Squirmy and screamy....(sigh)

Evan is definitely a toddler now: he's walking and his tantrums are worsening, and he is much more likely to test me (and my patience) these days.

Today was no exception.  We woke up early and thus I decided to head to the store to get groceries and things with him before the store got busy.  We've had some other shopping trips where he'll get squirmy and screamy at times, but this trip took the cake (so far).  I just had to keep pushing on, trying to gather the items we needed and trying to act like it didn't bother me.  I was able to appease him a bit with cheerios, but that allure quickly wore off.  He just was not happy about being strapped into the cart seat.  He wanted to twist around and play with things in the basket and throw things onto the floor and, well, just do anything but behave.  I decided it was probably getting close to his nap time and used that as my excuse for why he was acting up so much.  However, when we got home I gave him his bottle and put him down right away, only to have him cry and cry, and then play a little bit, and then cry some more in his crib.

Sometimes when he doesn't go straight down for his nap it's because he's pooped, and who wants to sleep with a poopy diaper?  So, I checked on him after about 15 minutes and he was indeed poopy.  So after a squirmy and screamy diaper change (he absolutely hates diaper changes also), I put him back in his crib only for him to scream and cry even more.  He calmed down eventually and played for awhile in his crib, but never fell asleep.  When I finally gave up on him taking a morning nap, I found out that he was once again poopy (twice in one hour!?).  Perhaps that was the culprit.  That or maybe he's ready to just have one nap a day?  Last weekend, and at least once this past week, he only took one nap per day, so it's possible, but I'm still not sure given how moody he is when he doesn't get these naps.

Anyway, we went to the park for lunch since there was a neighborhood picnic going on.  Evan loves going for walks and loves the park, so I thought it'd be a fun treat for him.  And it was, until it was time to eat.  Once again he didn't want to be strapped in (to his stroller this time) and he definitely didn't want to leave when we were done (which I left early so I could get him home for a nap!).  Everyone at the picnic knew where he was, given how loud and how often he screamed.  It was really quite embarrassing.  And it really makes me worry how we'll handle the flight to Hawaii this fall now, given he won't sit still (especially on our laps) for long at all without a fuss.  As I left the picnic, having only met and talked to a few of our neighbors yet feeling like we had been watched by probably everyone, I was almost in tears.  I mean, I didn't hear any of the other kids making such loud fusses, and it makes me sad that people might have a bad view of Evan seeing him like that, when in reality he's so cute and fun too.

Luckily Evan did go straight to sleep when we got home and I put him down for a nap.  That's where he is now and I hope he gets a nice long one to make up for the missed sleep this morning.  We have a party to go to later this afternoon that I'm almost tempted to skip out on if Evan is still being this demanding.  It's just so tiring, and then when it happens around other people it is also embarrassing.