It had to happen someday...

We have been so lucky with Carson for the last two and a half years so we knew it had to happen someday. What I am talking about is major kid meltdown. Yes, it has finally happened.

We decided to take Carson to London yesterday to go for lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and then to the Princess Diana Memorial Children's park in for the afternoon. At the start of lunch Carson told me that he needed to use the toilet (which is pretty typical for him before mealtime). So we wander off to the loo, get in the stall, get ready, take aim, and....next thing you know I've got a half naked screaming at the top of his lungs toddler laying on the bathroom floor of the ladies room. I try to pick him up and he just starts screaming even louder. Next thing you know, he's flipped over is on his knees with his face on the floor tucked up in the far left hand corner of the stall. At this point I'm not sure what's worse-- the fact my son is having a fit or the fact he's face down on the floor of a public restroom, naked, with mouth wide open.

The next 20 minutes seem to last 4 hours. I finally get him on the couch in the ladies room, still sans trousers, where he proceeds to scream at me, "Go away mommy," and begins to slap the baby changing station with an open palm as hard as he can. Oh, and there's another woman in the bathroom now too who has locked herself into the stall and not come out for at least 5 minutes--I think she's a bit scared. Everytime I get closer to Carson, he screams even louder and thrashes around even more. If I were home, I'd just walk away and let him have his fit but I realize that I can't very well just leave him in the public restroom. So I scoop him up, hike up his britches, and run out of the bathroom into the little lobby area---and start to pray that Kevin can hear or see us and come over to lend a hand. Which he does. And it helps. Thank god.

Fortunately, Carson takes his dad a bit more seriously when it comes to discipline so Kevin took him up the stairs and talked to him for a bit and got him calmed down. I think there was a bit of a negotiation about going to the park or getting a spanking involved but whatever it was, it worked. The one thing we have learned, is that Carson tends to push the boundries with me a bit more than he does with his dad--primarily because I am not around him as much. And when I am, I think I let him get away with more stuff since I don't see him as much. I will need to work on this since I'm not sure if I could take another one of these days anytime soon.

By the way, the rest of our day ended up a bit better and we all ended up having fun at the park. Phew.

2008 -- off to a fast start!

We had a very nice trip back to the US in December and now 2008 is off to a quick start. Carson was very impressed that Santa was able to drop off presents for him in THREE places--Grandma's house, his home in England, and his nursery school in England. He told us that next year, he would have to give Santa a cuddle (since he played shy guy when we saw Santa this year).

We are back to the grind here in the UK though. Work is chugging along and Carson is happy to be back at school and back to swimming lessons. I have posted lots of new photos at our Flickr site so click on the rectangle to the right to see some of them.