The hills are alive...with the sound of whining

My two year old, Tyler, is going through a couple of rough phases right now. They are the phases beloved by all mothers of toddlers; the I Will Whine to Get Everything I Want phase and the ever endearing No, Mommy, You Cannot Go Anywhere Without Me, Including to the Bathroom phase.

As always, consider it noted that I will miss these things one day when they are in the teenage phases. You know, the I'm Going To Grunt Instead Of Speaking Actual Words phase and the Drop Me Off At The Curb So My Friends Don't See You phase. 

Oh, the joys of parenting :)

The one where I can't go anywhere without him is the one that is truly causing me anxiety right now. We're supposed to leave Saturday (4 more days!) for our trip to California, WITHOUT KIDS. My (awesome) parents are coming up to watch them for us, and I'm already praying that it will go smoothly. The one thing that I'm banking on is that when we were in Florida, if Tyler wasn't crying for me, he was crying for my Dad, his Pop-Pop. 

Cody, on the other hand, cries for Grammy (my mom) or Bubbie (Mike's mom) when he's upset at Mommy and Daddy. We had put him in time out the other day because he was not treating his brother very nice, and when I came up to speak to him about it he said, "I need to LLLLEEEEAAVVVEEE and go see (choke, sob) GRAAAMMMYYYY". My other favorite is when I send him to his room for being naughty and he says to me on the way up the stairs, "Mommy, you're breaking my heart". Yeah, that doesn't feel like a kick in the stomach, does it? 

I guess it's just one of those buckle down times in our life - we just have to ride it out and keep doing what we're doing. Oh, and praying....A LOT of praying :)