The 15 Month Rebellion

I recently received my monthly "Your baby/toddler/kid is blank months old" email from babycenter.com....Here is what it said:

Doing errands around town is harder than ever with a pint-size explorer in tow. Being strapped down in a car seat or stroller is the last place your toddler wants to be: Expect an earful — usually accompanied by an arched back and flailing arms and legs — when it's time to buckle up.


You know what I thought.....Oh good its not just my child!!! Pint size explorer...more like pint sized terrorist! 


Up until recently, we could take Sophia anywhere and have no problems. Dinner, shopping, parties etc. She was happy to go on the adventure and hang out. Now she is 15 months old and apparently the party is over....


She wants NOTHING to do with strollers or high chairs. She will tolerate the car seat mostly because I toss a ton of toys in her lap and sing ridiculous songs to her until the car noises lull her to sleep. 


Bill and I took her out to dinner the other night. Nothing new, we do it every couple of weeks (yes I actually cook 5-7 nights a week...even I am amazed). Set up the high chair, placemat, toys, crayons, sippy cup and snacks and we thought we were good to go. WRONG. oh so wrong. Sophia's contentment lasted about 15 minutes. And we even had a intelligent server who asked what we wanted for her before we even ordered so it would be out long before our food. This was a first and I was amazed. Alas...it did not matter. 


Step 1 of Sophia's rebellion was to start throwing stuff on the floor. 
Step 2 was to start bucking in the highchair like she was riding an arabian stallion.
Step 3 was to bang anything she could get her hands on as loudly as possible on the table and when moved away from the table on the high chair itself.
Step 4 was to start pulling up the table cloth as high above her head as she could. Would be cute if it didn't upset everything on her side of the table.....remember the toys, crayons, sippy cup etc...
Step 5 was to start the fake crying/whining routine
Step 6 was to kick and flail her legs willy nilly and hard.
Note: This all happened in under 5 minutes


Finally we thought ok, lets minimize the drama and let her out of the high chair and Bill will walk around with her until her food comes. 


THIS WAS ULTIMATELY OUR DOWNFALL.


Do not make this mistake. It was great at first. Everyone smiled at the oh so cute little girly toddling around the salad bar pointing and saying "dat" and her doting father who told her what "dat" was every time. She was quiet pleased with herself and was blowing kisses and waving to the servers. Everyone was charmed. 
Then the food came and we tried to put her back into the high chair.....


And the rebellion was won by a 31 inch person with the lungs of a full grown  opera singer. The battle was over in a mere 15 seconds. Parents were defeated, toddler was triumphant. 


As soon as the first wailing scream left our little "angel"s lips...we were done. Bill immediately took her out the doors and I sat deflated looking at our full plates of food whilst asking for to go boxes. Yes, I wanted to stay. Yes, I know this happens. But NO I was not going to be that family with that baby that won't stop crying in the restaurant. I hate those people and I refuse to join their ranks. 


So the babycenter email 2 days later made me feel much better. But we will be steering clear of any meltdown inducing situations for a little while :)