How to Beat the 3 year-old Blues
The 3 year-old blues: no, I am not talking about sad 3 year olds, I am talking about sad parent’s of 3 year olds! For any of you out there raising someone this age - hats off to you because this is tough! Let me just give you the run down of my morning.
6:20am - “I want cereal” “I want a peanut butter and jelly” “I want a different kind of cereal” “Peel this banana”
6:30am-8am - I let both kids watch TV for, gasp!, 1.5 hours! Call the parenting police! My usual guideline is 1 hour a day, tops, for both kids, but this morning I must’ve sensed that it would be a tough day so I let them watch PBS Kids for a bit longer than usual. That was probably the quietist most peaceful moment of the day.
8am - 12pm - Sheer h*ll. He wanted food constantly, then he couldn’t get along with his big sister. Then both kids got their corn chips taken away when they couldn’t stop complaining about who got more. Then he pulled her hair, REALLY hard. He got sent to his room. Then he wouldn’t stay in his room. Then there was the tortilla incident, oh yeah, but that was after the Throwing Stuffed Animals at Mommy incident. The tortilla pieces were left in his room (where they aren’t supposed to be in the first place) so he was told to pick them up. Oh boy did that unleash some fury. Let’s just say that about 1 hour later he finally picked up the tortilla pieces, which were now torn completely into shreds, making them very hard for him to throw away.
I don’t normally recommend drinking as a way to solve one’s parenting problems, but let’s just say that the normally disgusting-sounding Bourbon, which was all the alcohol we had in the house, was sounding REALLY good at about 11am!
The Alcohol Alternative - Cupcakes!
Once big sis was off to kindergarten for the afternoon, I figured the only thing that was going to get me and little bro through the next few hours was to bake something. So I came up with cupcakes. After some complaining about how he does NOT like cupcakes, I got him started. He cracked the egg and put the cupcake liners in the cupcake pan. Then he worked the Kitchen Aid like a pro and helped put the butter in the microwave. 30 minutes later we had some cupcakes and he decided that yes, indeed, he DOES like cupcakes! Well imagine that. So do I.
Nothing can cure a bad day like some cooking. This whole experience just shows how important it is for those of us who have little kids around to keep cooking supplies on hand at all times! 
