Day 51: My Son, the Tyrannosaurus

Note: This was written last night. I know today is actually day 52.

Today was supposed to be a fun day.  We were going to go as a family to the Academy of Natural Sciences and go to their Paleo-Palooza.  Buddy from Dinosaur Train was gonna be there, as well as the paleontologist from the show, and lots of other good fun for kids was to be available.

Then Hubby got placed on call for work on Sunday.  So it was a no-go for Hubby.

Then we woke up to a child literally covered head to toe in poo.  The sheets were covered in poo.  As were his toys and the pillow and the blanket.  My poor child was a sobbing mess. I don't know if he was embarrassed by the explosion, or just unhappy because he was dirty.  Either way, it was not the best way to wake up.

I should have taken it as a sign to not leave the house today.

After cleaning him up and cleaning his room and making breakfast while helping the Small Human with a thousand assorted tasks, mostly involving arranging his toys in just the right way, and after showering, we finally got out the door around noon.  On the way, the boy dropped his Woody hat to the floor of the car and could not reach it.  This resulted in a Defcon 5 crisis.  Which ended up exhausting the child. Which ended up with a sleeping child just as we arrived to the museum.

Long car ride + expending energy on howling in protest = sleeping small human

Again, I should have taken that as a sign to just go home.

So I waited for parking and I gathered my sleeping boy in a stroller, and we went off to the museum.  For the first 30-45 minutes, it was calm for us.  That's because he was still sleeping.  When he finally woke up, he was in a bad mood. Nothing was right.  He wanted out of the stroller. No, DON'T! I waannna stay! Yes jacket! No, DON'T! No Jacket!  I wanna see the dinosaurs! NO, I don't waanna see the dinosaurs!  And the screaming commenced. The good news for me was that there were a lot of young children in the museum that day, so his screaming just added to the cacophony of screaming small humans.

Then I thought that perhaps all this sadness was due to hunger.  So I decided to try feeding him.  This too, resulted in more screaming. Joy.  We went to the cafe and I got him a slice of pizza (again, NO, DON'T! I don't waaaant pizza!  No!  I want pizza!).  I sat down and decided to eat my lunch while he continued showing the world that his airway was indeed quite patent.  Turned out that ignoring the tantrum worked this time. Thank goodness.  After spending a good 10 minutes protesting lunch, he finally ate his pizza and then asked for chicken nuggets.  He ate those, too.  After all of that, the Small Human wanted to see the dinosaurs, and was ok leaving the stroller behind.

Instant human!  Just add food!

So the next 30-45 minutes were good!  We stared at the T Rex in awe, and the Small Human ran in a big happy circle at its feet.  Life was good.

The great and glorious T-REX!

While we continued our worship at the feet of the extinct giant lizard, the boy said he wanted one for a pet.  I asked him where we'd keep it.  And he told me we could keep it at school.  Then he said we could keep it at college (he didn't specify which one), and we could visit it and feed it meat.  Sounds to me like he's given this some consideration...

Jurassic tourists? Or green screen? You decide...

This kind of sums up how the day went.

OMG! A smile!

But his mood today was like a hurricane.  The brief respite of happiness was like the eye of the storm, and it soon passed.  The tantrum recommenced, and I finally gave up.  I carried my screaming, kicking child out of the hall of dinosaurs and plopped him back into the stroller.  I had had enough humiliation for the day.   At least most of the glances I got from strangers were sympathetic ones. The only saving grace is that this happened almost an hour from home.  It's unlikely I'll run into any of those people again.

Oh, well.  Better luck next time?