My husband and I have been toying with the idea of getting our backyard landscaped. With a hyper dog, an active toddler, a baby, and one woman (aka mom) in charge of wrangling all three, I decided that for the sake of my sanity we would be putting a fence in the backyard. (I have visions of relaxing on my patio, drink in hand, while catching some rays.) In reality, I want to be able to supervise from my chair without having to chase said dog or child through the neighbors yards and down the path that runs behind our house.
Being that I know next to nothing about landscaping, we decided to take the kids to the Home and Garden Show. I know the idea of dragging two kids under two to essentially one giant showroom may sound crazy, but after being cooped up in the house, I needed an out!
The day was going off without a hitch. Alice was sleeping soundly in the stroller, and Jack was doing a decent job of holding our hands and walking along the rows of displays. We had spent a considerable amount of time talking to various landscapers, so we decided to reward Jack by letting him play on the Rainbow swing set that was set up in the middle of the room.
Jack was thrilled as soon as he saw it and started climbing up the ladder. Only after Jack had started his ascent did we notice the little girl who was also playing (and seemed to be battling a case of whooping cough). Now, of course the chances that it was actually whooping cough are very slim, but this poor girl couldn't stop coughing. And more accurately, wouldn't stop coughing on Jack. I could actually see spit flying with every cough. Ugh. Thankfully, her dad finally stepped in to offer her a drink of water. Yeah buddy, because this is obviously just a tickle in her throat!
The last thing I needed was for Jack to get sick with a baby at home. I motioned to my husband that it was time to go and the second he scooped Jack up the tantrum began. I'm talking laying on the floor screaming and kicking type of tantrum. Of course, being the good wife that I am, I pushed the stroller as fast as I could so as not to be associated with the whiny toddler and his dad. However, I did look back in time to see the sick girl's father shoot us a dirty look.
Maybe I should have asked him for advice on handling toddler tantrums....
