The girls and I spent Arbor Day last week walking around the gardens; Red Butte Garden and the gardens at Thanksgiving Point for their annual Tulip Festival. Unfortunately, Claire brought along the terrible two's and it was a lot of work keeping it to a minimum while out at such crowded places. One minute she was happy as can be and the next minute she's pulling a full on temper tantrum in the middle of the sidewalk with tons of people walking by. Embarrassing to say the least. Claire momentarily enjoyed running through the paths of flowerbeds and upon getting up from a nearby swing, rang over and plucked a flower right out of the garden. I couldn't believe it! It was a matter of seconds and my little bundle of terror had ruined a small piece of the garden. Soon after, we went back to pick up our free tree they were giving out and they had literally just given away their last one! This was beginning to be quite a day.
After nap time, we headed over to the tulip festival. Not only was Claire a handful and continuing to disappoint me in every direction, the tulip festival was a complete disappointment. Don't get me wrong, it was beautiful, but it was seriously hilarious that they called it a tulip festival. Growing up in Washington, this is what I call a tulip festival (right). I was expecting miles and miles upon miles of tulips. I even wore my rain boots figuring it would be muddy through the rows of tulips since it rained so hard the night before. Little did I know, it was actually a garden with a few tulips lining the pathway. Yes, it was pretty. But so not what I was expecting.
When we first got there, Claire enjoyed running around and even amazed me when she knew what to do when I asked her to smell the flowers. She thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of not being cooped up in her stroller and definitely took advantage of it. I was chasing her left and right!
Before we knew it, we were on to tantrum number 30 (exaggeration, but probably close). She kept trying to push her stroller and would get very mad when I would tell her we had to go in a different direction. I was so done with her that I was seconds away from just leaving her there with a stranger. What was supposed to be our perfect day wandering through the gardens, had turned into such a day of disappointment. I know that through it all, we both had moments of fun and Claire throwing tantrums while in such beautiful scenery definitely beats watching her scream in the confinement of our own house.
3 comments:
I'm glad to know the Tulip festival, though pretty isn't all that great. I've always wanted to go but can't face forking over the fee to go - so, maybe I'll just enjoy pictures of rows and rows of tulips!
man I know those days all too well, you are such a cute mom for taking her though! I was seriously laughing when I saw the comparison of tulips between Washington and Utah, I would be dissapointed too! too funny. we will have to get our kids together so they can all throw big tantrums together- after all, misery loves company!
Continue having patience. You can't expect her to know things like when you see something pretty, you pick it up and look at it closer (picking the flower). She's quickly learning about life around her, her own emotions and how to control mom. Don't give in and don't give up.
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