The Longest Drive Ever!

Now that enough time has passed, I can talk about our morning excursion last Wednesday. The original plan was to go to the Savage Library and then on to Annapolis to hang out at the mall there, go to the comic shop and buy some groceries (Lucy and Jacob go through milk faster than light through a vacuum). Jacob had a completely different agenda in mind.

Jacob spent the morning begging, whining and flat out stating that we were going to the "Millis Mall," which translates to Arundel Mills Mall. This continued through breakfast and snack time. Eventually, he started throwing toys to make his point. I told him after the second toy that he'd get a time out if he threw another. He picked up another toy. He smiled. He threw it. Then he said he wanted time out in mommy and daddy's room. He was pretty smug about it, too. So I put him in his own room. Then he really pitched a fit about being in the wrong room. Lucy and I hung out for the two minutes then released him from his prison. Now he was upset and we were running late for running errands.

So I decided to concede and draft a new plan: we could go to the Elkridge Library and the Mills Mall. So we loaded up in the van and headed out. After about 10 minutes of driving, Jacob fell asleep! At 10 in the morning! Quite annoying, so I decided we would just drop the books that were due in the outside box. Not having been to the Elkridge branch before, I drove past it and had to turn around. So it eventually worked out. Then I saw a Shell gas station, which is offering a gas discount with a grocery store frequent shopper card. The card didn't work, so I had to pay full price. After that, I told Lucy we would head home and put Jacob in his bed.

Driving back down I-95, a truck with a smoking engine was pulled over on the curb. Everyone in front of me had hit their brakes to slow down and look, so I had to hit the brakes too. I braked hard enough to wake up Jacob 5 minutes from home. He started crying and demanding the mall again, so we turned the car around yet again and headed back north to the mall.

We finally got there and followed our usual routine. We visited the coin-operated ride-on machines, riding them without coining them. Lucy rode on some of them for the first time. Then we walked over to the book store and hung out in the kid's section, which features a Thomas train table. On our way back to the car, we looked at the waterfalls and the fish tank in Bass Pro Shop. Jacob was finally satisfied and we headed home for lunch.

Lucy was very patient through the whole affair and got to eat a quarter of a slice of bread with her lunch as a special treat. Jacob had his usual peanut butter sandwich with fruit on the side. I was worried that nap time would be delayed since Jacob slept in the car, but everything went normally.

Changing plans constantly was a challenge. I'm glad I rose to the occasion, but I hope the occasion does not arise again.

It was the naughtiest of times, it was the nicest of times...

The week has been full of ups and downs for Jacob.

On Thursday, we went to the playground at the Mall in Columbia so he could get out and run around (it's been rainy here for the past couple of nights, so neighborhood parks have been pretty wet in the mornings). He, Lucy and I went almost right at 10 a.m. when the mall opens, thus there weren't many other children when we got there. Jacob was ecstatic to climb and run all over. I kept Lucy in her car seat (which detaches from the stroller) and I sat on the perimeter bench and cheered on Jacob. He was enjoying himself a little too much on the fruit slide. The slide is a large vinyl slide made to look like a pile of large pieces of fruit. It's about four feet tall and I became really nervous when he started climbing over the top to the steep side where he could fall and hurt himself. Coming to encourage him to get down, Jacob kept telling me to stay with Lucy, i.e. leave him alone. Alas, Lucy did start to get upset, so I went to check on her. After a minute of calming her, I turned around and he was not on the fruit slide anymore.

I looked around and didn't spot him until I saw him climbing the stairs outside of the play area up to the mall's second level. I ran and got him and dragged him back, ignoring his protests. We got back to Lucy and I put him down. He wanted to go back to the stairs, so I grabbed the car seat. Lucy and I followed him, leaving the stroller behind. We walked up the stairs, which I thought was his final destination. Then he started off down the hall, passing store after store. I was afraid he remembered either the pet store (about two thirds of the way down the mall) or the carousel (all the way down the mall). He stopped about half way and decided he was done walking. Which meant that daddy had to carry him in one arm and Lucy in her car seat with the other arm. It was a long walk back.

He made up for his naughtiness at Friday's library story time. Jacob was rather sedate during songs and such as usual. When the scarves came out for peek-a-boo, he actually waited for the lady to come and then get his scarf. He even played peek-a-boo with it just like the lady showed us. When it was time to give them back, he walked up and put it back in the basket. Later, little egg shakers were handed out. Jacob was extra cooperative with that as well. He was even quite polite during the play time with the toys. While he didn't really share any of his toys, he was willing to trade or get a new toy.

After story time was over, Jacob wanted to go upstairs. I told him we couldn't take the stairs because of Lucy's stroller so we'd have to take the elevator. He made a beeline for elevator. We went up and walked around for a bit and then came back downstairs. As we left, Jacob asked for a puzzle. So we walked back in and got a puzzle. He waited patiently on the checkout line. It was a very satisfying trip to the library.

I hope there's more library trips and better mall trips in our future.