One for the books

The above picture is what I saw today when we were leaving the pool. It was quite scary, actually, seeing my sweet, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Owen turn into the aforepictured creature. Backstory: we have been at the pool every day, all morning for the last few weeks. Owen has had swim lessons this week, and after lessons today, we stayed and swam with Gavin, Kinley and Megan. All was great (with the exception of Wade being incredibly crabby) until it was time to leave. We had to be home by 11, so we got the kids out of the pool at 10:40 and got dried off. Now, to exit the pool, you have to press a button to make the gate open. Owen didn't get to press the button. Heaven help us. As I wrote in a prior post, he has a mile-wide streak of STUBBORN in him, and by golly, he wanted to press that button. But I didn't feel like getting the key from megan, opening the gate for him to go BACK in, just so he could push the button. Did I mention I was also holding wade, our pool bag, 2 wet towels, a life jacket and car keys?

So, I told Owen that he could press the button tomorrow at swim class. And if that was the wrong thing to say, that was it. He FREAKED THE EFF OUT and threw a tantrum of a magnitude that has never been seen my myself before. It was awful. So I got our stuff in the car, got wade in the car, and then scooped owen up (while he is fighting, kicking and screaming) and put him in his carseat (since the pool is like 3 seconds from us in the neighborhood, I didn't bother strapping him in. Mistake #1) He got out of his seat, and opened his door, determined to get back in the pool and press that danged button. This went on for a few minutes, all the while he is screaming and speaking in tongues. Did I mention that my friend Megan and her beautifully behaved children were in the car, witnessing the madness? Ya, true story. So, after a while, I yanked his crazy ay-ess-ess out of the car, gave his bum a swift swat and gave his face a stern talking-to. He FINALLY calmed down after I told him I wasn't going to listen to his nonsense until he could speak nicely. So he said, "Mommy, I need to kiss you!" except he really said "mommy, i need a TISSUE." and then all was better. Thankfully. It was the worst fit he has ever had. Ever. Ack.