This one? That one? I. Don't. Know. What. You. Want.

Wouldn't you know... We went to a beautiful local beach this evening with the kids... and the batteries in my camera were completely dead. Not even an speck of juice left in them. I even tried switching them around (like I could trick the camera or something) just to get one shot of the beautiful lake. No luck. No pictures. So it's locked away in my memory and hopefully we'll get back there on another nice evening. It's one of those places where we never go. It's not that far... and it's so pretty... But it's always forgotten. New vow: we will get back there one more time this summer or fall.

The kids loved it there. They wouldn't have wanted to leave but we promised them ice cream cones... Only we got cheap on the way home, and after calculating what it was going to cost for us all to get cones- and have two of them get thrown away half eaten- we decided to just stop at the grocery store for a 1/2 gallon of ice cream and continued home to the box of cones there. Funny how life changes things like that. The kids really didn't know what it was to go out for ice cream when we took them about a month ago- at this age they're easily pleased.

Hah. Most of the time.

I laugh, becasue these days my 2 year old is not so easy to please. The funny thing is- he's always been my easygoing, carefree, smiley kid. In fact, I often receive the comment, "Is he always so smiley?" And typically, he is. But these days... these days he's trying my patience. Argh. I think he's getting his two-year molars. And that makes for the following scenarios:

Me: Jack do you want this? (offering him cereal)
Jack: Noooooo.
Me: How about oatmeal?
Jack: Uh-uhhhhh!
Me: Ooookay (breathe... count to ten)... This?
Jack (now begining to really whine): Iwannit!
Me: WHAT? what do you want? (I will stay calm. I will not lose my temper.)
Jack: jink
Me: Juice?
Jack: Yah!
Me (pulling a cup out of the cupboard and starting to pour)
Jack: NOoooOOO!
Me: What??? (Come on, kid. It's just a cup... The stuff inside is gonna be the same.)
Jack: dawon.
Lydia (who has recently aquired a patience with him she's never had before): My brother wants that one.
Me: This cup? (Counting, counting... My patience is fading fast.)
Jack: Noooo!
Me: Okay. You want to go back to bed or you want juice? I am NOT going to stand here all day trying to figure out which cup you want! (And there goes whatever patience I had. Great way to start the day.)

And so goes our mornings. Nearly every morning these days. And our lunches. And our dinners. I'm so ready for this stage to be over. Or his teeth to come in. Sigh.