Whenever I look back on the days of having just one kid, there are certainly things I miss. For one thing, the amount of noise in my house was much lower. For another, I didn't have requests for my attention during every second of every day of every year and so on and so forth. However, one of the things I missed the most was just being able to run and do an errand without it being a massive inconvenience.
I realize that it is possible to do errands with two kids in tow. However, it's definitely a lot more work and nowhere near as fun as doing so with one kid. Also, it needs to be said that Ethan is now reaching an age where it's much easier to take him along when there are certain things that need to be done. After all, no one wants to take a two-year-old to a doctor's appointment with them. Or the accountant's office. Or the service department of your local Chevrolet dealer. It's actually that last one that I want to talk about.
For the longest time, I've been very stringent about scheduling service visits on our Traverse for Saturday mornings. That way Bethany would be home from work and I wouldn't have a kid along. Also, it would provide me with a nice little quiet time all to myself with that guy who brings his 100 pound Labrador to the dealership with him. If the weather's nice enough, I could even wander to Subway for a breakfast sandwich! For my most recent service visit though, I decided to break from tradition and schedule the appointment for a school day right after dropping Ellie off at school. That means that Ethan would be along for the ride!
Now, as any halfway apt parent would, I packed plenty of things to keep my child busy. Our backpack had about five books in it, a couple of granola bars, and a bottle of water all for Ethan's enjoyment. Honestly, I figured the appointment would take an hour as most and worst-case scenario, I could always tune the television in the waiting area to cartoons. After all, three-year-olds love cartoons!
The first hour went well enough. Ethan started off by looking through all of his books on his own at the kid-sized table in the corner of the waiting room. Then, he snarfed down a granola bar before taking a big swig out of his water bottle. After that, he brought me his stack of books to read to him. Once we finished the books though, I was a little nervous. You see, in a rare experience for the small-town dealership we frequent, the waiting room was absolutely full of people, some of whom were very interested in what the ladies on The View had to say. In order to keep Ethan calm (and myself sane), I knew I had to find something to entertain the little man. Enter Netflix!
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| Well, that's in Spanish... |
After perusing Netflix for a minute or so, I found that one
of our kids' favorite movies was now available for streaming. That movie is
"Paddington". They seriously cannot get enough of that little bear from
Peru...who came to be with me and you (as the song goes). For the most part,
Ethan happily watched his movie in silence. However, at about the thirty minute
mark, there is a scene where Paddington uses the bathroom at the Brown family's
house. This is where things get interesting. You should probably watch the clip if you're unfamiliar with the film.
At the very sight of Paddington shoving toothbrushes in his ears, Ethan erupted in deep belly laughs. The laughs continued throughout the entire scene of Paddington wrecking the Browns' bathroom. Before long, I looked around the waiting room and saw several people hiding their faces as they laughed at Ethan's displays of joy. One woman was laughing so hard at Ethan's relentless laughing that she actually had to get up and leave the waiting area to calm herself. Unfortunately for Ethan, he didn't get to enjoy much more of his movie as the service advisor came to tell us that our car was ready.
Honestly, I probably should have seen Ethan's reaction to "Paddington" coming. For one thing, he's had that reaction every time that he's ever watched the movie. Even I think it's hilarious! For some reason, I just assumed that the little man would be too shy to laugh like that in a public setting. It serves me right though for underestimating his extroverted nature. Regardless, it's a fun memory that I will hold onto for a long time to come! #DaddyWrite
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| Ethan is Paddington! |
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