Drawn In Thursdays #63

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Sharing

I've decided to start incorporating interesting content from other blogs and sources. I'm sharing the humor.

So, in honor of sharing, a post from The Honest Toddler about sharing.

The Honest Toddler: Sharing II

May 21, 2013 ~ Who's Afraid of the Dark?

Monday night Billy refused to go to bed. I'd put him down and 15 minutes he would be back up again, searching the house for me because he "needed to pee." Well, I knew that wasn't really the issue. He peed, he was empty, so there was no reason to get up every 15 minutes.

I thought perhaps it was a fluke. Maybe he just couldn't sleep.

He ended up in my bed with me all night, kicking me and rolling around. At least he got some sleep. More than I can say for myself.

Then last night the same routine started up.

Now, again, I knew that he didn't have to pee. So, something else had to be up (besides Billy way past his bedtime).

He whispered to me, "I'm afraid of the dark."

He's got a night light and it's never been an issue before. But I turned on the bathroom light and propped his bedroom door open so the light would spill in from the hallway. Still, that wasn't enough. He was still scared and again ended up in my bed.

This time, however, he got moved to his own room once it was my own bedtime. Sleep for me, yay!

May 20, 2013 ~ One of His Very Own

I promised Billy that if he pooped on the potty at daycare he would get an extra special gift. This is what he wanted. Not a toy guitar. Nope. A real guitar. So, as of today he has his very own guitar, just his size. Yes, it's a real guitar from a music shop and he'll have to learn to play it correctly. I don't know a thing about guitars, but Daddy can teach him.

Future Eric Clapton?

The Sunday Post ~ Learning the Hard Lessons

In an attempt to preserve my sanity, I plugged in the VCR this weekend. We've watched the AristoCats over and over, and I needed a break. Besides, it was time to expand some horizons into other cartoons and Disney films. I just happen to have the bulk of the Disney library on tape. I just needed a way to play them.

Billy had already gotten into the tape collection and picked out the Lion King as the first movie to watch. He had seen part of it at the kids' corner in the grocery store and wanted to watch it again. I readily agreed.

So, with the VCR now working and a wealth of Disney movies available to watch, I popped in the Lion King for Billy's first viewing. This is going to be great!

But time does strange things to our memory. I remember the Lion King as being a fabulous film. And truly, it is. But it came out when I was a teenager and it's been over a decade since I've seen the movie. I've never looked at it with a parent's eye. Only as the teen that babysat kids who were obsessed with the film.

And suddenly, I found myself discussing the meaning of death with my two-year-old. It wasn't like a planned to have that conversation on a rainy Sunday morning. I didn't even think about a Disney movie launching such a profound and devastating topic.

But that's the truth about Disney. They don't shy away from the life lessons. Their heroes and heroines suffer devastating loss, face villains of all kinds- even family members- and encounter countless struggles. Along the way they teach kindness, humility and love.

So, here I was discussing death with a two-year-old. Simple. Keep it simple. "He went to Heaven." But then Billy wanted to know when he would come back from Heaven. "You never come back." And at the scene where Mufasa comes down in the clouds to speak to Simba one last time, Billy broke out into tears. As the clouds rolled away and Mufasa was gone forever, he cried. He got it.

Then he looked at me, "Mommy, why am I crying?" He didn't even understand the deep sadness he was feeling. "You're sad," I told him. And then he asked me, "why did he have to die?"

And in, perhaps, the biggest parenting mistake of showing him this movie, he started crying for Daddy- who wasn't home. He became confused that Daddy had gone to Heaven and would never come back.

Daddy, having heard from me about this, placed called us using Face Time (video phone) so Billy could see that Daddy was okay. Then, in words I've never spoken to Billy before, he looked seriously at Daddy and said, "the baby lion lost his Daddy."

May 18, 2013 ~ Preakness

If you're not from town or not into horse racing, then you probably don't know much about the Preakness (or anything at all). It's the second race in the Triple Crown and takes place here in our town.

Preakness is so much more than just a race, though. It's a week long event with crab racing, frog hopping, concerts, hot air balloons, and a day long party at the race track before the big race.

I wouldn't dream of taking Billy to Pimlico on Old Hilltop for the big race. It's an adult event, let's be honest. And personally, I'm not that big into horse racing. But some of the other events are perfect for him.

I thought he'd love the hot air balloons.

So, I took him to the balloon festival (held in a different part of town from the horse track). We met up with a former coworker of mine, who brought his three-year-old son.

This was the balloon glow, where all of the balloons fire up at the same time. It's really lovely.

Did Billy care? Nope.

He and the other little boy played in the sand the whole time. What sand, you ask? Oh, well they held the event on a golf course, so the kids were building sand castles in the sand trap. I'd post a pic, but blogger is having difficulty with the photos function. My apologies.

This is a really fun event, but I have some major complaints about it.

The Balloon Glow is held at the Turf Valley Inn and Golf Course. They made us park several miles away at the county fairgrounds and bused us over to the event. The buses were loading only one at a time, making the wait to get to and from parking to the event VERY long, especially at an event overloaded with young children.

The glow ended at 8:30. I thought it would be perfect timing to get back to the car and he would sleep on the way home, meaning that Billy wasn't up too late past his bedtime. We got in line for the bus at 8:30. However, by the time we got in our car it was 10:30. That's right. Not just Billy, but the majority of the little kids-toddlers!- were stuck waiting in line for almost 2 hours well past bedtime just to get to the cars.

You have to wonder, since the event does not use any of Turf Valley's facilities other than the golf course, why it's held there. Why not hold it at the county fairgrounds where the parking was? They certainly had the space for it. I could also name at least three other better venues where parking would be on site. I would have to think this would be better, allowing visitors to spend more time spending money at the festival instead of in line for the shuttle bus.

It was fun and I'd go again, but I'd really have to plan next time for the bus debacle.