Oddly, I wasn't woken up by anyone's movement until 7a. Extremely rare nowadays. The morning moved quickly because we had to get out of the house and drive down to Denis' parent's church in Hinsdale, 45 minutes away. Rifling through the kids' drawers showed me that I am ill-prepared to dress up the kids for any social gatherings outside of the house. Shirts aren't formal enough, pants don't fit, and, well, Transformers shoes... Nikko looked the best with a pair of navy pants I luckily found buried in his drawer and a plaid shirt tucked in. I even found a pair of black velcro size 11 shoes that I bought months ago but he refused to wear. I tried them on again and as he looked down and started to protest I yanked him off the stool and shuffled him toward the front door so Denis could put on his coat before arguing. When we arrived, the Sabbath School for the little kids was ending. The boys joined the kids sitting in a circle of chairs with me positioned right behind them. Ronin was so antsy but Nikko was sitting calmly and nicely next to Maya. I figured everything was going well until we ended sitting in a prayer room separated from the big church. It had a flat screen TV to broadcast the service and some chairs that were more comfortable than I thought. Nikko sat nicely at first, but as the minutes ticked by he started getting vocal. There were only two other teenagers in the room busy texting on their phones, but I wondered if Nikko's high-pitched yelps and squeals were starting to get to anybody. When Ronin started joining in I said it was time to take a walk or change diapers. We left around noon and went to Portillo's to feed the kids. When I left the table to go order my food, I could hear Nikko start crying loudly and protesting in the distance. He didn't calm down until I showed up. Last time I took him along with me in line, but I want him to get more exposure to being with other people besides me. This doesn't make it easier on the other person, of course, and today that was Denis. Lunch went along fine until the french fries ran out. Nikko wanted more and I showed him the empty box. He stood up in protest and reached across Audrey, who sat between us, to grab my wrist and try to yank me up to get more fries. He wouldn't sit in his chair anymore and was getting louder with his cries. That was our cue to start packing up everyone and getting us out of there. I tried to soothe him with hugs but Nikko was plain old angry. I glanced around us to see if anyone was watching but thank goodness no one was paying us much attention, plus the loud din of the cavernous room filled with the lunch crowd seemed to swallow Nikko's bleating. Still, it makes you feel drained after your kid has a big meltdown in public and I welcomed the silence of the car.
We didn't go anywhere else today. It was calm. These boys are always requesting to watch the Veggie Tales Jonah DVD, and I figured out that they really like the opening sequence that involves Bob the Tomato driving a van with other veggies in it as they sing campy songs, then veer off-road due to various mishaps. There's a part in the movie where a big storm (God) is whipping everyone around and Ronin always asks, "What's happening??" Since church took up a big chunk of the day, the hours before dinner came so quickly. I moved some Disney Cars window decals around to make room for the Curious George decals I had been saving. The Hello Kitty Christmas ones I had didn't stick to the wall, unfortunately. Audrey has Curious George characters looking at her from behind her crib bars. Nikko has the majority of them on his walls and Ronin has one that is specifically a fire truck, of course (he has the majority of the Disney Cars decals).
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