Mama Byrd

My two older children are gone to “camp” this week– that is, Caleb is at a real camp, and Elizabeth is at a “camp” that my parents made up. Caleb has gone to sleep-away church camp for the first time (sob!). He left early Monday morning and will be home Thursday night. Elizabeth went to New Orleans with my mom, and they are spoiling her like she is trying out for My Super Sweet 16. They call that Camp Tolbert (named for my parents’ last name).

So we are down to only Phillip this week, and you would think that would be pretty easy, right? Almost like a mini-vacation for me? Maybe. Sometimes. When he is asleep.

I took Phillip to the Children’s Museum and out to eat with Lannie yesterday since we “only” had one child with us. The Children’s Museum was fine, because it was all about him. He appreciates that. The lunch, not so much. He ate all of Lannie’s sandwich and cried for most of the meal, until we bought him a big chocolate chip cookie. One of Lannie’s co-workers asked, “You let him do that?” We weren’t at the kind of place that you can let a two-year-old scream, unfortunately. If we were really good parents, we would have left, but we were hungry, and we wanted to eat our food. You have to prioritize, you know. Food is pretty high on the list.

Today has been better, but Phillip quickly learned the down-side to all of my attention being focused on him– swifter and more direct punishment. He complained this morning that he had already been punished twice today, and I said, “Yes, that’s because you have mommy all to yourself.” I think he’ll be ready for his brother and sister to be home on Friday.

Filed under: Phillip, family, kids, parenting on July 29th, 2008