Every ten minutes or so, whenever he would catch himself going to sleep, he would wave his arms in the air and scream and laugh to wake himself back up. Then, it was right back to this precious little exhausted state. Finally, 12:20 rolled around and we pulled up to Out Takes. Fearing the tantrums that I felt sure were to be thrown given his exhausted self, I reluctantly put him in his stroller and went inside to eat. We met Betsy, ordered our food, and I began to feed Mr. Perry. He ate baby food peas and sweet potatoes, some of my fresh fruit, and some of my delicious Swiss Almond Chicken Salad... and of course he drank some sweet tea. He was an absolutely cutie and got so many sweet compliments from several different strangers. (I have to admit I could absolutely not believe how well behaved he was being, given how tired he was!)
After about an hour we wrapped up lunch....and Perry wrapped up his good behavior. I got him to the car and realized he was soaking wet, through pants and all. (Yet another reason I can't believe he was behaving so well in the restaurant... and yes, at this point I felt like a bad mom.) So I proceeded to change my little bitty. And he proceeded to act like I had been fearing he might. He threw such a fit, I literally could not get him changed. My little dude's naked behind was flailing all about the cabin. I reluctantly kept thinking about all of the passer by-ers looking our way and seeing Perry's little booty bouncing all around the car with me trying to catch and diaper it. All I could think about was people looking in our car windows and thinking to themselves, "Wow.... " Oh it was bad.
Well, Perry finally got a dry booty and put in his car seat. From then on out, he was pitiful/temper-tantrumy. I gave him a bottle, which he threw across the car. Not wanting to encourage this behavior, I turned around and gave him a very stern, "No Sir!" Then, I picked up the bottle and did not give it back. After getting in trouble, Perry poked out his little lip and gave a pathetic little, "boop, boop, boop, boop!" with big crocodile tears rolling down his face. Oh! It broke my heart. And the whole way home, Perry rode like so:
Even as extremely exhausted as he was by this point (approximately 1:30), he still refused to go to sleep on the hour long drive home. Finally, we got to my Mom's house (I was so exhausted and frustrated with my parenting skills by this point) and I basically pleaded my case and said, "Please get the baby to go to sleep." When after about another hour she also could not, we decided to try to put him in his stroller and walk the thirty minutes it would take to get to my Grandmommy's house. Sadly, Mom and I ended up carrying Perry the whole way because he refused to sit in his stroller! (Probably for fear of- gasp- falling asleep!!) Needless to say, by the time we made it to my Grandmommy's house, I felt like the worst Mom on the planet. No matter how hard I had tried, I could not get my baby to take a nap. Seeing my desperation, my Grandmommy took Perry into the den with a bottle to rock. And within two minutes flat Perry was asleep- at 4:30pm. Inhale, Exhale. Let it be said, that my Grandmommy is the best "baby/kid-person" I believe God has ever allowed to grace this planet, and without her, I would be so beyond lost.
So in conclusion, I have learned a very simple truth. Being a mom is at times difficult, scary, sad, bewildering, humbling, and sometimes even down right frustrating. But being a Mommy is something I have dreamed of my entire life, and I could absolutely not imagine living life without my little bitty!! I love him more than words can say .... And would you believe that after taking a three hour afternoon nap yesterday, Perry went back to sleep at 10:00 and slept all night long (until 8:45 this morning) in his Big-Boy-Bed!!! Oh- the irony!!! :)
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