Walk the Line

It was bound to happen --a group melt down.

Today Collin and I met up with some mommies and kiddos from our MV MOMS group. We set out to have a great adventure at a local indoor play yard and planned for lunch to follow.  Typically these outings are primarily chaos free and tons of fun!

When we arrived at the play yard, Collin was super excited to see his buddies and couldn't wait to explore.  Only the exploration didn't last long before he quickly decided the play area wasn't entertaining enough, and his mischievous little self emerged.

There is an invisible line that is drawn between the end of the play yard and the beginning of "Mall" territory that shouts to children "OFF LIMITS" and because of this it is sure to entice the mischievous ones. Collin repeatedly decided to test exactly how "off limits" the area was.  He would slowly wiggle one foot over the line, quickly draw back his foot, and then sneak back over the line as he glanced back at me to double check that I was paying attention, flash a grin, and then would take off like lightning running down the mall. He thought this was a hilarious game, before mommy quickly put an end to it, and he became stroller bound. Something about Collin--he becomes very ornery when he is hungry (like his daddy ;) ). 

In the midst of Collin's mischievous behavior, nearly all the other children involved in our group began to have melt downs, mostly for unknown reasons.

Needless to say, playtime was over, so off to lunch we went, .....or so we thought. Quickly lunchtime turned into a cascade of tantrums when 9 of the 11 children began to have serious melt downs, tantrums like I have never seen before. Truthfully it was quite comical, but mostly I found the humor in the situation because my child's mischievous behavior had come to a close, (after all, lunch was provided and what else does a hungry child need?)  so I was able to see past the humiliation of the group melt-down and the eye piercing stares of the bystanders, and secretly giggle inside. -Catch me next time when Collin is the creator of one of these meltdowns, and I may have a different opinion!