He could be "behind" or he could be "ahead" and I couldn't care less!  It just makes me so happy to see him learning, it's truly awesome to watch him grow.  Now if we can only get him to see that not everything is "blue".

And moving on to more trying issues...
We went to the grocery store for 6 items, just a quick trip to the store after his nap today.  The ride there was nice, we talked about all of the cars and trucks we saw (and the fruit snacks helped too), the store wasn't too bad, he's been better and he's been worse.  The parking lot was not good.  Not good at all.  Now I do know that this is completely normal toddler behavior and it's just a phase, but it really, really sucks!  I had one grocery bag in one hand and I was carrying Brendan in my other arm, when he decided to squirm so hard that if I didn't let him down he was going to drop like a cement brick, so I let him down.  He loves walking and holding my hand while in parking lots, so no big deal, but apparently this was not pleasing him at the moment.  He promptly threw himself to the ground...in a puddle...and screamed.  I stood there and waited, not saying a thing, and not enjoying the looks I was getting.  I waited for him to get up and then took his hand again, he gave a stellar repeat performance.  So I picked him up like sack of potatoes and fought to get him in his car seat.  I was sweating by the time it was all over.  He then wanted the rest of the fruit snacks and asked for "more" when I got into the front seat.  I turned around and just gave him this look and said super calmly, boys who are bad don't get fruit snacks.  My look must've meant business because he was quiet the whole way home.  When we pulled into the garage, I turned to look at him and he blew me a kiss and I swear he said sorry.  God love him.