Good Like a Medicine

I know I wrote recently about our funny Steven, and Sunday night he gave us another good laugh. Long story short we were in a big crowd of parents and costumed children for a fall festival at our church. Lydia and Steven were jumping in one of those “instant-gratification via air” tents while I fed Meredith outside in her stroller. It was starting to get pretty cold as we watched a breathtaking sunset in the sky.

“Time’s up, kids! Gotta get out!” Eric told them.

Whine, whine, whine went our children.

“Come on, guys! You can get out and go ride on the TTRRRain!” I charmed.

Well, I went back to feeding Meredith, and somehow Eric got talking to someone as our kids exited the inflatable jumpy-thing. About 4-5 minutes later, Eric looked at me with big eyes and said, “Oh no. I can’t find Steven.”

“What?”

You know the drill. We started walking around amidst a ton of people trying to stay calm. Eric laughed later thinking about it. “What was I going to say? Umm, has anyone seen a little child about ‘this tall,’ wearing a costume?!’” Actually that wouldn’t have been a bad question for us to ask since he was conspicuosly dressed up in his pajamas.

We were trying desperately to find Steven, and suddenly I felt like I was in a Curious George story. Eric found me a few minutes later over in the parking lot. I was laughing hysterically. “What are you doing?” he asked. I just kept laughing and pointed discreetly to the little kiddie train that was whirling around on the pavement about twenty feet away from us. There he was, on the back seat of the caboose, decked out in his yellow fleece footed pjs, beside two fourth-grade girls he had never met, sucking his thumb and as content as could be. He must have darted over to the train, bypassed the long line of children waiting, ducked under the ropes around the ride, and climbed up there on his own.

Man I wish I had my camera, so I could post a picture. This was just so hilarious. He was sitting there as if to say, “My mommy said we were going on the train, and by golly, that’s what I’m going to do. Hmph.”

Oh, what am I going to do with him?!