Pictures had to be taken of all the princess dollies…

Today, The Boy and I went shopping with PITA, Princess, and Sunshine.  Sunshine was in rare form, and not a little contrary all afternoon, so PITA was having a time of it.  Trying to win the Best Auntie award, I bought the girls spring dresses that were on sale at Sears, and then we went to lunch at The Boy’s favorite restaurant (even though he and I had just been there for fun Friday two nights ago).  We have our routines when we go to this restaurant — he likes to order an orange juice in their large to-go cup, and insists on sharp crayons.  He also likes to order a strawberry sundae (which he likes to joke is a “Sunday with a y”), with no whipped cream.  We started to come to the end of our meal, and I turned my head and whispered that maybe we should wait on the ice cream until after we had left the girls at their house, because I didn’t think PITA wanted to get the girls ice cream after the afternoon we’d had, and I didn’t want The Boy to eat it in front of them.  So I was whispering away in his ear, as he started whimpering because we were going to break routine, and he was “being punished”, but as I spoke, and as I reasoned, he started to understand.  Finally, he agreed, and no more was said about the “Sunday with a y”.  We left the restaurant, and even went to a couple more stores (luckily Target was on the list – another of his favorites, and another we had just visited for fun Friday), and then we dropped the girls off at home.  He quickly reminded me of our deal, and I told him I would keep my promise, because that’s important, but also because he really deserved it for being such a trooper all afternoon.  Little girls can be trying for any eleven year old boy, but especially for this one who likes his routines.  He hung around fitting rooms while the girls tried on three dresses apiece, was patient with their jokes and questions, and agreed to forgo his usual treat at his favorite restaurant.

I told him how proud I was, and that he had shown me how very mature he was becoming.  For a typical kid, this might be normal or even the expectation, but for mine, it was such a huge victory, and a great Mothers’ Day present.  Soooo proud.