Attitude

Last night I took Elijah to his Thursday physical/speech therapy. The past few times have really been breakthrough sessions for him. No more tears when the PT tries to move him ONE INCH out of his comfort zone. No more crawling over to Mama every 15 seconds. He really has seemed like a big boy to me lately, and he has been making a ton of progress, too. Last night they got him to take sideways steps ON HIS OWN, while holding onto the edge of a table. This is a first! Of course, there had to be incentive. What could possibly appeal to him so much that he would take steps without being forced? TRUCKS, of course!

They had this really cool toy truck track with three trucks that drove around inside of it and it was love at first sight! When he first saw them, I happened to be standing behind him holding onto his hands. He immediately tried to RUN over to them, but that didn't work out well so we tripped over each other and fell to the floor. Honestly, I've never seen him so smitten before. During the session, I was sitting there watching him, amazed at the progress that was unfolding before my eyes. Then I had the thought...Hmmmmm, anything he loves enough to willingly take steps for is going to be hard to tear him away from. Uh oh.

And I was right. When we were finished and he knew it was time to leave the beloved trucks, an instant MAJOR tantrum erupted. So far, it was my most embarrassing public parenting moment. The tantrum was so bad that I had absolutely no idea what to do. I'm pretty sure I disengaged from reality and became comatose for a few moments. His physical therapist, speech therapist, speech therapist assistant and I all stood there watching it. After what seemed like forever, I picked Elijah up and told him it was time to go home. He arched his back so violently and quickly that he flopped over my arm and hit his head on a stool. He continued to flop around on the floor and scream and kick and hit. I sat him up again and put his coat on.

He calmed down immediately when his very nice PT found a truck that he could take home with him. I kind of wish she wouldn't have done this, but I certainly wasn't going to start fresh with Meltdown #2 by taking it away. He grabbed the truck from her, smiled instantly, and looked at me like, HI Mama! We're having fun, right?! The front half of the car was quiet on the drive home.

Later we went to Dan's sister's house to celebrate his mom's birthday and Elijah swatted his little 1-yr-old cousin because I was holding her in my lap. Mr. Attitude has some things to learn about "pecking order," as Dan says.