Bye Bye Train

We took Maddie to the company picnic today.

We took the family to the company picnic today.  It was progressing nicely enough until we took Maddie to the crafts table.  At the crafts table, kids could paint on fans or glue sparklies onto blank photo frames.  I first offered Maddie a fan, but she wasn’t interesting in painting.  So I grabbed one of the blank frames and handed it to Maddie.  It was pliable, and she liked that.  But I couldn’t convince her to start decorating it.

When I tried to show her what to do and applied some glue and a sparklie to the frame, Maddie lost it.  She had a total meltdown.  She threw herself onto the dirt, and start squirming and kicking and crying.  She smeared face paint all over.  She became mud girl.  We eventually left without saying good bye to anybody, Maddie screaming and twisting in my arms the whole way.  It was too humiliating.

We were all in a bad mood, and it was a long hike back to the car.  Lillian offered to go get the car, but I was having none of that.  She wasn’t leaving me with the kids.  Oh, no.  I got the car.

When I came back with the car, Lillian had cleaned up
Maddie’s face.  Maddie was looking back into the park at a trolly car, and said “Byebye train,” happily.  She was in a good mood again.  Like the meltdown never happened.  We couldn’t friggin’ believe it.

Who We Were Then
  • David
  • Lillian
  • Maddie (2 years old)
  • Aaron (0 years old)