Those of you that know me and know my son... well he's a little accident prone, slightly clumsy, and quite possibly has suffered more concussions than I'm aware of. My poor child trips over his own feet on a regular basis because he's just too excited about EvErYtHiNg and just can't keep still. Regularly he's covered in bruises and at times I fear other's judgement on this - that I'm a bad parent, that I don't watch him closely enough, but at the end of another long day where he's been glued to my hip because he just loves his mommy so much... he will have yet another new bruise and it's a mystery as to where it came from.
So our adventure begins at Discovery Mills Mall food court where Josh and I and Reid are anxiously awaiting the arrival of "pawpaw and gi-gi", Aunt Kayla, Uncle Jon, and the infamous Rhiley and Landen... 1/2hr later we're still waiting and Reid was getting restless. We hadn't eaten yet because we weren't sure if anyone else was eating and we didn't want to eat and then have to wait on them to eat or vice versa. I should mention at this point that Reid already has a goose egg on his head from hitting the car door when I reached inside to grab his diaper bag. Totally my fault and I felt awful about it because it just looked/sounded painful but the little trooper hardly cried which is kind of a shame since it proves he's practically used to a bump on his noggin already. Anywho, Reid's running around like some other person's crazy child and we happen to see Josh's Aunt and Uncle walking our way so we all start to talk and moments later Reid runs face first into the table we were sitting at. He's eye level with the bench so he full on plowed into it and bit a huge hole in his tongue. It took a moment to calm him down and then to realize that he was bleeding pretty badly but "pawpaw" finally showed up and amazingly enough Reid stopped crying almost immediately.
Another 1/2hr goes by and we're still waiting on the rest of the group to show up. We had talked via phone a couple of times and couldn't quite understand how we were all at the same mall but just couldn't find each other. Turns out we were waiting at the food court for them and they were waiting in Santa's line for us... Who knew? At this point, I'm a little bit flustered. Not only is my child bruised and bloody for his Santa pic but we've wasted an hour plus just "trying" to meet up for the picture in the first place. Santa is on the other side of the mall so we begin our trek and Josh speeds off with Reid in the stroller while I walk with my dad who's having some issues of his own so after that nice depressing chat we greet the rest of our ensemble and have to wait another 20-30min or so for the kids turn with Santa. I start taking pictures with my own camera of the kids looking at the scenery and get scolded by Santa's elves for interrupting their professional flash... Oops, my bad.
Finally it's the kids turn and Rhiley just can't contain her excitement. She runs straight over to Santa (which is far from what we expected out of her when looking back on her sheer terror of Santa from last year) but passes his basket of suckers on the way and just can't help but snag one before she plops down for her picture. Landen was at first fearful of the snowy white beard but calmed down in time for a cute pic to be taken. Then it's Reid's turn to join the group so the grandparents can have a pic of all of them for their fridge decorations... and he literally flips out. Last year the boy LOVED Santa... this year, not so much. Maybe next year he'll be old enough to understand all of this. I mean, really the first few years are for the parents anyway, right?! We're always trying to find some way to torture our children for that special kodak moment. And back to our adventure... Reid's screaming/crying with all his might and squirming, wriggling, and writhing his whole 25lbs in my arms. I should mention I have a brand new adorable sweater with matching, scratchy, hot sweater scarf on for this traditional event and at this point I'm sweating, angry, depressed, and exhausted. Josh ended up having to join in on the group picture and then it was Reid's turn for one-on-one with the big guy in the red suit. Of course, I got suckered in to being in the picture with him this time but Santa assures me that they can crop me out if I lean back just so... They take a couple pics and they all turn out bad. I loudly get the "elf" photographer's attention and try to reassure her that I don't care if the picture turns out ugly and just to take the freaking thing already when Santa looks at me all offended thinking I was calling him ugly... Maybe I need to think about the choice of words I use. I really only meant that I don't care if he's crying in the picture, all kids cry at some point or other with Santa, it's memorable, it's common, whatever, take the picture! But I couldn't get all that out in two seconds so I settled for "I don't care if it's ugly!". And mom scores a point!
We finally get done and Santa informs me that I didn't lean back far enough so they're unable to crop me out which of course... I DON'T CARE! We decided after torturing the children for so long with just standing around, we'll let them go to jump zone to burn off some steam. It was actually a really cool place and it only costs $5 per kid to let them play for 30minutes. It was kind of nice and we took lots of pics but the third time Reid climbed to the top of the air inflated slide, he ended at the bottom and had blood pouring out of his mouth. Apparently the hole in his tongue had decided it wasn't done bleeding yet. So I grab my poor baby and try to get him cleaned up and he just wasn't having it because he wanted to keep playing. He really couldn't have cared less that he had a mouth full of blood. Seriously feeling like the world's worst mother at this point. Grandma (gi-gi) went and got him an ice cream cone to help maybe stop the bleeding. It did get a little better, at least enough for him to keep playing his full 30minutes. Afterwards we got him changed into some comfy pajama type clothes and let him ride the merry-go-round to really make sure he was worn out for the drive back home so we could all just climb straight into bed.
Honestly, all I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and cry. I was just so mentally/emotionally exhausted after it all but looking back now... I guess it was memorable and I'm sure if I give it a week or two, I'll be able to laugh about the insanity of it all.
Ahh... Christmas.
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