We (wife, son, me) made a sojourn to the mall in Cary for some shopping. Anyone who has been shopping with a 5 year old knows what an adventure that can be. Especially since we were going to shop for eyeglasses, underwear, and towels. Not the sort of things that really catches the attention of someone who has no attention span. As it turned out, the boy was SUPER well behaved for the whole trip. On our way to buy towels we passed something called "Super Jump". It is a small trampoline surrounded by a lift with a harness complete with stretchy band to facilitate a serious amount of bouncing. We promised that if he could make it through the last of our stops under control that he could go on "Super Jump". Well he was and he did.
Now the Paul Harvey tribute. We had to pick up the aforementioned eyeglasses on our way out of the mall. Since the boy continued to behave we decided that he had also earned a treat. So before we left we bought him two chocolate chip cookies and a Sprite. Well, we were about halfway to the Micropolis and sure enough from the backseat we hear a regurgitive sound. False alarm. We thought maybe he just ate his cookies too quickly. As if you couldn't see it coming, in about 5 minutes we heard the same noise again. This time with solid results. He had literally tossed his cookies. The wife performed the super-motherly feat of leaning over the front seat into the back to do as much cleanup as possible with the requisite glove compartment napkins and stray plastic bag in the car. The rest of the trip went fine. Only a one time event. After washing the car seat cover and shampooing the back seat all returned to normal. So we have now learned an important parenting lesson. One that has seemed very obvious to everyone that has heard the story. NO FOOD AFTER "Super Jump"! I guess we are still on the path to older and wiser.
And as the late Paul Harvey would say, "...and now you know, the rest of the story".
