Love, Hate Relationship

Right now I have a love/hate relationship with Chick-fil-A. I love their food. And customer service. And coupons. And that I can take the kids to play at their play place when it's too hot to be at the park. I was thinking I would love their Kids' Korner time. I could meet other moms, the kiddos could play with other kids. It was a win-win situation, in which free decaf coffee came along with the deal!

But it didn't turn out as good as I had envisioned.

Carson and Coralyn did have fun playing with the legos, blocks, and play dough. They enjoyed coloring pictures. They went down the slide a few times. I got to chat with some other moms and sip my decaf coffee, though all I really wanted to do at the time was go into the bathroom and throw up because I felt so nauseated with morning sickness. With that slight exception, all was going extremely well, until it came time for the story.

That's when the Chick-fil-A Cow came out to greet all the kids and read the story with them. Carson loved the cow, gave him hugs and high fives. Coralyn was terrified of the cow. Her eyes got big and she screamed when she saw him. She wouldn't go in the play place area during the story time or even be where she could see inside and get a glimpse of the cow. So while Carson helped lead the story hour (literally!), Coralyn sat on my lap, her face hidden in my chest, and cried her lungs out.

As we left, I told Coralyn the cow was gone. She asked if he was back at the farm, so I figured, sure, that sounds like a reasonable idea, let's go with that. The cow went bye-bye to his farm and isn't coming back. I thought we were done with the cow.

But no...come nap time, Coralyn will not lay down. She asks again and again about the cow. Yes, yes, yes, he is at the farm. He's even going night-night right now and won't bother you. After much persuading and comforting, she finally took a nap.

Again, I thought we were done with the cow. Again, I was wrong. When Lawrence came home from work, all she would talk about was the cow. That he went bye-bye to the farm. His black shoes and red shirt. That he was on the farm. That he was big. That he was on the farm. Did I mention the cow was on the farm? That seemed to be a very important point for Coralyn. You would think she said it enough that she would have realized he was there and not coming to our house. But oh no...

When it was time for bed, she went right in to her room, climbed up on her bed, and we read our stories and then the Bible. All normal. We prayed and turned out the lamp. She cries out that she has to go to the bathroom, so we make one last trip to the potty and back to bed we go. Not two minutes later she is up out of her bed, at the door, holding a diaper and an extra pair of shorts saying she has to go potty again. This happened several more times. And each time she would ask if the cow was still at the farm. Finally, I rocked her to try to get her to calm down and go to sleep. She was just about asleep in my arms when she startles and looks up at me with scared eyes and yet again asks if the cow is at the farm. I assured her yet again that he was gone. I laid down in bed with her, and right as she falls asleep she jumps up, eyes wide, and screams about the cow. The girl is seriously have nightmares or something about this cow!

I guess she felt safer in her crib, that the cow wouldn't be able to get her there. So I laid her in the crib, gave her Nana (her monkey) and Bear-Bear, her blanket, and she was fast asleep before I got back to the couch.

As soon as she woke up this morning, she was asking about the cow. I knew I had a long day ahead of me!

And now it's nap time. Yet again, the child will not go to sleep. We've tried both the big girl bed and the crib. We are on round 4, or 6, I'm not sure. But hopefully, she will go to sleep. And get over her fear of cows!