A Funeral And Some Strays

The Youngest and I went to a funeral over the weekend in another state.  The day began pretty early.  I loaded the car,  watched the Eldest get on the school bus and then we were on our way as well.  Now the first part of the trip was nothing remarkable really.  It took two hours and ended up at my folks' house in Alabama.  We were there a scarce half hour and then loaded up and rode another three hours to the actual funeral.


Now keep in mind here that I was traveling with an extremely active four year old.  He's not the type to sit in a chair for hours on end and be happy about it.  He surprised be me though.  There was not one whimper to be heard on the entire car trip there. 

Once we got there though, he pretty much exploded out of the car.  This was unfortunate since we walked right to the graveside for the ceremony.  He was hyper, very hyper.  He tried to rush to the coffin and take up all the cool chairs in the front.  I grabbed the little suit and pulled him to the back, far away from the grieving family.

I considered sitting on him, primarily for warmth though, not containment.  It was so freaking cold and windy that day!  I did threaten the kid with just about everything in the book to keep him quiet.  Keeping him still was out of the question entirely.  He finally became preoccupied with kicking and moving around dirt with his dress shoes and I pretended not to notice and most of the solemnity of the occasion was observed.

Observed of course, until two stray puppies decided to come see what all the people were doing out there and Hey!  There's a kid!  They came barreling straight for him, the only one in the crowd their size.  These puppies were about two and a half feet tall once they stood on their back legs and stretched out as far as they could go.

So there I was, trying to keep two incredibly cute pups off of him while keeping him off of them and trying to do everything in silence in respect for the mourners.  Other people hanging out in the back were all enjoying the show and trying not to laugh out loud at the chaos that two muddy puppies and a boy kept cooped up in a car too long can create.  Some help they were.

But it ended as well as could be expected and we shoved the poor boy back in the car and ended up in a tiny little hole in the wall food joint called "It Don't Matter."  Pretty clever little name for a restaurant.  We spent maybe another hour there and shoved him back in the car for another three hour little jaunt back to my parents house.

Would you believe that he never complained, cried, pitched a fit or anything?  Amazing.  He pretty much looked like this the entire day:

 

Smiles and all.