Back in the Past
I’ve spent the evening looking through my journals from early 2009. That’s when Erik was 3 1/2 and I badly need perspective about naughty three year olds. They turn out ok in the far future! Even if they are little jerkfaces that make you want to run away from home! Ugh.
Yes, my dear little Elsa has turned into a complete hot mess of Three-and-a-half-ness. Everything is met with a howled “No!!!!” She throws herself on the ground with startling regularity (Erik didn’t do that because he doesn’t have much determination about him–he gave up when I walked away, but she picks herself up and follows me around, only to throw herself down again).
When I picked her up from school today, I told her to pick up her tote bag and she yelled “No! You do it!” and stomped her feet. Her teacher’s jaw about dropped and she sputtered out “Ummm. .. ummmm. . I’ve never seen that side of Elsa. Elsa! I don’t like to hear you talk to your mommy that way!”
I just told Elsa very blandly, “You pick it up, or we are leaving it here” and of course she picked it up. I wanted to laugh in the teacher’s face since her son was so bad at age 5 that I wouldn’t even allow him in my house (for those who remember the car pool boy who was a complete monster, his mom is now Elsa’s preschool teacher).
It is like living with some kind of giant feral alley cat. You never know when your going to have 40 pounds of fierceness jump on you and either ride you like a horse or grab your face and give you the most painful Eskimo kiss known to man. She even tried jumping up onto Erik and slapping the shit out of his face, but we did not tolerate that and she got the message pretty quickly. I hope.
The result of my research: yes, this is normal and there is hope she will turn into a nice young lady. Erik is a wonderful 8 year old. Certainly not without his challenges, of course, but overall we are very proud of him. And he was a nutso three year old. He refused to wear clothing and was mouthy. Much like Elsa! Only she wears clothes, but insists on wearing her shirts backwards which drives me and everyone else crazy. I have all kinds of people stop me to tell me her shirt is on backwards. It’s not worth the fight to get her to wear them correctly.
The other results of my research: I am a much, much happier person when I am active and not eating sugar. I have got to get off the sugar, post haste. And I’ve got to get back to the gym. I was planning on going today, but then I kept Erik home sick from school and didn’t want to leave him for over an hour while I went to the gym and drove Elsa to school (in our state children are allowed to be left alone for short times at age 8).
Also, thank god I finally had my stupid ovarian teratoma removed. I was having so much pain back in 2009 and no one would believe me. Even the ultrasound showed nothing (the intestines were obstructing the view). It took a CAT scan in 2010 to identify the problem and then when they removed it in 2012 they discovered it had overtaken my whole ovary. No wonder I was in such pain! Medical mystery solved. . . three years after the fact.
So goal for next week: no processed sugar (carbs are fine, just not sweets) and get to the gym at least three times. I am feeling myself become a huge blob with no energy and I hate it. I want to get back to being able to kick some ass at the gym. This stupid knee is ruining all my plans. Grrrrrrr.