Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Cheer

Everyone was in the car at about 4:30pm and we were sadly driving away from Grandma's house.  Zeke, who had not started the day happy, was kicking my seat vigorously and crying and screaming, "I want my Daddy!  I want to go home!  I want my Grandma!  I want my dinner!  I wanna get out!"  Etc.   I tried to tell myself that what he was really saying was "I am tired and hungry, please help me," but it wasn't really taking.
I reached back to give him half of a peanut butter sandwich and he swatted it away.

"Noooo!  Nooooo!   I want my lunch!  I want my lunch!"

So I brought my arm back, repackaged the sandwich in its baggie and put it back in his Toy Story lunch box.  Then I carefully handed the whole thing back to him.  Remember, I am driving this whole time, so I'm moving slowly and keeping both eyes on the road.  And there is lots of screaming and kicking going on.

Zeke grabbed the lunch box and continued screaming.  "I don't want this!  I don't want this!  I don't waaaaaannnn-"
"Zeke!"  I said sternly.  "There is no screaming in the car.  It scares Ben.  If you don't want your lunch, please hand it back to me."  I blindly reached my hand back to retrieve the lunch box.  He kicked me.
"Zeke.  There is no kicking.  You are in time out."

It's a toothless punishment in the car.  The radio was already off and I had no way to enforce any kind of time out while I was changing three lanes and merging onto the GiganticInterstateHighway.  Ben started crying, not really because he was sad, mostly because he likes to imitate noise and Zeke was putting on a great show.  Ben easily matched Zeke's loud, building sobs and long wails, just a few seconds behind.

Zeke kept up the crying and took his sandwich out of the bag, screaming, "I don't want thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssss!"
I'm not sure exactly what he was doing, but about a minute later he began to throw chunks of sandwich at me.    At least one piece landed in my hair.

"I want to get ooooooooooouuuuut!" Zeke shouted.
"Ah, ah, ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"  repeated Ben.
As I was still driving, and trying to get us into the carpool lane, I decided that the best response would be to ignore him.  I started to sing hymns at a nice, medium volume to help myself calm down.
Zeke responded by taking off his shoe and throwing it at me.

"No singing!  Mama stop singing!"  he screamed.  It hit the radio console instead, but it made me hopping mad.  I reached back and yanked off his other shoe, dropping it to the ground so he couldn't reach it.

"Zeke!  There is no throwing in the car."  I used my very angry voice.  The kind that is not a shout, but a low, controlled tone and has absolutely no affect on him.

Then I took a few breaths and started singing again.  Zeke kept up his tantrum, quickly removing a sock and throwing it at me.  The second sock he threw at Ben.  "I want my sandwich!" was his new demand, along with "I want my Daddy" and "I want out".  He was out of ammo, but he screamed and struggled against his car seat for another half hour, giving up when there were only 10 minutes left of our journey.
Just wanted to share how much my boys love car trips.


2 comments:

Robert said...

we had enjoyed such a fun day with Zeke. Sorry that he reacted so terribly on the way home.
Nice shot with the shades though.
Love Mom & Dad

Hi Lowe! said...

I think Isaac will be that way on car trips too when he gets bigger...ahhh. :) He loves car trips just as much as Zeke. :)