Lessons Learned

It's amazing how much you can learn (or be reminded of) in one day!

• Even if the forecast says sun, it looks like sun, and feels like sun, bring an umbrella for the six random 10 second hail storms you will encounter within as little as 30 minutes.
• Being charged by a big fat squirrel is a LOT scarier than you might think. Seriously. Although he probably only wanted food, I was sure he was going to latch onto my face and scratch out my eyeballs. Luckily, a toddler with a french fry distracted him for me.
• Don't laugh, don't even crack a smile, if your kid gets lost in the vast, 4 story, intricate play system in McDonalds! That desperate face peering out of the plastic bubble 30 feet above you, crying in a tiny voice that sounds like it's at the bottom of a swimming pool, "I can't get out of here! Heeeelllpppppp!" may seem cute, but the other mothers will shoot you "the look." Directing a dyslexic 4 year old through the maze when you can't even see them is no less difficult than directing a blind monkey through an active mine field. Especially when, "the girrrrls! Are chasing me!!! I don't thiiiink I really liiiike it!!" happens. It all turned out fine, though. Within 2 minutes he was out, without me having to come up there and get him, and as a bonus, he still had all his clothes on! He stumbled over to me, wiped his forehead, collapsed into my lap, and said, "Phew. That was a close one. Those girls were chasing me. I didn't like that. But, I do like girls."
• This one I knew already, but I have a knack of forgetting until it's too late. It is a never failing Murphey's Law of motherhood that if you even whisper quietly a comment such as, "Wow, I'm surprised he is being so good right now," that child will immediately grab a handful of snack food from the bowl in the waiting room, throw it at the grumpy old man in a nice suit seated across from him, and scream, "MY MOMMY IS A BANANNA! I DON'T LIKE BANANNAS!!" and then proceed to ram his own head repeatedly on the coffee table. My friend just leaned over to me and said quietly, "you know you're not supposed to say that until we leave." And the grumpy old man in the suit? He stood up, dusting the chips (haha) off his shoulder, "harrumphed" dramatically in my direction, and stomped out into the showroom.
• Even if you spend 2 weeks preparing your child for what should be a simple, quick, easy, painless procedure, that doesn't mean he will be cooperative! In fact, the procedure did not even get done. What should have taken 10 minutes to complete took 3 hours to decide to give up and try again another day.
  

Although yesterday was quite a challenge for me, this sweet little face can still melt my heart.


I love him more than anything.... temper tantrums, defiance, frustration and all. None of that puts a damper on the happiness he brings me every day.