Family, Fun and Meltdowns

The weekend was nonstop action with family in town. Family included Nana, Papa, Uncle, his 17 month old Son, and his Girlfriend. My Sister, her Husband and their 20 month old Daughter live close by so they were with us all weekend too. So Saturday morning, after Husband and I looked at a couple of houses (and no thank you to those BTW), we headed to the local playground. Fun was had by ALL. Back home for burgers and dogs on the grill. And then we topped the evening off with a delayed birthday celebration for Son and Papa (birthdays are 5 days apart at the end of September).

Sunday we all awoke to head into the city. We walked all the way down the Mall seeing the memorials and sites along the way. A short trip into the Natural History Museum was had, but it was so very crowded and it’s hard to move thru there when you’re in a large group yourself, so we headed back home. I dug out Son’s old toddler toys and Sister and Brother divided them out for their kids. Woo Hoo – less stuff to move around now!!

We all absolutely loved watching the 3 kids play together. I absolutely loved getting to know my brothers Girlfriend better. And a visit from Nana and Papa is always welcomed.

Son did amazingly well with all the people in the house. We made sure to give him his sensory breaks on a regular basis to help keep him in-sync.

However, if anyone was on the corner right by the Natural History Museum on Sunday, they may have noticed us. Son refused to eat his lunch that we had packed. He doesn’t eat much when we have house guests. He was getting ready to melt down mostly due to lack of food. We were sitting on a bench waiting for him to agree to eat when he jumps up, arms flapping and shouting, “Someone call the hospital! Someone call the hospital! Quick! I’m going to crash!” While attempting to calm him down, Husband and I notice people are looking at us, but from a distance as they walk around our bench to give us more room. We got him calmed down and then he started again with, “Call 911! Someone call 911!” After calming him down again he agreed to eat. By then it was too late. He lost everything he ate right there on the sidewalk he had himself so worked up. What ended up calming him down was his breathing he learned at Tae Kwon Do (slow mediating like).

I’m glad no one called 911. We’ve all witnessed children melting down in public. It’s sometimes a tough call for a stranger to decide to intervene or not.

As soon as they all left on Monday Son ate and ate and ate and enjoyed the rest of the day in a very quiet house.

House Update: Our house did not quite pass our realtor’s inspection. She had a few more small things that she wanted us to take care of. So, we have the post on our front lawn, but no MLS yet. That should be up for sure end of this week. Then, let the fun of having a clean-as-possible-while-still-living-in-it-house begin!