One of the best parts about being involved with our Girl Scout troop are all the great opportunities we get to do things in our city, and often with our friends! Recently, we met our troop for an evening at Disney on Ice!
This evening ended up being a pretty crazy one. It started when the security guard at the entryway would not let me bring in the candy that I brought for the kids (even though I have brought candy on other occasions and some of our friends brought candy that same evening... anyway...). I was a little flustered after I was called out for my candy violation, and in the following moment accidentally threw our tickets in the entryway trash can (I had forgotten that they were in my hand). I had no choice but to reach into the trash can and blindly try to retrieve them. Thankfully, after a few minutes I was able to pull all three from the trash. If I was not flustered before, I was definitely flustered by then.
We headed into the arena and most prevalant on my mind was finding a bathroom so I could wash my hands and the kids could go potty before the show started. We headed off towards a bathroom when my friend glanced at the kids and asked, 'where's Degen?' We had just gathered him to us a minute before and now he was gone, vanished into the crowd of hundreds of families streaming in to find their seats. Now, I am the mother of a somewhat mischievous boy, so I did not panic right away, but went right back to where we had been near a toy display. He was not there. I walked 10 feet further to the photo op, but still no. Glanced to the next toy display, but he was not there either. Then the panic started to set in a little as my eyes took in all the people, almost all with small children. Somewhere in all these people was a very small boy, and it began to wash over me that I would not be able to find him. I rushed quickly to the escalators at the exit and glanced down the wide expanse of stairs, my one last hope that he would have been lured by the ride, but still no. He does not know my name, his last name, can barely be understood by those who do not speak Degen-ese, what will I do? The first person I could find wearing an Arena shirt and carrying a walkie-talkie I stopped and blurted out, "My little boy is lost." He called security, and when the gentleman arrived to take me back to the security office I knew that this could all end very badly. I blinked back tears and followed the security officer through the crowd. We had gone no more than 10 steps when I saw a woman lifting up a little, blonde boy in a red coat... MY little blonde boy in a red coat. I rushed over, calling to the security officer as I hurried to grab him, "Here he is. This is him. I found him."
No tears, he was calm and talking to the women who had found him wandering. I held him to me and thanked them over and over as relief washed over me. They smiled and said that when they found him they knew to stop and look around for the panicked mother who would soon follow. I smiled and thanked them, including thanks that they were not judging me in that moment. They smiled back, "Oh, we have lost kids before, too. It happens." I do not know who those women are, but I wish them all good things and blessings in their lives for finding my boy and keeping him safe, and mostly for the mercy they showed me in that moment.
We rushed to find our seats and enjoyed the show. Degen was completely unaffected, but I don't think my heart slowed down until well into the first act of the show. As we were leaving, I was determined to keep a firm hand on Degen. And, as usual, he would have none of it. He twisted about in my arms, crying and fighting to get down. There was no way I could fight him all the way back to the car, so I let him down and kept one step behind him as we waded through the departing crowds.
When we reached the top of the long set of stairs to leave the arena, Degen took one step down and immediately went back up shaking his head saying, "too scary." I turned around and scooped him up in my arms. Then the screaming began, followed by the crying and the hitting. Our evening out had become late and my prince turned into a troll. He threw a royal fit all the way down the stairs, out the arena and halfway to the car (which was no short distance). I held him and talked to him calmly, when he hit I put him down and walked away. Then picked him up again when he screamed after me. I have learned that there are some times when you cannot reason with a child, you cannot do anything to make it better, and so you just have to ride out the fit until they wear themselves out. Thankfully, he was calmer by the time we got to the car and the car ride home was only really terrible in the 10 minutes before we reached home.
It had to be one of the absolute craziest nights ever... and I became very aware that for Degen age 3 was gonna be way harder than age 2 ever was.
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