Is my Child Playing with an Orb?

I don't know how I feel about orbs/ghosts. Do they exist?  Is it a bunch of BS?  Do children see them, play with them, and interact with them because only they can see them?  I seriously "think" there is one in Sidekick's room and it sometimes plays with him when he should be sleeping.  Right after I say "Zip up..." (the first time), you may notice a beam of light from right to left quickly going across his stomach.  Watch closely.

 

 



The first time I caught it on video, Sidekick was about 15 months old.  After I say, "Go ni-night", there is a little white "ball' coming from his right armpit down his body. This night he was extremely goofy and would not settle down.  Watch carefully:

Here's what's interesting... each time I have "caught" this "orb" on video, Sidekick tends to be very goofy in his crib usually long after he should be asleep.  It's always my inclination that "something" is going on.  The past two nights, two strange things have happened:


Sunday:  I woke up at 12:30 AM to the sounds of Sidekick's mobile as well as this jungle thing attached to his crib.  He was sound asleep.
Monday:  I woke up to both sounds again at 12:45 AM, only Sidekick was screaming bloody murder!  I went to his room and picked him up.  He refused to go back in his crib and clung to me while he continued screaming.  I took him in my bed (a rare treat) for 30 minutes to calm him down and snuggle a bit.  When I took him back to his room, he screamed again as soon as he knew where we were headed.  I knew he was okay, so I turned on his mobile and jungle, walked out, and turned the video monitor's volume off so his screaming wasn't so awful directly in my ear. 

Sidekick turns on both his jungle and mobile if they turn off while he is still awake, but the fact that they were both on in the middle of the night confuses me a bit.  Surely he turned them on, right?  But why was he sound asleep the first time and screaming the second time?  I honestly can't make sense of anything. 

Do do do do do do do do do do do do (Twilight Zone Theme Song.)

Chucking Chicken and Sloppy Splashing

I think that Sidekick officially hit the Terrible Twos today during the drive between the park and home.  He was great all day. I put him in the stroller this morning and we walked to the grocery store (two miles round trip), and when we got home, he played outside until lunchtime, and he quietly went down for a nap.  After nap, I gave him a snack, put some suntan lotion on, and headed to a park to meet some friends.  Sidekick has zero fears... the bigger the slide the better, so I ended up climbing all of the things with him because the Under 2 section is "below" him.  He needs more exciting things to climb on and slide down. 
 
For dinner, he gobbled up his cooked carrots, and after one bite of chicken, he threw it (which some of it ended up behind him).  When I write throw, I mean chucked it as hard as he could!  The kid has quite an arm!  I warned him not to do it again, and when he did, I immediately took him out of his chair and walked him out to a corner to make him sit.  He fought me but after a minute, he gave me a hug after I told him that we don't throw food, and he happily walked back to his chair... only to do it again!  I repeated the time out... Two. More. Times!  After a total of three time outs, he went to his room the fourth time he chucked the chicken.  He has room darkening curtains that were still closed from his nap, and I didn't turn a light on so it was fairly dark, but I quickly (and angrily) walked him to his room, and shut the door.  He stood at the door yelling "Momma" over and over again, until I finally went in about five minutes later.  He immediately sat on my lap and I gave him the same speech about not throwing food.  He hugged me yet again and walked into the kitchen and ate his entire meal.  Momma won!  (This is the second time I have "punished" him for his bad behavior.  He is normally a very well behaved, good natured kid.)

During bath time, for whatever reason, he threw a handful of bubbles outside of the tub.  When I told him not to do this, he scooped out a big handful of water and managed to somehow splash it out of the tub, leaving quite a mess.  All of this was going on while we were Skyping my mom.  I immediately pulled the plug, yanked him out of the tub, and wrapped a towel around him.  He sat on the toilet seating crying and I think hoping my mom would jump through the computer screen and save him. My mom was about to cave and say something to him because he was so sad, when he was really just plain pathetic. 

I took him in his room, put PJs on, told him it was ni-night time and to pick out some books.  He grabbed a few, gave them to me, and walked out of the room saying, "Show".  Normally, I let him watch 20 minutes of a show with me before bed time (it's the only time I let him watch TV), but I stood firm that this was not going to happen.  He went into the living room crying "Show" while I sat rocking on the glider in his room not saying a word.  About five minutes later, he came back to his bedroom and crawled into my lap to read books. Momma won again!  He was in bed at 7:15, when he is usually in bed at 7:45, but sometimes 8:00 on the weekends if we are doing something fun.  At 8:30 PM, he was still wide awake in his crib, but I didn't really care.  All I cared about is that he was quiet. 

Sidekick is a smart little dude who is very strong willed.  Even though he is 21 months old, he was not going to control me, despite the fact that he seemed to be running the show for a while there.  Holy shit! What happened to my sweet, well- mannered boy who usually wants to make me happy and make good choices?  He better come back... tomorrow morning!

Pictures in the Woods

Right before I went on vacation, it was a beautiful day here, so I took Sidekick for a walk in the woods nearby.  I wanted to take my good camera and snap some shots of his innocence while reveling in the magical world around him. I've always been horrible about taking pictures of him, and he's my first born!  I've posted before about his obsession with sticks, so he was like a pig in shit with all of the trees and sticks around him. He was my sweet, happy little boy, and I found so much joy in just watching him explore everything that surrounded him.  As I am beyond stressed with juggling him and work and now my back giving me big problems yet again, looking at these pictures puts a smile on my face.  Our time in the woods reminded me of how much I love and yearn for the simplicity of life.

 

I just love this little guy to pieces!

Heading into the woods.

Hard at work moving big sticks.

Dirt! (He's learning to not be so freaked out by the dirtiness)

I think he'll look like when he is much older because he certainly doesn't look 21 months

Back from Vacation

I survived my vacation sans child.  Well, let me rephrase that... I loved my vacation sans child!  I won a trip to Cabo for being one of the top account executives in my company.  Not only did I get to go with all expenses paid, but I was able to take a guest, so my best friend and I lived it up for four nights!  We'd wake up every morning and just lay in our beds reading books for a couple of hours (we were two hours behind, so we were awake really early Cabo time).  Reading?  What?!?  I used to be an avid reader pre-child as was my friend, but both of us had started reading a book months ago and neither of use was even a quarter of the way through. We'd then slowly get ready to for an amazing buffet breakfast and then head to the beach the rest of the day followed up be either a work dinner or an evening on our own.  It was amazing, and I was able to decompress immediately! 

Sidekick was in great hands at home with my mom.  He loves Grandma, and since she doesn't live in the same state, they really bonded during my absence.  He was perfect with her, and while she was exhausted when I came home, she really enjoyed spending the time with him.  She had a real awakening to what my life is like as a single mom and couldn't imagine adding a fulltime job into the mix.  It was nice that someone other than my connection with other SMCs really "get" it. 

On day three of my trip, I texted my mom and asked if it was bad that I didn't miss Sidekick. Of course I missed him, but I was certainly not that mom that was so obsessed with missing her child that she couldn't enjoy her vacation.  I'd think about him a bit and then move on.  Since I knew he was in great hands between my mom and school, I never worried about him.  I was in complete an utter Zen mode and was able to leave my mommy life behind me. I was so surprised at how easy that really was for me to do.

When my flight landed late Sunday night, I text my mom and told her I needed her to stay a few more days to help me wean back to mommy hood. I honestly knew I'd struggle a bit as I found myself a little sad to be back.  But I got a kick in the pants really quickly as I hit the ground running on Monday morning.

The next morning, I was so excited to see Sidekick.  (He was asleep when I got home.)  I have a twin bed in Sidekick's room and my mom slept in there the night I got home instead of my room, so I could sleep in my own bed.  I went into his room when he woke up, and all he kept saying is "Gramt-ma" (I still can't actually pronounce the way he says "Grandma") over and over again.  He didn't care that I was there... all he wanted was Grandma!  It brought me comfort that he was clearly happy with Gramt-ma, but I was a bit sad that he wasn't that excited to see me!

I had a horrible week back at work, so I was hit with reality as soon as I woke up early Monday morning.  I had a meeting with a customer and a sales presentation on Monday, four sales presentations on Tuesday, and one sales presentation on Thursday among all of my other work responsibilities I have.  I have been exhausted all week.  And to be honest, I had a really hard time transitioning from total relaxation, meals prepared, enjoying peace and quiet for five days to a working single momma 24/7.  I was kind of in a funk this week because I just couldn't get back into the swing of things with Sidekick.  I'm hoping it was because my work week was so bad, but nonetheless, I've struggled getting back into my "real" life.

Tomorrow we are going to an Easter breakfast/egg hunt, so maybe that'll get us back on track while we do a little mother/son bonding. Of course I dread the fact that we are going to have to get moving right away.  Sidekick sleeps until at least 7:45 on the weekends (but I don't usually get him until about 8:15 or 8:30), and this thing starts at 9:00.  I don't want to have to shower, get ready, and get out the door by 8:30 on a Saturday morning. I'm just so tired this week.  But, I know Sidekick will have so much fun, so it'll all be worth it.

So... the moral of the story is:  while vacationing is wonderful, transitioning back to reality sucks ass, especially when you have a kid.