Searching For Smiles (The Longest Post Ever)

It has been a ROUGH week for Team Taylor. Rough isn't really the right word... it's just been awful. We've been struggling with sicknesses forever now and this week it all just became too much. Kirsten is doing great (Thank God!). She's been sweet and helpful and my sunshine.

...My boys. Ugh. I don't know exactly what happened this week... they might be suffering with their sinuses again... they might be cutting molars... or it could be something totally unrealated... I'm too tired to figure it out.

It started last Sunday night when bedtime came and the boys REFUSED to go to bed. They can climb out of their cribs now (which is a another story...) and at bedtime they just SCREAM and cry and climb out of bed and refuse to rest. It's been getting worse each day since Sunday. Monday they stopped napping and continued to fight going to bed at night. They are still waking up at 1:30 and 4 am each night. By Wednesday things were getting bad. The sleep deprivation was getting to everyone. Danny has become EXTREMELY clingly. He wants me to hold him all day (and all night). If I put him down, for even a moment, he screams hysterically.

Wednesday the tantrums started in full force. We've had some minor toddler behavior "stuff" before... but nothing like this. Danny screams "No!" at me about 100x a day. Matt throws himself on the floor kicking and screaming if you ask him to do anything.

Thursday afternoon everything fell apart. Danny bit Matt, kicked me a dozen times, and hit me HARD in the face. MY sweet boy! Thursday night Matt had his first set of Night Terrors. (Kirsten used to have these quite a bit and they are usually brought on when the child is very overtired.) Then Danny had me up 5 times between 11:30 pm and 2:30 am. At 2:30 I took him upstairs with me to let him sleep in my lap on the couch. The ONLY way he sleeps is if I am holding him. If I try to move him an inch he wakes up screaming.

So... by Friday morning we were all in tears. I have never been a person who does well without sleep... and I am getting NO sleep. On top of the exhaustion, I've been very worried and I feel like everything I try to do for them is the wrong thing. I'm feeling tremendously guilty because I have NO patience left and I'm just generally down. Friday I was just plain sad.

So at lunchtime I decided we HAD to get out and do something fun (no matter how difficult it might be). I decided to pick up Kirsten from school and take all 3 kids straight to the beach. This is the first decision I've made this week that I feel good about. The fresh air and change of scenery was just what we all needed!


Before going to the playgroud I put the boys in the jogging stroller (while Kirsten rode her bike) and went jogging (and walking) for about 2 miles.

Kirsten was really excited to see this cool sand sculpture.

After our excercise we went to the beach playground for about an hour. The kids had a lot of fun and played so nicely. There was not one tear or tantrum the entire time!

Kirsten and Danny

Matt

Danny

Here is Kirsten being a great big sis spotting the monkey (aka Matty)

Danny


I'm still not sure what is going on with the little ones (It's more Danny than Matt...). However, the beach wore them out yesterday so they didn't fight going to sleep as much. We'll have to see how the weekend goes and decide if we need to go back to the doctor... I am just SO glad that we got out and "found our happiness" as Kirsten said.

We did lose it on the way home though... Danny was very cranky in the car and Kirsten kept trying to entertain him. Apparently at some point she gave him a piece of paper and a marker (which he tried to eat). He was NOT happy when she took it away from him. This is what I found when we got home.