Where Cor?

I effin' hate Mondays.

On Mondays Corbin attends an after-school board game club.  Love that he has something he can do like that.  I just hate the hour and a half between the time I pick Brian up from school to the time we have to go back to pick up Corbin.

First of all it starts with Brian crying in the van because we are leaving Corbin at the school.  Each Monday I am very clear with him.  "We are not leaving Corbin.  We are not forgetting Corbin.  Corbin stays to play with friends on Monday.  We will come back for Corbin in an hour and a half.  When the clock says 4:30 we will come back and pick up Corbin."  All of this said in a calm, clear tone only to be responded to with anguished cries of "Cor-Cor-Cor!"

Now I have to make the decision to find something for us to do for an hour and a half in the dead of winter in our smallish town or go home where I know another tantrum will ensue when 4:30 comes.

See, Brian is what I call a hermit.  He hates to leave the house.  I have to plan all errands to be done directly after I pick him up because it's a major upheaval to take Brian out of the house after he has settled in.  Meaning, after he has become naked, which occurs within the first five minutes of walking through the door.

Some Mondays we would go to Planet Toys, where I would stand and watch Brian jump and flap for an hour watching their display train in the window.  Of course, they just closed for remodeling- so that wasn't an option this past Monday.  Sometimes we will go to the restaurant that Josh bartends at and eat chips & salsa. But Josh and I had had an argument that morning so I was still avoiding him (you know, instead of the grown-up thing when you talk things out).  We didn't need to go grocery shopping (for once) and it was too cold to go to any playgrounds.  So we went home.

That was a disaster.  Of course when the time rolls around to leave the house he decides it's time to poop.  It takes Brian about half an hour to poop.  He always times it so well.  So on top of being mad that he has to get dressed and that he has to leave the house, he's now mad that I'm rushing him with his toileting routines.

Funny thing is it's always this huge upsetting production, but as soon as we get to the destination he is okay.  Pulling into the school parking lot Brian stops whimpering and clearly says from the back seat, "Where Cor?"

And just that is enough to make me forget about every bad thought I had that afternoon.  Because it was the first time Brian asked me a question independently.  First time ever.