Take Care of Your Own Kid!

When he can't get what he wants, Oli loves to throw a tantrum know matter where he is. I was removing his belt buckle on his car seat when he suddenly wanted me to give him his truck so that he can carry it around the store. I would have let him do it if it was small enough that he could just carry it easily. But I knew what was going to happen. He was going to either play with it in the middle of the store or have me carry it around. So I ignored him.

He screamed and screamed in front of the car and in front of the store. I started to show him that I wasn't going to do what he wanted by walking away. Of course I was looking over my shoulder the entire time as he's only 21 months. Plus I was probably about 8 feet from him. So he stood there in front of the store and screamed and screamed his heart out.

A woman at the checkout stand was also being as loud as she could be saying, "oh! where is his mother!"  She looked around as Oli started to run towards me. Then when he realized people were trying to talk to him, he started to try to get me to pick him up.

I had about 3 items to grab from the store so I didn't plan on pushing a cart around. Plus, Oli and I go to this store almost every other day and he usually loves to just follow me around, because he gets to be a little independent.

I didn't pick him up when he was wanting me to do so, because I feel as though I have to let him get over some of his fears of other people. He and I are indoors so much that when I get him out of the house he gets extremely shy.

Anyway, this woman somehow managed to annoy me. Now I completely understand why people don't like it when you tell them what to do with their own kids. No matter what.

"He looks really tired," the woman said. "Why don't you carry him?"

"He's not tired," I replied.

"If you got one of these carts, you can put him in it so he doesn't have to walk."

That pretty much did it for me. Usually I would have gone off on her, but I actually stopped myself. I just walked away and ignored her.

I know when my own child is tired or when he needs to walk. I don't need her to tell me what to do or why I should pick him up.

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A Day in Balboa Island

Cat was leaving today. I am going to drop her off at the airport for her 11:15 PM flight. So we did our best to make most of the day.

Balboa is a pretty little island next to Newport Beach. Some of the homes are really fun to look at as they are very close to each other, but are all very beautiful. They obviously all look like just vacation homes. Of course, it's also got tourist shops and fun little coffee and ice cream parlors.

Here is a picture of Oli and Cat:

We walked through some of the stores and of course stopped by a toy store. Yes, I know, I just don't learn. Cat wanted to buy an umbrella for her daughter. So we stopped in. Here's what Oli did:

Then of course as we had to leave, we went through the same routine of trying to get him out of the store. Luckily, there wasn't anyone else there except for the sales lady:

Cat also bought me a lovely going away present which I think is really cute, given that I love to record stuff:

We finished off the rest of our beach fun day at the beach at the Montage in south Laguna Beach.  My parents called and said they were coming over to drop some stuff off for her to take home, which they did. They bought her two little outfits for Jayda (Cat's daughter) and some boxes of chocolates, which Cat couldn't take home because she just ran out of room.

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