Exorcism

If I believed in demons, I would swear that one had possessed my son yesterday. I have never seen him have such a bad day. I had one appointment yesterday, which happened to be near my in-laws house, so I dropped him off for about an hour and a half. He whined and cried to stay when I returned, and I should have agreed to leave him for the afternoon. The fun started as soon as we got to Walgreens to copy some pictures. We arrived at the store at the time he would usually be starting his nap. He was awful. Each time I put a new picture on the scanner, he would grab my arm, requiring a second scan. Some poor woman needed a passport photo taken and the clerk asked me to move our cart. For some reason this sent Carson into a screaming fit like I have never seen before. The poor lady asked the clerk to hurry so I could move our cart back. As always, the 1-hour photo was taking 2 hours, so we set off to find a Father's Day gift for Greg. Carson calmed on the way to the mall and was relatively good at JC Penney. He began screaming "I don't like this store!" as soon as we entered Old Navy. The tantrum lasted until I gave in and bought the 4th of July red fishing hat that he insisted on, even though he refuses to keep hats on for more than 5 minutes. We left Old Navy with the promise of a cookie. After purchasing our cookie, fit 4 began when I stopped at a bench to eat and refused to let him out of the stroller. We left quickly to cross the street to meet Greg at Logan's for dinner. Apparently, Carson thought we were still at Lambert's (home of throwed rolls) because he proceeded to pull his grilled cheese into tiny pieces and pelt unsuspecting passersby. We ate quickly and left for Walgreen's. I insisted that Greg follow us there to sit in the car with Carson while I picked up the pictures. (I had orderded special sizes and wanted to make sure they were correct.) We made it home and I left to meet Lisa for a long walk. I came home an hour and a half later to find Carson playing peacefully in the living room. This ended as soon as I mentioned a bath. Carson began the most horrific fit I have ever seen him throw. As Greg struggled to remove his clothes, Carson was screaming, "Get away! I don't want you! I don't want a bath!" The bath was quick and the fight to get a pull-up on began. I watched the drama from the safety of the couch. Carson flailed and screamed on his bedroom floor as Greg tried every possible angle to get the pull-up on. By this point, Carson was so exhausted that he could barely walk. He stumbled into the living room and climbed into the chair with Greg. (The guy he wanted to "Get Away!" five minutes earlier.) He argued with us that he did not have to pick up toys for several minutes before Greg plopped him in the floor and began helping with the clean up efforts. Carson was asleep within 2 minutes of hitting the bed. He slept for 11 hours and seems fine this morning. I will not be picking him up from PawPaw's house in the middle of nap time today. Lessons learned: missed nap=miserable parents and 6 year child development degree is rendered useless when dealing with a sleep-deprived 3-year-old. We'll let him sleep from now on.