Be careful what you wish for

So after worrying that my son wasn't speaking...

He now speaks.

And howls and shrieks "NO!!" at everything-

getting his diaper changed, going in the car seat, going in the stroller, not running infront of traffic...

I guess it's better than the crying tantrums he used to throw (and still does) but.. no...not really.

And copies EVERYTHING. He didn't copy a thing, NOW.. oh, yes.. he picked up "shut up" and "knock knock" on the same day. Lovely. So in the car he's saying "knock knock" and when the others chimes in he says "shut up" incessantly.

heaven help me.

Neither are phrases used here except for maybe once when I flew off the handle when they were out-of-control-screaming.. not my finer moment. And they're often out of control yelling and rarely do they hear me say "STOP!!!" Somedays I want to invest in earplugs. Lots and lots of earplugs.. And it was quite a while ago, so if that's where he picked that phrase, heaven help what else he'll store away for a special day...

Yesterday we went to Balboa Park for Free Tuesdays at the museum. The kids' school lessons are on dinosaurs and transportation, so I thought "what better way to get them to really understand fossils than to take them to see them.."

I guess 1/2 of San Diego county had the same idea. It was standing room only in the museum, they made you leave the stroller outside and I forgot my baby carrier in the van which was a tram ride away so it was frightening at best to nearly loose my kids 10 times in 5 minutes. I could have sworn with the amount of people there was a door prize for going yesterday.. so much so that I asked - what were they giving away to entice so many people in.. and the lady said she'd never seen it that way before. We hadn't either- we've been there for several Free Tuesdays and pretty much had that particular museum to ourselves.

We moved on to the Train museum which was closed by the time we got there...

But they played on the dragon sculpture and walked around enough that I had 3 kids "tired of walking" and a 4th who wanted to run off and screamed bloody murder if one of his siblings sat in "his" stroller.

And.. I like to live on the fine edge.. I forgot to get gas before we left for the Museum so I was downtown and KNEW if I got on the highway, I'd get stuck in traffic and run out of gas. The gas light was on and chiming "hello, get some gas, you dummy"
So.. I figure let's drive toward the water on this main road and see if there's a gas station along the way..

No. There was not and No, I didn't have our GPS in our car.

My anxiety prone son pipes up "mom, do you have your phone?"
yes, I do
"well, why don't you just call the tow truck now?"
because we'll find a gas station
"but we'll run out of gas and have to call them, so why don't we call them now?"

And I start thinking.. how many 5 year olds have as much experience calling the tow truck as we've had in the past year..??

So after several dead ends and anxious boy getting increasingly anxious, I remembered I had GPS on my phone- not nearly as refined as a "real" GPS but enough for us to get to a gas station and fill up.

And the entire time we were driving around looking for a gas station I heard from the back seat "knock knock" "knock knock" "knock knock"