Cranky Two-Year-Olds and Almost Teens: What's Worse?

This first photo is an adequate portrayal of Brigid at the end of her weekend rope, having had a series of meltdowns leading up to dinner Sunday. We’ve discovered that Brigid loves the child care center at Sibley so much, her weekends send her adrift without structure. I think by Sunday, she’s had it, and so have we. She did nothing but scream and cry most of Saturday and Sunday, until she passed out Sunday night. She woke up happy this morning, ready to go back and see Sally Bubbles, Jen, Sar-ah and the rest of the gang, and was sort of happy to be dropped off. She had a momentary clingy episode, but it didn’t last long and produced no tears.

On Saturday, Brigid and I went to my office at Hawkins Hall, which for some reason she calls "Mommy's House." She runs around the halls and then plays in my office while I do some work or whatever it is that brought me in on weekends in the first place. After we ran around the halls, she wanted to play in the car, so I let her. Both Brigid and Patricia are finishing their first full week on antibiotics, each having to endure them for 10 days, to treat their respective ear infections. Both have recovered fairly well, with only residual coughing and nose running. Margaret has miraculously escaped the creeping crud that infected the household, but that could be because she’s rarely home anymore. As she approaches her 13th birthday this week, she is quickly filling the teenager mold in temperament and habit. She has asked for an archery outfit for her birthday – compound bow and everything. We feel she needs a new bicycle, which we also feel she will get more use out of.
The archery thing, while admirable, isn’t much of a need and will only be able to be used up at the lake where there is plenty of room without threat of passing pedestrians or family pets. However, when she rides her bike, her knees practically hit her chin. We want to hand down her pristine bicycle to Patricia and get Margaret one that is suitable in size. We may end up making an editorial decision and putting the archery thing on hold.

Margaret wants to have some kind of birthday party with friends, but because her birthday falls on May 1 when the weather is anything if not winter-like, having it up at the lake is chancy at best. She also wants to invite two boys as well, so that puts a nix on any sleepover ideas she had about the lake as well. We may end up doing something up there later in the month, but at this stage, we’re still all not sure what to do.

Additionally, Grandma and Granddad Downs will be moving up there as of tomorrow for the season and their availability to do anything down in Plattsburgh is going to be limited because of the horses. Once they get the horses up there at the lake, they won’t be taking too many trips into town of any length. They are going to be picking up their horse on Wednesday; they’re going to pick up the two rental horses in Vermont on May 10. We thought we might have them down on the 11th, Mother’s Day, for a combination Mother’s Day/Margaret’s family birthday gathering, but they may not want to drive down from the lake after having been on the road the day before. Also, they may not be too open about leaving the horses alone for any length of time after having just brought them to the lake the day before. So that’s all another unknown at this point. One thing that is known is Margaret is turning the corner on her kid years and entering teen-dom. Heaven help us all.

B O N U S P H O T O

I call this photo "Dirty Waif."