Today we went to the longest parade ever. I mean ever. Two hours and fifteen minutes, nearly 100 floats. And that part was great. Some friends of ours let us sit in their yard on the parade route in the shades. They provided snacks on their porch and a bathrrom which of course I used twice. It was fun to see them and another friend we hadn't seen in a while.
Dominyk and Ricardo were the only ones there and they made me so proud of them. We have been to our fair share of horrible parade experiences... from the times Mike and Kyle were 11 and 8 and literally would wrestle each other for a piece of candy out in the middle of the street to the days when Dominyk was an unmedicated severe ADHD 3 year old darting in front of big trucks... but today those two boys made me very proud in very different ways.
Ricardo did not enjoy the parade. He did not want any candy, he was tired from soccer practice, and he is starting to get a little too old for the whole parade scene anyway. There were not enough chairs left for him to sit in. He wanted a shower. But he sat for the whole two hours and fifteen minutes without complaining, without asking for anything. Stoic and tough and proud.
Dominyk was the opposite -- unbridled thrill and enthusiasm to the point he could hardly contain himself. He wanted every piece of candy and every toy they were giving away. But he was surrounded by smaller children and he did an excellent job of making sure that every time he shared. If he got two of something, he gave the other one away. He had access to lots of snacks, but was very appropriate in his choices. It was really fun to see him being so mature and watching out for the little kids around him.
So, up to this point, i was feeling quite blessed. But then we decided to try to eat out. Culver's kids meals are cheap and you get a lot of food, so we decided to head there and the series of unfortunate events began. The first culver's was packed. So we went to a different one, also packed. But we found a couple tables and thought we had gotten a good deal. Until we realized there was something wrong with the air and it was incredibly hot in there. It took 45 minutes for us to get our food. We were there for over an hour and 15 minutes in the unbearable heat.
When we came home for an hour before we had to leave for a church picnic, it became even more unbearable as both Tony and Dominyk each had a meltdown and the older boys were either refusing to do what they were supposed to or taunting the others.
So once again we have the good with the bad. Just like I blogged about this morning.
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