The battle of wills

Jonathan and I have just not had a good week. Yesterday was the latest episode. We went to the gym, the kids had a great time in the daycare place, and so we decided that we'd drop Matthew off at a birthday party at the skating rink and I'd take Jonathan and Annah to the "big play" (Chick-fil-A) to occupy time til it was time to pick Matthew back up.

So we got there and things were fine. They played for a long time, then slowly started wanting to eat, drink, etc. It was 2:05, and Matthew had to be picked up at 2:30, so I decided to go ahead and take them both potty, pack up, and go. But it didn't work out that way. Jonathan started screaming and throwing himself onto the floor when I said it was time to go. I physically had to pick him up and carry him and let Annah walk to the potty. We get in the potty and I pull Annah's pants down and start to put her on the potty, and all of the sudden, I hear the door slam shut. Jonathan was gone. I snatched annah's panties and pants back up and ran out the door trying to grab all my stuff in the process. By the time I got out, Jonathan had made it back to the "big play" and climbed all the way to the top. I put Annah in the chair and went in to try to coax him out. But I couldn't get him down.

All the while, Annah is saying "I gotta potty, I gotta potty!" So I finally just asked some nice looking lady to please watch and make sure the little boy with the red spiderman shirt didn't come out of the playplace. It was either that or let Annah pee all down her legs.

So I made it back after taking Annah potty, and Jonathan is still at the top. I talk to him some more and tried to get him down, but he refused to have anything to do with me. I put Annah in a chair and I tried again to get Jonathan. I had to climb up the stupid thing and get him, him fighting all the way. When I got down, Annah had gotten away and started climbing up the slide! I was just about in tears. The lady offered to get her, and she did. So I took her from the lady, trying to hold Jonathan and all my stuff, but I kept dropping stuff, because Jonathan was kicking me and screaming at the top of his lungs. Everyone in the whole restuarant was looking and I felt so embarassed. The lady finally said she'd carry Annah out for me. I didn't want her to do that, but I really had no choice....I couldn't manage both of them with Jonathan acting the way he was.

So we go out, and I was still dropping stuff because Jonathan is doing all the kicking and thrashing around, and the lady was picking up my stuff and carrying it for me (can you say freaking out? This complete stranger had both my daugher and my wallet!). We finally made it to the van, and she held Annah while I tried, unsuccessfully, to get Jonathan in the car seat. She offered to hold Jonathan while I put Annah in. So that's what we did. He kept going limp on her trying to get away, and almost did...she finally just held him by the arms and let him pull and jerk away...it was all she could do to hold on to him.

So I got Annah in and went back around to take Jonathan from her and thanked her several times. She went back in and I continued to fight with Jonathan. It took me at least a full five minutes to get him buckled, because he was kicking and arching his back trying to get out, all the while screaming at the top of his lungs. I finally left Chick-fil-A at 2:30. It took me 25 minutes to get out front door.

My gosh....I can only imagine what the people in Chick-fil-a were saying about us. One thing's for sure though....a battle took place. The battle of wills. And guess who lost?