Friday morning I opted to keep Tate home and not go to swim lessons as he was still coughing and congested. I know he probably would have been fine, but I thought it would be best. So we hung out at home and just enjoyed the quiet together! We had plans to meet our Disney friends at 11 for the Zoo Boo at the Houston Zoo. It was a Friday late morning, school is in session, it should be easy breezy to park and get in to enjoy the festivities.
Hmph! I could not have been more wrong. Traffic was hellatious. I arrived at the zoo parking lot at 11:05am. We did not enter the zoo premises until 11:46am. Thank goodness the weather was gorgeous and cool (ie I didn't start to sweat) and that Tate still loves his stroller, so when I parked a half mile away (I know I know not that far) I didn't have to deal with a 4 year old who wanted to stop and smell the roses or complain or re-tie his shoe and I didn't have to carry our stuff; I could just put it in the stroller basket.
We finally arrived and found H and N near the seals. Squeals abounded between the kiddos and we decided to eat some lunch. I had brought Tate's with me, but H, N and I needed some food from the zoo offerings. I got in line while N entertained the kids at the outside table. 34 minutes later I had our food. Yes 34 minutes. There was a group of special needs adults there with their school/care group and I don't know what the problem was with their staff, but the ordering of their food and paying (seemingly per person) took absolutely forever. I thought I was going to explode. But I didn't and gathered our goodies and went outside to eat.
We hurried the kids through their meal because unfortunately the Zoo Boo activities ended at 1!!! It was 12:43!! Faces were wiped, tables cleared and stuff loaded back up and we were off to get Tate his Zoo Boo tattoo. H and N had come around 10:30, so had done most of the Zoo Boo stuff already. Then we headed off to the Pumpkin Patch..
We then all made our way home (in tons of traffic...what normally is a 15 minute drive took us almost an hour! Oh and when we got to the train to get on we had to wait for the same group of special needs adults to get on...all 50 or so of them...so we had to wait for the train to return. We were not having luck this day at all. But our kids did amazingly well. Not a single meltdown or complaint from any of them. They were well behaved and didn't mess with one another (well mostly not. Tate and H had some run-ins, but I'm more the type of parent to try to let kids work things out themselves. At one point H felt like Tate had pushed her. Neither of us really saw it; they were chasing one another in circles and I know Tate had his hands out...did he push her or run into her when she stopped? He wouldn't apologize and I didn't make him because I know Tate. When he does something he knows is wrong, he'll say sorry and look like he feels bad. He looked a bit bewildered here, so I didn't push it. They finally got over it).
We got home, had a few minutes to unwind and potty then we were off to Jemma's 4th birthday party! WooHoo! Tate's BFF, Christian, as there and he was ecstatic. Like last weekend they were inseparable and whirl of fun and activity!
I usually bring a cupcake for Tate that is vegan which I get from Crave (oh my goodness these cupcakes are divine!). But Cindy wanted to provide Tate with his cupcake and she special ordered them to be nut-free, egg-free and citrus-free from another cupcake company here in town who had assured her they could make the cupcakes for her. They arrived at the party just in time for the happy birthday song. She handed me the box with a smile(and sweet as she is, had bought 4 for Tate).
Two of the cupcakes had nuts on top of them. We couldn't believe it. There was some sort of topping on the other two as well, but we couldn't tell what it was. I was not about to give my child anything I wasn't sure about, so Cindy called the bakery owner right then and there. I could tell she was giving Cindy a hard time, so I told Cindy "Do you want me to talk to her and go all doctor on her?". She said yes, and I took the phone. I got on the phone, furious and said I was DOCTOR C and the mother of the child with the food allergy. I asked why there were nuts on two of the cupcakes and what was on top of the other two? She was annoyed (God knows why) and said she didn't know what had happened (REALLY?) and the two with blue paper should have ginger on top, so they should be ok. I said I couldn't tell which was purple or blue at this point...they looked the same to me. She went on and on about how one was sweet potato and the other something else, but they were vegan and the icing was made from cream cheese.
Cream cheese.
On a vegan cupcake.
Hmmmm, isn't cream cheese dairy based?
Not vegan.
But I didn't even bring that up with her. Finally, I said "I want your assurances that if my child eats this cupcake tonight that he will not die."
She immediately got ten times more flustered and started stuttering and stammering. She said "Well can you taste it and see if it's ok?"
Irate now I said that was a ridiculous question, as I'm not allergic to anything, so how would that help?
I said "My child will not be eating these, and I expect you will be giving Ms. G a full refund."
She asked us to bring the cupcakes back that night. I told her that was ludicrous and that they would be returned the next day.
Poor Cindy was so upset, but not nearly as upset as Tate was when he realized he wasn't getting a cupcake. Sigh. Everyone tried to cheer him up and another mom brought him his goody bag, but we went ahead and left and I got him a Blue Bell individual vanilla ice cream on the way home. He was all smiles.
He was sound asleep 45 minutes later around 7:30.
Then he slept until 7:20 Saturday morning!! Woohoo!!!
We got up, did some laundry and fun house stuff then headed out to Crave to get his cupcake for this day's par-tay! He's also discovered the amazingly talented Alicia Keys!! No kid music in this car!
Then we were off to soccer!! It's so cute to watch them play or think they're playing. They always have a scrimmage the last 10 minutes or so. Tate got upset at the very end because the other team wouldn't let him have the ball to score a goal. I couldn't convince him that was the point. :)
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| Team goof-off photo! |
After a quick change at home we were off to Zoe's 5th birthday party!! Tate had an absolute blast. The food was delish (as always I brought Tate's lunch from home) and the kids had so much fun. Zoe's mom had hired an ice cream truck to come for the kiddos and oh my goodness, what a huge hit! After all the kids got to choose their ice cream and play in the truck, the ice cream lady brought out those huge bubble wands and those big balls to bounce on and the kids played and played outside while most of us parents sat inside and chatted away for almost an hour. We meandered out every once in a great while to check on our kids, but mostly we could just sit facing the window while the kids had fun. Absolutely best birthday party I've been to in a long time. It was so nice not to have to watch my child as he bounced on some bouncy thing making sure he didn't get hit or poked in the eye. Just fantastic.
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| Gotta be first in line for ice cream! |
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| The bomb popsicle as we old folks know it. A Captain America popsicle now. No Tate has no idea who Captain America is. |
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| Last few bites! |
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| Playing in the truck! |
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| What is the fascination with these moustaches lately? |
Then Tate watched his new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Halloween DVD while I toddled around on the computer and the such.
Sunday we woke to pouring down rain, washing out our plans to join Aunt Palmi and Alonzo at Dewberry Farm, so we're gonna have to go another time. We decided to meet at the Children's Museum instead. First though Tate and I did some grocery shopping. As we walked into the store, Tate ran up to this stand of apples...
I have realized for the past month and a half that Tate really really really wants to read. He is always asking me what letter a word starts with. He consistently asks me to spell words out for him. He has several sight words that he's taught himself and when we read at night he like to read the titles of the books. Now I know most he has memorized, but used to be that he would drag his finger across all the words saying the title, but now he stops at each individual word and says what each word is. It's like it's finally clicked that the words make the title. He'll also point out words in the stories that he recognizes.
His teacher is also very aware that he wants to read, but most of the other kids in the class aren't quite there yet, so she's trying to help him, but it's hard. So now I'm trying to figure out how I can help him. I have no idea how to help him learn to read. I do have the BOB books; I guess I need to pull them out and start there.
I'm so very proud.
We met Palmi and Alonzo at the museum and had a great time. Of course the first stop was the train.
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| Making molecules! |
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| The two Chemistry minors hard at work! Hey! I made acetic acid!! Goodness I look tired! |
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| Palmi asked Tate where he was driving them. He said "I'm taking us to college!" Good answer! Good answer! |
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| They put on a puppet show! |
A couple hours later and we were all ready to go home. Alonzo wanted to come over to our house, so we had them over. Tate was given strict instructions on our ride home from the museum to share his trains with Alonzo, who is no longer allowed to play with his Thomas trains at his house. I knew Alonzo was dying to play with Tate's trains. All went fairly well; of course Tate didn't want to share his favorite trains, but he was happy to find ones for Alonzo to play with with some firm instruction from me. But after about 30 minutes Tate didn't like Alonzo 'crashing trains' with him and got whiny. Alonzo was doing nothing wrong really...just being an 8 year old boy. He's a bit more physical than Tate is understandably. Tate said he didn't want to be Alonzo's friend anymore and I put him in a time out for saying not nice things. I asked him to apologize, but he didn't want to at first. He finally did, and Alonzo said that it was ok. But things deteriorated from there. Tate said it again and hurt Alonzo's feelings. I know it's typical 4 year old stuff mainly as Tate came home several weeks ago to say Leo told Tate that Tate wasn't his friend anymore, that Brayden was. Tate was understandably upset and hurt and I talked him through. Of course Brayden was the new weekend baseball friend for Leo, so everything was about Brayden for a couple of weeks. All is of course fine now.
But with Alonzo it's different. When we started having the boys play together in spite of the chronological age difference it was because with Alonzo's speech and auditory processing disorder that the boys could/would play so well together. His cousins his age at the time didn't always treat him so well because of his 'different' behavior. With Tate as his playmate, the friend playing field was level.
It's not so level anymore. :(
Tate was getting pouty and turning his shoulder to Alonzo in that pouty, immature way kids have. We talked to Alonzo and assured him Tate still loved him, though Tate refused to say that or anything for that matter. Palmi sadly said "This is what's so hard. For once I want my son to be the dominant friend in the friendship. He will do anything, ANYTHING, to have Tate be his friend."
I feel so bad for both Palmi and Alonzo. Because it was obvious that no matter what Tate did or said Alonzo would have acquiesced just to have Tate 'be his friend.' And I know Tate adores Alonzo. I know that his feelings were borne of the moment and that the next time he sees Alonzo he'll be all over him. (He has mentioned though at least 3 times today that he didn't like when Alonzo crashed his trains. I don't acknowledge that comment except to say that he should tell him that next time, but didn't they have so much fun at the museum, with the train, with the molecules etc which he readily agrees with.)
Wanting your child to be the dominant one. Isn't that what we want for all our kids? To not be taken for granted. To not be treated poorly. To be equals in the relationship...dominant one moment, not dominant the next. To love well and be loved well.
At dinner last night, Tate asked for a hug as he does often at the dinner table. He climbed into my lap and hugged me for a long time. I said "Tate you're my favorite person."
No response.
I asked "Hey little man! Who's your favorite person?"
No brainer, right?
Tate answered "Alonzo."
2 comments:
Oh, yes--Tate is "right there" for reading. I can recommend the Rhyming Dust Bunnies series by Jan Thomas or many of the books by Mo Willems. Few words per page but fun stories!
Great job on the train costume!!!
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