My 4-year-old son's potty training journey has been a true reflection of Bill Cosby's "Mother's Curse".
And I later found out that mothers, all mothers, put a curse on their children.
They say, "I hope, when you get married, you have some children who act
exactly the same way that you act."
And this curse works!
And this curse works!
I always knew that I would be a beneficiary of this curse because I was a rotten child. I only hope and pray that my children are not as completely difficult as I was because frequently I behaved to my own disadvantage.
As part of my son's potty training 'encouragement' we developed behavior charts. If he performs the appropriate behavior he gets a check-mark or smiley on the chart and after he fills the chart his reward is a trip on the local commuter train. He loves all things travel and we chose this reward because we didn't want to buy more toys to fill our already over filled home or to use food as a reward. The only problem with these charts is that someone else had to suggest I use them. As a special education teacher I used those charts with 75% of my students but when it came to my own kid it hadn't even occurred to me.
So today we had the chance to fulfill his most recent earned train ride. Because of the 100+ temps DFW has had for the last 27 days, I wanted to get into town and out again before we couldn't breathe anymore. Dallas has notoriously bad air and heat just makes it worse.
The plan was to catch the 8:13 train into Dallas and then take another train to City Place Station because my boys love the 45-degree elevator and the M-Line Trolley. Then we would hit the only frozen yogurt place that opens at 10am instead of 11am. And head back toward home on a 10:50 train. This way we only spend money on the train ticket (kids under 5 are free so just one ticket for me) and the "ice cream factory". "Ice cream factory" is the name my 4-year-old has given the serve-yourself frozen yogurt places that have been popping up all over DFW. If we miss the 10:50 we would have to wait until 12:20 which means lunch in town and higher temps before we can escape.
I really thought I had a fool-proof plan when I set out at 7:30. We left plenty of time to arrive at the station and buy my ticket. Actually, it wasn't plenty of time but the train we needed to catch was running late so it seemed like plenty. We had about 3 minutes to spare. We made our bathroom stop at Union Station and caught our train to City Place.
City Place was tricky because they closed the above ground access to the side of the highway we needed to be on to access the trolley. However, after reviewing the different bus options I headed up to ground level and found that I could more quickly walk to the trolley stop.
When we got on the trolley all the windows were open and it was nasty-muggy in there. It wasn't hard to convince the 4-year-old to ride the trolley only one-way today and then head toward the My Yogo near West End Station.
When we got to the My Yogo the door sign indicated it opened at 11 which is in direct contradiction to the information on the website (pet peeve).
After finding a shady spot to review our options by iPhone I explained to my 4-year-old that they were closed and if we waited we would be hot and tired the whole time. I suggested that we take the return train and get ice cream between the Irving Station and home. He was remarkably easy to convince.
So as we walked back to Union Station I noticed his gait slowing and when I looked at him he was dripping with sweat and pale and flush. Another stupid-mom moment! Of course, he was tired and dehydrated. I was tired and dehydrated. Despite my cheapness, I stopped at a deli and bought a cookie for him and the 2-year-old to share and a Gatorade. I tend to believe only those who are working outdoors in extreme heat or who are true athletes need these instead of water but I was concerned he had gotten too dehydrated already.
Thankfully we were able to wait inside the station and watch for our train to arrive and then board the air-conditioned train.
Ultimately, we found a Baskin Robbins about 3 miles from the station and all was well for the kids. They both passed out half-way home.
Now I am spending the few moments of quiet wondering why ice cream & frozen yogurt & snow cone places don't open until 11am when the temperatures reach 90+ by 9am. Also, why doesn't every business have a website and have up-to-date information on that website? I wonder how these businesses survive (if they survive). I wonder how the people running these businesses came up with money to even get started. This needs to be the beginning of a totally different blog.
