And if I haven't shown my son enough ways of how much I love him, the fact that I agreed to take him to Chuck E. Cheese's on his birthday should certainly help him understand JUST how much I do. He may not fully understand that until he is over 30 and has three children of his own, however.
The children see the twinkling lights, the machines spewing tickets, the prizes and all the glorious tokens. I see utter chaos, bad pizza and a poor 16 year-old in a stinky ol' mouse costume.
On our most recent trip, Dustin sat back at the table with our things and Ella and I took Josh and Lauren to go play games. Dustin was grateful I volunteered and laughed at me as I returned to the table 45 minutes later looking like I had just escaped death.
These things actually happened:
A child (I'm estimating 10 years-old) began taking tokens right out of Lauren's cup. I went up to him and asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm trying to win enough tickets for an ice cream bar. Cuz' I want ice cream." I said, "Uh...okay. But you don't steal other people's tokens." He said, "Well, she said I could take them and I told her what ever tickets I won I'd split with her." My response, "Dude...she's two." **shakes head**
I was sitting with Lauren on the bench where you can have your photo sketched. This little boy (probably 18 months) kept running in between the camera and Lauren and me. The mother looked over and smiled but did nothing. The camera snapped and sure enough...it caught a picture of this random child running. Irritated, I walked it over to the child's table and told the mother she might as well have it. She looked at me and said, "Oh, thanks!" **shakes head**
A little boy (I'm guessing 8) was carrying a Pokemon ball around. Josh struck up a conversation with him because, of course, he wanted to talk Pokemon "shop". Five minutes later he comes running up to me and says, "MOM!! He said he'd give me all his Pokemon cards for my tokens." I said, "Does he have his cards here?" Josh said, "No." I said, "Then how are you supposed to get the cards?" Silence. Then I said, "Josh...go get your tokens back." **shakes head**
The sheer fact that we all left alive and uninjured was amazing. The kids had a blast and to say I was frazzled, would be putting in mildly.
The whole objective of our evening was to make sure that we got enough tickets so that each of the kids could get a lollipop. After all that...we got out to the car, I opened the lollipops and Lauren says...
"I don't like dis, mommy."
**deep breath**
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