Easy is not in our vocabulary

B has NEVER been an easy child. I had to have a csection because he was "sunny side up". He had pyloric stenosis and required surgery on his stomach at 5 weeks old. He cried a lot as an infant. He never slept well until he was 2 and we had PE tubes in his ears. Then last year was the horrible tonsillectomy that required us to be in the hospital for a couple days because he wouldn't take pain medication. Not that I'm complaining...but things for us have just never come easy. We're still learning this lesson through attempts to potty train at 5, and even just getting him to say his name and how old he is.

Today I got a reminder of my constant lesson. I had to run in the grocery store and out quickly because he was almost out of his lactose free milk (of course he gets special milk!) and we ran out of pull-ups at the daycare. He is such a creature of habit and you think by now I would remember this but I thought, "This will take 5 minutes!" I swear that I tempt the universe more than I should.

I went in the opposite door than I normally go in since both items were on a certain side of the store. Typically, B insists on riding in the car cart..you know the monster sized cart attached to a pretend car. He almost can't get in and out of it anymore. We have our usual route around the store: through veggies/fruits, hit the bakery for the free cookie, and then through the rest of the store. Make the loop at the checkout and go back out through the same door.

But not today! And he was great! He held my hand and babbled happily while we talked about the products we were passing. He stood pretty much by me holding my keys while I paid for purchases and then held my hand as we exited. Until he realized that we went out the door on the wrong side of the store. I think my biggest flaw was just as we were walking out of the store I looked down to his eye level and said "Ben, I'm SO proud of you!! You had awesome behavior!!"

And then he threw himself on the sidewalk. He flailed yelling "NOOO GO DIS WAY!!!" People walked by as Ben is feverishly trying to get back into the store. So I took him back inside and realized what he was mad about. He wanted his cookie. I believe that he has equated that being good in the store equates getting a cookie.

We went back in..all the way to the other side of the store and got the cookie. And I made sure we went out the "right" door and walked across the store from the outside. Sometimes it's just easier to give in and bow to his routines , even if it's not convenient to me, to avoid the fits.  He can't win every battle, but this one he did.

While even the most mundane tasks aren't easy in our house, I promise you, it's never boring. I'm glad that I've learned to laugh about most things (later). I've also had to give up on vanities in front of people. That kind of goes out of the window while you're crawling after your child on the floor of a store. Or while your child is barefoot in Target and licks the floor in the check out lane. Yeah, it really stops being important then.