The One Where I Ramble

The last couple of days have been all-around hard with Lizzy. On Sunday, Lizzy was throwing a temper tantrum at church. I sat her in a time-out, and she promptly dissolved into tears saying, "Belly hurting!" On that particular day, several of our family members happened to be out sick with the stomach flu, so I wasn't entirely sure whether she might be getting it too, or whether she was attempting to get out of her timeout early. I told her that if her belly was hurting, she could get out of her timeout and come sit on my lap, but that she could not go into nursery to play if her belly was hurting. She again said "Belly hurting!' and came to crawl on my lap, and stayed there for the rest of the service. She did seem rather wimpy.

Later that day, we came home and she was playing like usual. She ate like usual, and there wasn't another mention of 'belly hurting' at all. At some point later in the day, she received another time-out...and naturally, the first thing out of her mouth was "Mama! Belly hurting!" Needless to say, she stayed in that time-out.

I also thought that she had her two-year old molars already, but now I'm not so sure--she also keeps sticking her fingers waaaaayyyy back in her mouth and chewing, all the while saying that her mouth hurts and that she wants Motrin. 

Last night, in the car with Ryan and Renee, Lizzy proclaimed that she wanted Motrin. I asked her if her mouth hurt, and she said no. I responded that we only take Motrin when something hurts to make us feel better. She quickly responded, "Mouth hurting!" But she has been rather needy and clingy lately, so despite the fact that I think she's just developed a taste for Motrin, I also don't think she's feeling in tip-top shape.

Anyway, Lizzy was being relatively good this morning and seemed to be feeling okay aside from a bit of a stuffy nose, so we headed to Bible Study. During each session, while the kids are in childcare, the leader gives us ten minutes. She puts on music, and everyone is quiet. We're free to write, read, pray, or just sit with no one touching us. Just last night, I was telling Justin that it is the highlight of my day, and that I was particularly looking forward to it after a rough night last night with Lizzy.

We got into the car, and Lizzy immediately started screaming and crying because she wanted her Bible and it was at home. I debated turning around to go get it, just to have a relatively quiet car ride, but decided that was probably a bad plan in the long run...rewarding negative behavior and all. So we continued on. I figured by the time we got to church, she'd have gotten distracted by the kid songs or something. Only, she didn't. She continued throwing a huge fit, screaming "I WANT BABY JESUS NOW!!!!!"

I put her in a time-out at church, and she continued to scream and cry and kick about how she wanted her Bible...which admittedly is kind of funny. I mean, my kid was sitting in a timeout because she wanted to read about Baby Jesus. I mean, really she was sitting in a timeout because she was screaming, yelling, kicking, not listening, and generally driving me crazy, but you know what I mean. It IS a little funny.

Anyway, after the timeout, we talked and she calmed down, and she asked to come sit with me in the study, which I told her was fine as long as she could be quiet. After a few minutes, she asked to go to nursery, so we went. I came back to the group for discussion. Shortly thereafter, we heard a kid crying, but the nursery is far enough away that we couldn't really tell whose kid it was. One of my friends went to go check on the kids and came back carrying a hysterical Lizzy. So much for the 10 minutes of quiet time.

I tried a number of different things to calm her down, but it just became apparent that it wasn't happening. She was chewing on her fingers again and saying "Ow! Ow!". I asked her if her mouth was hurting, and she said no, but was just crying and seemed miserable. I remembered the pediatrician telling me once that if I think she might be growing/teething/etc, to go ahead and give her a dose of Motrin even if I'm not sure. He said that it isn't going to hurt, but MIGHT help, which in his opinion is worth it if done occasionally. So, I told her we were going to leave and go get some Motrin. We went and got Logan, and I loaded them up in the car.

And y'all? Once they were all buckled in, Lizzy started sing-songing, "Lizzy being naugh-ty, Lizzy being naugh-ty. Lizzy make mama sad! Lizzy being naugh-ty!" And LAUGHING. It became apparent that even if she isn't feeling 100%, I had also just seriously gotten played. I was furious. And also trying not to cry. Because really, we're several days into this tightrope act of her legitimately not feeling good versus using saying that she's not feeling good in order to avoid doing something she doesn't want to do or avoid the consequences of her doing something naughty.

We were invited to my sister-in-laws for lunch, but I called and told her no. We came home, and I rocked Lizzy to sleep for a nap after lunch. I should be painting right now because our living room is still in complete disarray. I'll paint soon. But for now, I'm just tired, and I need a minute.