my apologies...

to all who were at the Barnes & Noble in Snellville today around noon. I know you had no desire to hear my child scream like a banshee while you were browsing the books or trying to kick back & relax with a coffee from Starbucks.

The second we walked in the door of the store Jonathan started repeating "toys, Thomas, toys, Thomas" over. and. over. We go to this store regularly for playgroups at the train table in the kids section and he obviously remembers that. Needless to say, when I didn't head straight for the train table all heck broke loose. I was there to buy two books and hadn't really planned to go to the train table. Not a good plan. I finally decided to go back there & let him play for a few minutes. We weren't in a hurry or anything so there was really no reason not to. There were three other little boys already playing back there & Jonathan just stepped right up into the mix. After a few minutes though he started taking some of the trains the other boys were playing with; not in a malicious way, he just doesn't really understand yet the whole sharing concept. We're working on that. When I would give the trains back to the other boys he started whining & crying. So we left. That sent him over the edge. In a misguided attempt to keep him quiet I found him a Thomas book to look at as we went through the store & checked out. I realized later that I was basically rewarding him for his bad behavior. In the heat of the moment that didn't even cross my mind though; I was just worried about the noise. Next time (and I'm sure there will be one) I hope to keep a more level head.

Is this the beginning of the terrible twos? Lord, help me!