We Have A Cling On.

A few of you have asked me how the little man has been since we got back from our trip. The short answer? Well, there is no short answer. The long answer? Whew, where do I begin.

When we walked in the door the little man was finishing up his afternoon nap. We were able to sneak in and surprise him and he was absolutely thrilled to see us. For about 2 minutes. Okay, maybe 3. Once he was done with his quick hello he began to morph into some sort of demonic being (most commonly referred to as a terrible two year old.) Think of the little girl in the exorcist. Yeah, that bad. This lasted for about 5 days (5 really, really, really, long days.) My in-laws swore up and down that he was pretty much a perfect angel while we were gone (I still am not sure if I believe them) so he was pretty much just possessed because we finally came home.

I can only relate this to when you leave you pet alone and for about a week they pay you back every day for it when you get back. We used to have a cat (yes, the one my husband shipped off) and whenever we would come back from a long vacation she would punish us by tearing up everything in the house and pretty much denying us any attention until she got over it. My past week was something like that with the little man except it was MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH worse. Why? Because unlike that sweet kitty, my little man can run, scream, hit, bite, and pretty much make life miserable, which he definitely tried to do.

After those 5 days of limit testing "fun" my little man pretty much reverted back to his happy-go-lucky self (oh, how I love that kid) and in the end the 5 days of terror were well worth the 11 days of fun in the sun. I realize that a two year old can't really express their emotions yet, and this was just his way of telling us that he missed us. I would have preferred a card but that also got the message across.

Now things are pretty much back to normal. Well, almost. The thing that's changed? The little man now refuses to leave my side. As in, HE WILL NOT LET GO OF ME. Ever. Not at all. Nada. We walk hand-in-hand wherever we go. When we sit he holds on to my sweater. When we go to class (art, soccer) I have to run alongside him so he can see me at all times.

Yep, we've got a stage 4 cling on.

Normally, I wouldn't mind the extra attention and to be honest most of the time it is rather cute. Cute until I need to actually do something. Something like cook dinner, go to the bathroom, take a shower, or go to the gym (I have been paged out twice this week because he won't stop crying for mama.) Needless to say it has made things a little more difficult, but again I recognize he is two and I'm sure in his little brain he is convinced that if I leave his side he may never see me again.

Friday we are off for a trip just the two of us to California for a week and then to Orlando for another week. I'm thinking that by the time we get back the little man will be so sick of me that he will be begging me to go away again. I'd settle for 5 minutes in the shower at this point so a girl can dream.

Little emotions are tough and I can only hope we didn't do any "real" damage by getting some alone time. I'm sure we will all recover and this time next year I'll be writing about something similar so for now my little cling on and I will continue to go through our day attached at the hip. At least all of this togetherness has made for some great pictures. Here is the little man playing Mr. Potato Head (remember that game?) Yes, he thinks that he is the potato and isn't quite sure why the Mr. gets all of the good accessories.

Learning to accessorize? Maybe with all this time together I'm finally rubbing off...