Charlie's Mom: Wheeeere's Charlie?

Monday, August 9, 2010

Wheeeere's Charlie?

The past few days have been like an endless game of peek-a-boo. We've had glimpses of our sweet Charlie, but mostly we've been faced with an angry imposter...but let me start at the beginning.

Our trip to San Diego went very well. In fact, Charlie behaved better on the flights than we ever could have dreamed, despite the fact that on the way out we woke him up at 4 AM to catch a 3+ hour flight at 6 AM, and on the way home, after 8+ hours of traveling, we were diverted to Charlotte where we sat on the runway for over an hour in the midst of a thunderstorm complete with high winds and hail...delaying our arrival in Charleston by three hours.

Through all of this, Charlie was a champ. He slept at least an hour per flight and almost 3 hours on the long flights each way, and while he was awake he played happily with his crayons and empty cups or flirted with the other passengers.

On top of these triumphs, Charlie had a great time with his cousins, aunts, uncles and BaBa and PaPa in San Diego. While he didn't adjust to the time change until the day before we came home, he was perfectly willing to patrol the resort grounds in his stroller from 4 AM to 6 AM each day while Daddy, BaBa and PaPa slept in the room. We had a great time exploring, eating raisins and chatting with the birds, capped off every morning with the glorious, highly-anticipated opening of the coffee cart, or as Charlie puts it "Caca".

Despite these lengthy stroller stretches in the morning, Charlie also did a great job at Legoland and Sea World. While he definitely preferred to be out roaming the parks with his cousins, running, climbing, building, driving, splashing, etc, he put up with a lot more stroller time, too. As a reward Charlie got his first set of duplos, which he valued to the point of locking them in the hotel safe, requiring a visit from hotel security to free them.

Then on Thursday we all loaded into the minivans and took a roadtrip up to Los Angeles where Jason, Charlie and I cavorted in a park just off Rodeo Drive while the rest of the family did a bit of shopping -- after almost 6 hours in the car, we decided not to try our luck in the shops.

We followed this with a fabulous dinner at Moon Shadows in Malibu with Aunt Monica, where we had the most "California" waiter you can imagine. He looked exactly like Frank Sinatra in Guys and Dolls and was throwing out surfer lingo and hand signals right and left. Aunt Erin, Uncle Matt and I enjoyed the show thoroughly -- while Charlie napped blissfully in the corner.

Unfortunately, it was during the drive back to San Diego that the tides turned and "imposter Charlie" showed up. About 30 minutes from the hotel he woke up screaming and wouldn't stop. Jason and I were doing everything we could: singing, cuddling, promising, begging, praying, stroking, bribing, but to no avail. He didn't calm down until we arrived back at the hotel after midnight. Then he passed a rough night in the pack n play until we woke him up around 5:30 -- not a good start to 12+ hours of traveling, but as I said before, he was a trouper.

"Imposter Charlie" did rear his head a couple times through the week and on the flights home, when Charlie developed a new love for hitting, biting and pinching, but each time he would try it we would just correct him and he would stop fairly quickly. We were convinced that he didn't even know he was hurting us when upon Jason's recommendation I returned pinch for pinch, and Charlie was completely surprised -- and hasn't pinched since. How wrong we were though...

Rather than rehash the gory details, I'll just say that Saturday and Sunday were characterized by screams, pouts, smacks, bites, tears and one particularly memorable headbutt -- all by Charlie, other than the tears which I believe were shed all around. It was as I was watching Charlie laugh at the tears streaming down my face after he headbutted me hard enough to give me a fat lip that I realized it is possible to dislike your own child.

It was a very scary moment for me. I have a pretty in-depth theory on like vs. love, but to sum it up, I basically believe that "loving" is a choice we make, whereas "liking" is a reaction we have. To be clear, I never waivered in my love for the little monster, but I cannot honestly say that I liked the brown eyes laughing into mine.

Jason was actually out helping some church friends on a special project yesterday evening, so the return of "sweet Charlie" for dinner, bath and bedtime was an overwhelming relief. I'm not sure I could have handled 2 hours of "imposter Charlie" on my own.

Of course, there was a downside to Jason being away. Basically, I cannot be trusted alone with a channel changer and spent the evening watching the Discovery Health Channel, which was highlighting children with Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. While even I am not ridiculous enough to think that Charlie was showing signs of Schizophrenia, a lot of the symptoms discussed on the Bipolar show hit a little close to home -- to the point that by the time Jason got home, I felt compelled to discuss the possibility that Charlie was showing the first signs of the disorder. Needless to say, I believe Jason may be blocking that channel in the future...

Despite his confidence that "sweet Charlie" hadn't been permanently replaced by "imposter Charlie," even Jason was a little nervous to send Charlie to daycare today. Yesterday morning in the church nursery he actually pulled a sweet little girl's hair, so we were somewhat expecting a call to come get him quite early today. But much to our surprise and delight, this morning everything seemed to be back to normal. Charlie seemed thrilled to be back on his normal schedule, waking up on time, eating his breakfast and playing in the living room, and he was excited to see Miss Jo-Jo and Miss Amanda at school.

All in all, this morning went off without even a glimpse of "imposter Charlie". And, as it's almost 2:30 in the afternoon and we haven't heard from school, I am hopeful that all of the drama and mayhem of this particular game of peek-a-boo are behind us, and our "sweet Charlie" is back to stay. I sure hope so...