The Crying Game

After going out of town, the kids clearly suffered from what we decided to call Post Vacation Disorder (PVD). They whined, cried, refused to eat, and generally tried to will us back to vacation where they got to eat whatever they wanted and were lavished with attention. (While PVD is annoying for us, I can't say that I blame them. I would love to eat whatever I wanted and have attention lavished on me.)

What we didn't realize was that PVD can also refer to Post Visitor Disorder. Last weekend my parents were in town in honor of R's birthday, and we had a fabulous time. The kids got to eat whatever they wanted and were lavished with attention. And they have been absolutely horrible ever since.

We last saw my parents on Monday evening, and by Tuesday, the boys decided to cry all day. Yes, all day. Jeff wasn't even able to get them to stop crying to take naps. Instead, he had to put them in their beds and let them wail until they passed out.

As a result of the drama, I did have a truly fun greeting when I got home from work on Tuesday. Last week, the boys were still technically immobile. On Friday, L started crawling. On Saturday, M figured out his own version of forward locomotion. Rather than crawl, he moves his whole body up and down in a forward motion. He basically looks like he's doing the worm.

I guess M was done with his dad and the madness, because when I walked in on Tuesday, he power-wormed the 30 or so feet from the living room to the front door before reaching up for cuddles. I couldn't resist.

I scooped him up, which just encouraged L to cry harder since I was cheating on him with another baby. We then attempted one of their favorite activities. I call it "recreate the womb" and I sit down and hold both boys in my lap. They stand and hit and bash each other and me, and in all its violence, they are content because everyone is touching and it IS just like the womb. But, on Tuesday, it did nothing.

Jeff had actually managed to start dinner despite the crying, and so while it cooked, I made a quick trip to the library with the boys. (We realized we had turned in a DVD case on Monday without the DVD inside. We ended up getting fined $2 for being one day late for one DVD. Ridiculous!!!) The boys were FINE the whole time. Happy, even. So we had hope.

We shouldn't have, because Tuesday night was horrible. They were overtired and exhausted from crying all day. Their teeth seemed to be hurting too. Wednesday was more of the same. So was Wednesday night. When I left for work on Thursday morning, both boys were sitting in the pack and play, surrounded by toys, and crying. Jeff was sitting on the couch and he looked like he was ready to cry too.

So I spent much of the day fretting about the situation. Finally concluded that the boys were mostly overtired and were also doing with a healthy amount of separation anxiety. Came home ready to plan. The parents may have lost a few battles, but we would win the war! I was all ready to rally. And it turns out the boys had a great day. Go figure.

But we are not done with drama just yet. Last night I went to the parent meeting for R's preschool (more on that to come, promise!), and the boys cried the whole time I was gone. Rough night too. But we are not done yet. The parents will win and the boys will be happy again. Whether they like it or not!