The Red Robe

Alternately titled, "Why Jackson should be grateful his mother did not put on clothes before taking him to school today."

Jackson has had a loose tooth for a while now.  I thought it would be out by Monday or Tuesday it was so wiggly.
He however, refused to let anyone near it, so it wiggled, got into odd positions, and was overall a 9 on my grossness radar (teeth out of mouths, finger nails clipped, and cut hair....YUCK).
This morning as he was brushing his teeth, he hit it and the tooth turned sideways and he starts screaming.
Bart and I get him onto the couch, try to calmly get him to let us look.  No dice.
Try to pry his mouth open to wiggle it or pull it.  Nope.
Finally, through some fancy two on one parent vs. kid action, we managed to get his mouth open, get the tooth out and hopefully move on with our day.
Nope.
 He bit me twice.  TWICE.
We got the tooth out.
We cheered and said all the nice and fluffy thing people say when one loses his first tooth.
But Jackson screamed.
And he cried.
And he threw the world's biggest fit because he was "scared".

By this time, we are all late for everything.  Too late to eat breakfast at home, Bart was too late to walk to work, late, late, late.
So, we piled into the car, and Jackson very unwillingly gets in.
We drop Bart off at work and head to school, where I tell the boys they will be eating breakfast. No big deal, they do it at least once a week.
Jackson screamed.
And he cried.
And he refused to get out of the car.
A timer begins in my mind.  For every minute Jackson made me stay at school, he would lose that much time playing video games tonight.
2 minutes
3
5
Finally, I declare he won't be eating breakfast today as it is really too late for him to even get in there and go park in front of his drop off zone.

He cries some more.
He declares he is scared.
He hides his face with his backpack.
He does not get out of the car.
I am trying so hard to be patient and Christlike and loving and understanding...it was hard, but I think any mother would have appreciated how hard it was to restrain myself from lashing out and being negative.  :)

Here is where the red robe comes into play.  See, I'd not gotten dressed before the tooth situation came up.  I am wearing a sweat shirt, shorts, socks, and a big ugly red robe.  I have morning breath, wild hair, and a anger deep in my guts that this morning had not gone according to plans and that Jackson was being such a whiny boy over this.
If I'd only had on p.j's and slippers, it would have been okay.  I'd have sucked it up and dragged that screaming monster to his class, to let his teachers deal with him.  I would have gotten out of the car, pulled him out, and drove away.  (Just far enough to make sure he got in safely).  I would have acted.  It might not have been pretty, but it would have been quick and we would have been able to move on.

Instead

I had to sit there and at first nicely try to get him out of the car and in to his classroom.


Then the niceness wore off.

I was hungry.

And getting annoyed.

And ready for Jackson to just calm down already.

I finally got him out of the car...but then he latched onto the door handle like Megan with Grey Goose on an everything's-gone-to-hell kind of day.   There was no shaking him.  I was in quite a pickle.  I mean, I can't drive off and run over his feet.  And what if he runs after me?  I can't get out of the car.  I am only in a red robe and hot pink socks.  I can't just sit there all day.  Oh, and the temperature outside?  Maybe ten degrees.  Yet he stood outside my window, banging, crying, and just overall not being happy.

No parents I knew walked by where I could explain what was going on and have them carry a screaming Jack up to school.  No teachers are down by the cars to help.  My husband at work was in a meeting so I couldn't go get him to come help (his work is maybe 1 minute from the boys school).

It was a nightmare.

Finally, right before the second bell rang (having wasted 20 minutes of time, missed breakfast and bell work, and lost video games for the night), he runs up the walk, screaming and crying all the way.  The only reason he went (unless he had an divine intervention from God and realized that Mama was about to say RED ROBE BE DAMNED and drag him into class) is because I told him he'd be locked out of that door and have to go to the principal if he didn't get into school that second.

Now, being the good mother that I obviously am, I had quickly written a note to his teacher to alert her to Jackson's issues, so hopefully the hot mess that stormed into her classroom will get a little sympathy.  Or an extra graham cracker at snack time.  Or a time out to calm down.  Something to help him be excited about this BIG STEP towards growing up.  This change.  Because as some of you know...Jackson HATES changes.  Especially those concerning him.  He needs a lot of time to get used to new situations...and I guess even though he'd known this tooth was loose for well over a week, he was not ready for the change of having it out of his mouth.

So, I am writing this post, not so much to entertain you all, my lovely readers, but to have it documented so that one day, when I scrapbook this event, I will have all the details down correctly.  Because yes...I have a before the tooth came out smiley picture.  I have a him throwing a fit flung on the ground after the tooth came out picture, and I will get (once he's calmed down and happy) a "look I lost my first baby tooth now I am a big boy!" picture.  And I think this post will be an important part of that visual story.  Maybe I need to snap a picture of this ugly red robe that Bart hates so much but that saved Jackson today.