Little rascals

Grant has been throwing fits and hitting like crazy in the past couple weeks, and it made last weekend very frustrating at times! On Saturday, we went to Dean's company picnic up in northern Houston at a neat place called H&H Ranch. Grant only slept about 40 minutes on the way up there, so he was tired and hot from the very beginning. He had a few meltdowns and we ended up leaving while he was literally kicking and screaming!

This was taken just after we got to the "ranch". Here, Grant's watching a paddleboat go under the bridge.

All the managers had to spend some time in the dunking booth. Here's a little boy throwing a ball, about to knock Dean down. While Dean was doing this, they had a pinata for the kids in another area. This was a DISASTER!! I took Grant over to it, but he doesn't yet understand about sharing. So he saw the kids hitting it and kept trying to walk up next to them. I kept dragging him back (which caused a fit each time). When it was finally his turn, he loved it! He actually did pretty well hitting the pinata too. But......I knew this would happen.....he threw another huge fit when his turn ended. I ended up holding him sideways (holding his arms and legs to his side) to take him away from the area. What fun it is to have a toddler!!

Then we got a piece of cake to share before we left. Grant had fun eating it with his fork and his fingers....until we tried to take it away from him. Another eruption....and this time a bunch of people were sitting around us, just watching. This time, Dean carried him sideways as we said our goodbyes and took him to the car. Quite embarrassing!
Then we drove over to the Woodlands, and I got together with some of my good friends from college, who were staying up there for the weekend. It was SO much fun to see them.....we hung out at the pool for about 1.5 hours, then Dean and Grant came to pick me up. Grant actually was on his best behavior while we were with them....he pointed to lots of objects and named them (he likes to show off now that he can do this!). Here's a picture of all of us: Jessica, Cindy, Liz, Margaret, and me:
After leaving, we decided to stay up in the Woodlands for dinner and to explore for a while. We ate dinner at the mall's food court, then Grant and I rode on the carousel! He was nervous at first and wouldn't sit on a horse, but he eventually did when we started moving:
Then came the last big fit. We went to the outdoor shopping part of the mall, and we let him out of his stroller so he could walk around. He walked straight over to this fountain and started climbing it! I thought that surely he wouldn't make his way all the way up, but he did....all by himself. So Dean dragged him down.....twice. Each time he threw a complete fit, hitting and kicking. So we decided that it was time to go. We were saying that he could have had a lot of fun if he had only obeyed.....we were planning on letting him walk around and play for a while, but I know we can't expect him to reason like that at this age. Anyway, the day was tiring and very frustrating!
On a better note, here are a couple of cute pictures from earlier this week. Grant likes peanut butter sandwiches, but sometimes he'll open them up and just lick everything off the bread. He makes a huge mess when he does this, but I always think it looks really cute!