I have a meeting

This happened throughout the month of November 2008.

Braden was going to be turning three at the end of the month and was starting to feel a little anxiety. I could tell when he started asking me if he had to move to room 3 at preschool (this was a daily question). I kept saying I didn't know and would move on to answering the next question. After a while, it started to become more apparent that he really was not liking the idea of becoming 3! He started saying things like, "I'm going to be 2 on my birthday, not 3". You see, at school they started introducing him slowly to his new class to ease him into the new 3 year old curriculum, teachers and friends. He liked it, but was still very comfortable in the 2 year old room, with Jackson. He knew that turning the big 3 meant he was going to have to endure CHANGE and change for Mr. B is just not that easy.

On our way to school each morning Braden would inform me that maybe I should just drop Flynn and Jackson off and leave him in the car. My question to him was always, "where are you going to go?", his reply to me, without any thought or hesitation was ALWAYS, "I have a meeting" and of course my reply was, "where?". Again, without any thought or hesitation he would always tell me, "Um, I tink I'll just drive around and find it."

Let me preface this business meeting with this...Mike and I are always talking about where we are going to be for the day. With both of us being in our cars a majority of the time traveling from one end of the metropolitan area to the next, we are always talking about where our "meetings" are located. These conversations are just our way of communicating who will be dropping the kids off that day and who will be picking them up (another tidbit of information that Braden must be privy to EACH AND EVERY DAY!).

Back to the meeting. It is a Saturday morning and we are driving past the Mokena Aurelios, Braden sees the restaurant and screams, "that is where my meeting is!" Mike and I both look at each other and laugh. Mike asks him if he needs a ride to his meeting and of course Braden says, "YES!" With that, Mike drops Flynn, Jackson and myself off at home and leaves Braden in the car. I looked at him and asked him if he was really going to take Braden back to his "meeting" and Mike said he was. I started going about my business wondering what the heck Mike was going to do with a disappointed 3 year old that thought he was going to a meeting where there were no attendees!

This is how it went down, according to Mike:
Mike gets back in the car, takes Braden around the corner to the Aurelios, gets out of the car, gets Braden out of the car and watches Braden confidently walk right up to the front door and tug on it. The door was locked as they were not open yet. Braden tugged for a while before he confidently walked back to Mike and said, "I tink the meeting has been cancelled."

And that was the end of the obssession with meetings as we know it!

To see it through their eyes...