Expectations...

Hey ya'll. Well, what a month with Luke. I snicker as I type this because it's truly been the craziest and strangest few weekends for us.

Meaning, for the first time in Luke's little life.....I've been venturing out to public places. This has been huge for me because we've sheltered him so much his first 2 years. So, this summer...I've decided to start venturing out and take the jump.

Now, my blog title point. Expectations.

So, here's the deal. You can only imagine the excitement in my mind to take him to a little zoo, or the mall, or better yet...church! Well, my excitement led me to expect great things from our little man. Granted, he's 2 1/2...but hey, I'm thinking he's going to love these places.

So, here's the rundown in summary of the last few events. Very funny actually. And, my expectiations are lowering by the event. I seriously need to just go with the flow and expect to come home sooner than later. Enjoy.

1) Event #1: Church.
Well, Ericka and I decided it would be fun to attend church with Luke for the very first time. DH was out of town. *a good thing as he probably would have said no.
So, me/Luke get there. Luke is excited and kicking as we get out of the car. I'm thinking...wow! This is going to be great. I'm nervous..but excited.
We get in the sanctuary and sit down. Luke's perfect. Playing with his animals and quiet as a mouse. Music starts, (me and Ericka are freaking out inside just waiting for him to cover his ears and wail!) Nothing. He loved it. Another gasp with excitement. Music over. Pastor gets up. Starts speaking. Luke wants to play in the aisle with his elephant. Ok, I let him. Then, he wants to talk outloud and babble while in the aisle. People start staring. I get up, take him out and we sit in the hallway for the remainder of the service. Expectation rating: 5 (great right up until the sermon to which I wanted to hear)

2) Event #2: The Mall.
Dh and I venture to the mall. Ride the courasel with horses. Baby is heaven. 2 rounds...we are done. Baby freaks...., cries and won't stop crying. Can't console him and snot is running down his nose. Dh tries to side track him at the Disney store..gets worse. I catch up and we decide to bail out. We head for the car. Baby still crying and screaming and then starts hitting me.
I lock him in the carseat while he's hitting me and then shut the door and walk around to the other side. Huge meltdown again. Total crying time from mall to home: 20 minutes. No kidding. Nightmare central. Expectation rating: 2 (very low here)

3) Event #3: The small, and I'm talking very small Zoo.
Dh and I venture to the zoo. Miss the trolley ride and decide to browse the cages with horses, zedonk and camel. 10 minutes later, we are viewing the camel. Camel sticks his head in between bars and peers right at Luke and barks at him. (whatever Camels do?) It was like a long "AHHHHHHHAHHHH". Really loud. Baby freaks out. LITERALLY FREAKS> Crying hysterically. DH tries to sidetrack him again with the flying monkey cage. GOT WORSE. Can't calm down. Snot running down his nose again. We leave. The attendants felt sorry for us and reimbursed our money back. Total zoo time: 20 minutes from car to cage and back to car.
Car meltdown time: 10 minutes. Expectation rating: 1 (very, very, very low and felt sad)

4) Event #4: The Pool
Longstory short, I had these grand ideas in my head he'd want to float all around the pool. Nope. He picks one place and sits there for an entire hour. I try to move him and float to other places in the pool. He freaks and starts crying. I put him back down, he readjusts and calms down and goes back to his happy dance. I can't get him to the sandbox. He's fixated with the wave entrance and wants to sit there the entire time. Expectation rating: 2 (he gets 1 point for wanting to be there) I just want to move around!!

I won't even elaborate on the last few errands we have run. In sum, it's been quite interesting and very challenging. I feel like little Luke. Poor little guy couldn't hold his head up and then BAM..overnight he could hold himself up. No time to adjust or get there slowly. Just bam! Done.

Well, I feel just like him. Overwhelmed as a momma with the BAM factor. Trust me people, NO COMPLAINING>......please do not take this as complaining. I just feel overwhelmed with processing how to handle him at these times. It's not something I've been slowly introduced too. You know? It's just BAM..here we are. Does this make any sense?

So, I'm in the midst of the BAM FACTOR with my baby. It's been so funky, amazing, cool and humbling to watch.

Pray for us and my little mister. That he can adjust to this new social world. I want so much for him. I can't wait to see what God has planned for him.

Big hugs blog family, I love you.
Andrea