*click* I get it now.

At the family breakfast today Layla was hungry and tired and she was ALL OVER the place both physically and emotionally. And while it's easy to say 'well she's 2' there is a part of me that looks at the table full of toddlers sitting nicely and says 'yep I am failing as a parent'.

But I am not failing as a parent. My child is not your child. My child needs less stimulation to sit still and more stimulation to stay entertained so when we're all sitting there waiting for a meal she normally eats 2 hours earlier she has nothing to prove to you...so she does what she wants.

She wasn't bad. She just wasn't capable of sitting still. And once I fed her she was fine.

I know my kid very well. So I said I was taking her to the place we were going to take family pictures so she could run around a bit before pictures. Only by the time I got there and changed 2 diapers and unloaded 2 people there was no time for running.

I thusly spent an entire family photo time begging my child to sit down and using my mom voice. Layla just wanted to be as far away from EVERYONE as quickly as possible. She'd run away but only far enough to be alone. She sat alone on a bridge. She'd be the one facing the other direction.

Much like her Daddy who tunes people out when he has had enough and her Mommy who just walks away from the situation (because I don't actually need you to like me right now) she just stopped being willing...

From the first picture I took (this one) she was a split second away from finding a quiet place alone by being as far away as possible to the last one I took (where she is running away on the grass to be alone on a hill).

I totally get it kid. After a week of LOTS of people we love after several months of it being just us.... Mommy needs a time out too.