All You Can Do Is Try

With today being "Martin Luther the King Day" (try as I might I could not get across the concept that his last name was King, he was not actually a King), Ben's preschool was closed. Becca's day care was open, so I dropped her off as usual since I decided I'd use the holiday to spend some quality time with just Ben.

We started the day out by meeting up with two of our neighbors (Cheryl and Elizabeth) who both have boys around Ben's age (Carson and Matthew) at a place called Sports Connection. They have a room with inflatables (slides and trampolines and stuff) and a bowling alley and an arcade. We bought combo passes for the inflatables and the arcade, and the boys played in the inflatables room until Ben was literally dripping with sweat. One of Ben's classmates turned out to be there as well, so Ben had a plethora of companionship. After he was worn out from the inflatables we went to the arcade where I helped him win enough tickets for a prize -- he picked out a plastic alligator and a mini slinky.

After a couple hours at Sports Connection Elizabeth took her son Matthew home, and Cheryl and I took Ben and Carson to lunch at McDonald's. Everyone in south Charlotte apparently decided to come to this particular McDonald's for lunch, because it was mobbed. We had to wait a few minutes for a table to free up. Ben and Carson ate their lunch at supersonic speed and then played in the Play Place thing or whatever McDonald's calls those playgrounds of theirs. It was a very big one, and climate controlled (ie indoors), unlike some we have been to. Anyway Ben played for quite a while, and another of his friends from school happened to be there as well so he was quite happy.

After we said goodbye to Cheryl and Carson, I decided to take Ben to the movies since it was still early afternoon. After a brief sojourn to enjoy a hot chocolate, we saw The Tale of Despereaux which I wouldn't say was a rousing success, but at least he did sit through the whole movie. Though the last half hour was on my lap.

So anyway my point to this whole story is that despite my best effort at taking Ben out for a fun and memorable day, it all unraveled anyway because on the way home from the movie he realized that he had left his little plastic alligator and mini slinky on his tray at McDonalds, where it had (we surmised) ended up in the trash.

So he cried all the way home.

I tried...