I have had a few very blah days. I’m extra tired and extra short tempered. Jonas has been my personal tornado, ripping up the house and making a lot of noise. He is such a boy. In many ways I have given birth to my little brother. He pokes and climbs all over me. He blows raspberries in my face and licks my arm just to be weird. I didn’t like it when I was growing up and it isn’t all that exciting now either.

In many ways I feel very trapped by Jonas right now. He is so boisterous that he is hard to take places. His fits are long and loud. He can also just about outrun me, so he is very good at getting away from me.

About a week ago I took the kids to Barnes & Noble. Jonas was standing two feet from me when he looked at me, said “be right back,” and took off down the stacks. I had Maggie in the baby carrier so I couldn’t move as fast as I usually do. I thought he went back to the DVDs ( he had just finished throwing a fit over an insanely overpriced Mickey Mouse DVD, so it was a good guess), but he wasn’t there. A salesgirl asked me if I was looking for anything in particular and I said, “Yes, a little boy with a green shirt and khaki shorts.” So she helped me search from him.

I tried very hard not to worry. After about two minutes and a full lap around the store they did a Code Adam and all of the employees dropped what they were doing and looked for him. It took five minutes, my panic level rising every second he was missing, before an employee found him in the women’s restroom.

As soon as they got him back to me another lady, sixty-ish, greying hair, purple tweed jacket, came out of the bathroom and chewed me out because Jonas had been peeking under the stalls. I apologized for him and she just went on and on. I finally said, “He’s two, ma’am.” After a few more remarks about me watching my child, ( I was watching him! I watched him run away while I was too slow to catch him!) Then departed. Many other mother’s saw this exchange and said things to the effect of “ignore her, she’s crazy,” But it still stung.

On the up side, if he was busy peeking under stalls (probably looking for me) he wasn’t being abused by some creepy person.

Anyway, I now hesitate to take him anywhere. It is driving him and me crazy.