Today, when the first day of VBS was over and I had picked the boys up from nursery I sank to a stool in the library. This morning totally wore me out! I finally garnered enough energy to go, but needed to take the boys to the bathroom before we got in the van.
That’s where the trouble began.
“But I don’t have any potty in me!” whined T.
“I don’t want to put my shoes on and go home!” cried B.
My mom helped and we eventually got the 2 dissidents to the bathroom. They chose their own stall (that’s super important) and we began the process of going potty. It’s not easy or simple, you know. It’s a whole process that begins with choosing which is the perfect stall to use and ends with washing and drying hands and soap and water everywhere. Surely you moms & dads know what I’m talking about?? Or maybe it’s just us. Sometimes I feel like taking 2 3 year olds to the bathroom is an Olympic event. And we train for it multiple times a day.
Anyway.
We had no sooner each chosen our respective stalls when we heard B began to bawl. He’d pinched his finger in the door trying to lock it and now the world was ending. I guess I wasn’t the only exhausted one because this kid could not handle life anymore. I tried to comfort him but he could not move on from the horror of the pinching. He cried while going potty. He cried while washing his hands. He cried while gathering our things out of the library. He cried when we headed toward the door.
But when I took off my name tag to put on the registration desk – I didn’t want to forget it in the morning – he wailed.
“You have to take it with us!!” – B
“No, I need to leave it here so I don’t forget it!!” – Me
“Noooooooooo! You have to take it with us!!” – B
I finally gave up trying to reason with him, and I carried him to the car while T tagged along with us. The crying did not stop through the parking lot. The crying did not stop while we buckled into our car seats. And the crying did not stop as we headed to grab lunch. (“BUT I DON’T WANT FOOD!”)
Once he finally got food he calmed down. I guess he’s like me and hits a wall of hunger and all of a sudden everything is not ok. Boom. Instant. Not ok. Hangry.
We made it home in a much better place (we also saw Mimi’s van, many crane trucks, a truck pulling a house on a trailer, a firetruck, a backhoe, and a couple tractors on the way home, which helped).
We got in the door. Everyone was calm. We sat down and to finish eating lunch. I thought we were totally in the clear and that everyone was over the events that happened right before lunch when I heard B say, “Mom?”
“Yes?”
“But why did you have to leave that [name tag] thing there? You neeeeeed it” – B
In the words of the vultures from The Jungle Book: “Now don’t start that again!” Oh, the joys of being a mom to inquisitive boys!
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