I am not exactly feeling like the world's best mommy right now....seriously! Caleb has had a really rough time with this latest roadtrip. We were home from a 9-day getaway for less than a week before Trevor and Tatum came to stay, which was fantastic and we loved every minute, but it wasn't the normal homelife for our dude. They were gone less than a day and we had to pack it up for a trip to East Texas for Granny's funeral. There was already an Alford family reunion (Brian's other side of the family) planned for tomorrow in East Texas, so it didn't make sense to us to go back and forth...so we stayed out here thinking it would be less disruptive for our dude. It probably is less disruptive, but the dude is not happy.
From the minute he found out we were going on another trip, he declared that he didn't want to go. We explained about Granny's good-bye party and how important it was to go and that kind of swayed him a little. So then I thought, hey, he really loved Trevor's pillow pet, so let's get him one for the trip and that should help! He loved going to the mall to pick it out (he picked out the exact same one as Trevor's and named it Tapay...don't ask...we don't know) and it is his new best friend...but it only makes going to bed more exciting.
Every day since leaving he has asked multiple times if we are going home yet. We are feeling badly for him and doing our best to make this all fun. Grammy and Pop were around for Granny's funeral and took him back to the hotel to swim, which helped, and they brought his bike, which really helped. But then they went home and he was not happy about that. And the horrific heat did not make for hours of outside fun at Granny's house yesterday...though he had a blast filling his spiderman rubber boots with water from the hose...thanks Daddy!
So then there was today. The family reunion is in Tyler, about 1 1/2 hours from where we were in Center. We decided to head over today and take Caleb to the Tyler Zoo. He loves zoos! We were not counting on a weather forecast of 100 degrees. We made it all the way here with the intention of going, but once we felt that hot wind at the hotel, we made up our minds to find something else fun...indoors. So we settled on a movie and built it up to the dude...he was excited...picked out treats...still excited...found our seats in an empty theatre...really excited....and then the movie started. This is when I really start to feel like a crummy mommy.
You see, we picked out Kung Fu Panda 2. It came with good recommendations from a very trusted friend and was the ONLY option available to us. We figured that Caleb likes animal stories, so this should be good. We both failed to remember Caleb's intense dislike of violence of any kind and his other intense dislike for loud noises (unless he is making them). He did not like the movie. At all. Kung Fu is, afterall, fighting. He was a free admission, thank goodness. He did however, enjoy dancing at the front of the theatre after the movie (a tradition taught to him by bestie McKenna after they enjoyed Tangled together a few months ago). But our special afternoon outing to make him feel better about not being at home totally failed. We did let him pick out dinner, Sonic, and let him get tater tots instead of apples...but I am so bummed for my dude.
We are praying for an amazing reunion tomorrow that will make our dude forget his blues! How could he not! There will be so many cool kids around and he has to love that!
(I took this picture after he crashed on his magic bed, aka sleeper-sofa, last night.)
Too cute right!?!
And yes, he is sleeping on Tapay! Surrounded by his Spiderman pillow, Puppy and Pepper and covered in his beloved baby blanket! His bedtime entourage is getting rather large...and we left some of it at home...which he noticed last night....
