What has happened to my lovely 3 year old son??

We had a brunch yesterday at our house. It was so much fun - an Allen gathering :-) It was Toto's birthday & we celebrated with chewies (breakfast burritos - Othello style...YUM!) & cake later on. 

It was not without event either...toward the end, all the guys got to change a flat tire. Too bad they wasted an hour by not heeding the wives' advice right away. Eventually, they did in deed make a call (as suggested by said wives) and they got the solution to the problem they were having. 10 minutes later - the tire was changed & everyone was off. BUT, not before my 3 year old son came in with a head injury that looked like something out of a movie...blood running down from his head to his face and onto his neck. Thankfully, it looked a lot worse than it was. As any mom knows, head & mouth injuries are the WORST bleeders. After getting him cleaned up & neosporin-ing up the injury, people headed out. I made sure said son, stayed awake (just in case of a concussion & about an hour later we headed off for church. Now, because of all of the activity of the day & NO NAPS, my son of course fell asleep in the car on the way to church. Since it had been long enough, I wasn't worried & knew it was coming. We arrive at church & he has to wake up. I get a pit in my stomach that tells me this could be a rough night....LORD help me. Aaron was already at church since he was playing the drums for the worship service. 

I am carrying him in, but set him down just before we get into church, because he is fully awake. This is when the first fit was thrown. I finally get him inside & we get find our seats that my hubby saved for us...except that there are people behind us too (yikes!...our church is NOT a big group of people, so loud & spazzing children are very obvious...which is why we like to be in the BACK...easy access to the door & the potty). Anyways, we get through the first song okay since it's kind of a louder song & the kids are sort of playing & talking. I ask the kids to be quiet for the next song, and tell them that they can stand up or sit down, but no more talking...we're here to sing & all of that. Well, everyone was really good about it, except my 3 year old. He just looked at me in defiance & started shaking his head no. Then as I got closer to him, he began spazzing out and saying no. At this point I picked him up to have a 'talk' (which usually includes some sort of a spank). This was utterly pointless. He was just beside himself & crying no, no, no...Then my 4 yr old daughter ran to me declaring that she had to go pee. As I turned to talk to her, my 3 yr old ran back into the sanctuary & to our seats in an attempt to get back to the people where he is pretty sure he can get away with his fits & defiance (all the while still whining  'No, no, no', etc). This made my blood boil. So, then I was torn...run after my naughty 3 yr old & let my daughter pee her pants OR help her & let my son stay in the service with my 7 yr old. This is the point that in the middle of our worship service I really wanted to scream 'SHIT!' at the top of my lungs. I refrained & asked a friend to keep an eye on the boys while I took my daughter to pee. Thankfully, as soon as she was done, it was time for the kids to go to kids church, so the only one left was my youngest & now my hubby was done with the drums, so he could take care of the boy, so I didn't kill him. I was still seething & declared in an angry whisper to my husband that our son is lucky to still be alive. They went to have a talk about how we treat mom & all of that. They stayed at the back of the sanctuary for the rest of the service (thank GOD for my husband!). When we left, my youngest finally fell asleep for the rest of the night. 

All I can say, is dear LORD - help me not to kill this child! I hope this isn't a fun new phase for the 3 year old.