So, I gave up Facebook for Lent. I am allowing myself to read anything that comes in my email, but I am not logging on to check status updates, and I am not posting anything. This was not hard for me on the weekdays, but Marc is out of town at Winter camp this weekend, so this has meant a lot of time to myself, during which I have desperately wanted to log on, but have somehow managed to stop myself. You would think I would be using the extra time to do homework, but I have just not felt like studying this weekend, so I haven't.

Isn't it funny how your kids can be the most adorable thing you have ever seen one minute... and then you want to slap them the next? (Admit it, you have felt this way).

I do not hit my children, but I sure have wanted to this weekend. Yesterday, Vinny was making me crazy. We went running some errands in between the gym and Tiana's nap, and he kept whining (and by "kept," I mean like every second, relentlessly) that he was "a million hungry," which he couldn't have been; he had breakfast. Even though I told him we would drive through and get something when we were done. I only needed to go two quick places too. I mean, the total amount of time spent on errands could not have been more than 20 minutes- max- they were within a 1 block radius. By the time we pulled in to Burger King (I was craving their onion rings), I knew he did not deserve anything at all, especially when he screamed, "I don't want THIS! I wanted a HAMBURGER!" as we pulled in. We don't go there often, so he of course assumed they didn't have hamburgers. It makes me crazy when he talks to me like that. What in the world makes him think that is acceptable, I do not know. I have never accepted behavior like that from him. I totally shouldn't have bought him anything, but did any way, out of laziness basically- I didn't want to make him something else when we got home.

So then, at home, while Tiana was napping, he played happily for a while. I was thinking that I honestly wanted to do absolutely nothing with the afternoon, maybe let them play outside, watch some tv, just chill at the house, but I was thinking that it would be a long day of staying at the house and I was wasting this opportunity to spend quality time with my children, so when she woke up, I decided we would head down to Griffith Park to ride the trains and ponies. Vinny decided to wear his cowboy costume, which was so adorable.

But what a mistake it was to go down there at all. I was a little worried that Tiana would be difficult to handle on my own- she is a particularly difficult toddler, nothing at all like Vinny was at her age. She frequently throws "don't put my in the stroller fits" and has huge temper tantrums, even though she isn't even two years old yet. As it turned out, Tiana was an angel. Vinny was the problem.

From the moment we got there, he was just a brat. Had it just been me and him, I would have just left, but I didn't want to punish Tiana, who was being so good, for his poor behavior. First it was a screaming fit because his hat kept blowing off. Then, he was whining about the crowds (it was very crowded). He get so weird about crowds. He becomes hateful towards everyone and gets like, "These people don't want us to go on the ponies!" He says it as if everyone who is there is there for the sole purpose of making him wait longer. I feel like he is old enough to see the complete lack of logic to this, but for some reason, no. He really believes they are all there to piss him off.

Finally, he gets to ride the ponies, which he loved, but then cries and creates a scene and acts like he has been abandoned because I was not waiting right at the ponies to get him when he got off. It was crowded. Parents are not allowed in the pony track. I was waiting right at the exit, but was of course in a crowd of other parents, so he couldn't see me. He acted like he had been abandon, so the poor attendants are looking all freaked out that they don't know what to do with this kid who's mom is gone. I was eventually able to get their attention so that they could send him over to me, but the damage was done. By the time he got to me and calmed down, he returned immediately to complete brat. He threw a huge fit about having to wait for Tiana to take her turn to ride the pony, crying again that he was starving (it was only like 4:00... he had lunch, and he had eaten a snack in the car on the way there. This was a fit for me to buy him junk food from the concession stand).

Once Tiana rode the pony, he continued his, "I'm starving" fit. I got VERY close to leaving without riding the train, but yelled at him about his attitude and got him to shape up for long enough for us to ride the train in peace. I was so angry at him for ruining what was supposed to be a nice afternoon. I was really wishing we hadn't gone at all. It is like lately, if we leave the house, he acts like a monster. He is okay at home.

I just realized that Tiana is coloring on my grocery list. Fantastic.

Sigh...

What is wrong with my kid?  Why can't he just behave himself?