Have I Lost My Memory, DIY Widow

Sometimes as we get older we forget the stages that our adult children went through as they were growing up.  I think you could compare forgetting those stages to the pain of childbirth which is something that women choose to forget or there would not be the decision to have more children.

Something I do remember is traveling in a car with our child back in the day when there were no car seats, booster seats, and seatbelts.  I am not knocking those inventions because they are very needed for safety and prevent deaths but just remembering when we didn’t have them.

I own a Ford Expedition which has had its problems, you can read about it in another blog, but it is very comfortable and seats eight adults.  Seats fold and lie down so it can be used just like a truck if necessary.  There is a screen that folds down from the roof behind the front seats which will play movies when you insert a DVD disk into the player installed with it in the ceiling.

There are two wireless headphones that came with the vehicle that allows those who want to watch the movie to not be disturbed or disturb others while they listen to the audio from the movie.  These headsets have batteries in them and should be turned off after they are used to keep the batteries from going “deader than a doornail”.

Okay, here is where my “memory problem” sets in, having been asked to go to a Splashtown with my Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren, my Daughter-in-law and I  decided to take my vehicle along with my Grandson’s vehicle, so we could carry more stuff and spread out more.

My oldest Grandson and his wife have a six-week-old baby boy, twenty-three-month-old little girl, and a seven-year-old boy.  My youngest Grandson who is nearly fourteen was also going on our road trip.  I decided that it would be fun if all the children except the tiny baby road with my Daughter-in-law and I in my vehicle, so we loaded one car seat into my Expedition behind the front passenger seat.

When we all got situated my Daughter-in-law was driving, I was in the front passenger seat, behind me was Great Granddaughter “baby girl” in the car seat,  in the middle sat my seven-year-old Great Grandson, behind the driver’s seat sat my thirteen-year-old Grandson, and behind them was every kind of thing imaginable,  food, ice chests, towels, strollers, towels… well you know what I’m saying.

To get to this Splashtown place, it takes about two and half hours, so my youngest Grandson put a movie in the player for the little ones then got out the wireless headsets.  Because wonders have never ceased, we discovered that one of the headsets had been left on so the batteries in it were dead.  The two guys in the seat behind me decided that “baby girl”  would not mind not having sound and could just watch the movie.  As soon as possible after getting the movie set up, my youngest Grandson stuffed some of those earplug “thangys” in his ears that prevented him from hearing and made him oblivious of anything around him.

Everything was going well and we were headed down the road when “baby girl” let out a blood-curdling scream from behind me.

I turned quickly to see what had happened because the two guys sitting in the back were ear plug deaf to the world.

Nothing! Nothing was wrong! Not one tear!  Baby girl had taken her shoes and socks off but she was fine, so I smiled at her and turned back around in my seat.

Wrong!  The next scream nearly blew my eardrums and got both guys attention in the seat with her as they jerked off their earphones and ear  plugs in a panic.  They offered her everything they had but she was still screaming.

I quickly turned around as much as possible in my seat with the seatbelt on then took her hand in mine. She took my hand then said, “l-m-n-o-p Out!”  while trying to make my fingers push the red button on her car seat that releases the straps that hold her in the seat then she smiled really big.  There was no way that I was going to let her get out of her car seat so I just started singing that ABC song with her “l-m-n-o-p” over and over until we got to that Splashtown.

Did I lose my memory of how quickly a near two-year-old can become totally unglued for no reason?  Absolutely but what a great blog it makes!

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