The Grove

We took Banks to the Grove for the first time this season and he. had. a. ball.  It was a little boy heaven.  No joke.  He might have been the dirtiest he's ever been at the end of the day.  Thank the Lord for Oxyclean or his outfit might have never been the same.  I consider our trip to be a success for a few reasons:

Reason #1: He didn't get lost. 

 This is not necessarily due to my awesome parenting skills but more to the food table.  He didn't get more than 50 steps away from the table all day.

Just helping himself...

I know for a fact he ate at least 4 of these rolls, a sandwich, some fruit, hand fulls of chips, two (maybe more?) cookies, carrots and no telling what else.

Reason #2:

I didn't have to entertain him.  He had lots of friends to do that for me.

Will and Maggie Jones with Banks (note that he is still eating here)

And with June Perkins

In addition to lots of friends, he had lots of boy stuff with which to play.

He dug in the dirt and pulled up the grass.

He played football.

He wrestled.

Reason #3: He was exhausted by the end of the day.  He had no nap and pretty much went this speed all day (only stopping to eat, of course):

Finally, he became quite the ladies man that day.  He's quite the charmer anyway, but really took to a few of the "older" ladies.  Here he is telling me to stop taking his picture because I'm embarrassing him in front of his lady friends: 

The anatomy of a tantrum

Stage 1:  They all begin the same way.  With a simple request.  "Can I watch ah-nudah show", "can we go outside", "can I have a cookie?"  It is difficult to document this stage as one never knows when such questions will be asked.  Today I captured the moment perfectly:

Stage 2:  Simple request is denied.  Regular sounding crying ensues.

Stage 3:  He crumples to the floor and thinks about writhing about.  The regular sounding crying is starting to escalate into some sort of pterodactyl (yes, that's the spelling...I had to google it) scream.  Things that do not help during this stage: shhh-ing, laughing, taking photos.

Stage 4:  Writhing about ensues.  There is rolling around, leg kicking, and thrashing about all while pterodactyl scream continues.

Stage 5:  I leave the room.  He picks himself up and follows me.  Repeat stages 3 and 4.

 Stage 6:  Things begin to de-escalate and he picks himself up off the ground.  He declares "my nose" refering to the large stream of slime coming out of his nose.  He runs off to play with something, let's say, for 15 minutes or so before Stage 1 rolls around again.  Oh, the joys of a two year old.