To say that my son doesn't take to new things is an understatement. Jacob doesn't like anything new or different. It doesn't matter how we try to sugar coat it, if it is new, he wants nothing to do with it.
Last week our neighbor mentioned getting a bunch of people from the neighborhood together for a Cinco de Mayo party. Nothing special, just food, drinks, and gathering together outside. Usually Jacob loves this kind of thing. He's all about yummy snacks and playing with his friends. It is something we do fairly often, just families hanging out together outside on a nice night. But I made the mistake of calling it a "Cinco de Mayo" party.
"I'm not going," Jacob told me.
"Jacob, why?" I asked. "You love when we have parties outside. I'll make something yummy. You can play with your friends."
"NO!" he yelled, "I don't like Cinco de Mayo."
Why hadn't I just called it a party. The word "party" was fine. Jacob new his role. He knew what to expect. It was all familiar and something he enjoyed. I had opened a can of worms, and there was no going back. So for the next hour or so, we discussed in detail the what a Cindo de Mayo party entailed. From already taking two years of Spanish classes, Jacob knew what the words meant. But he was still nervous. He was scared of the Cinco de Mayo party. What if it got dark? What if someone played basketball and a ball rolled out in the street? The worries kept coming. After close to an hour of explaining what the party would look like, Jacob was satisfied enough to go to bed.
The next day I made no mention of the party. Nor the next, or the next. I was waiting as I knew Jacob at some point would bring it up again. He doesn't forget anything.
So the day before the party he asks, "Mommy, what are you making for the Cinco de Mayo party?"
Whew! That was my green light that he was ok with it and had worked through whatever was bothering him about it. The Cindo de Mayo party was no longer a threat.
But there's always something else menacing out there.
I knew I dare not mention it, despite my son's love of the moon since he was a toddler. Whenever we are out at night, Jacob is always searching the sky for the moon. It becomes a competition to see who can find it first. He can tell me if it's waxing gibbous or waning gibbous. Where I still have no clue, and just say full or crescent.
But this time I knew better. I had learned my lesson from adding Cinco de Mayo in front of the word party. There would be no "super" in front of our moon. So I made no mention of the moon that everyone was talking about. We made our treats for the party, and headed over to see our friends.
Jacob had a blast! He ran around with his friends, tried all the food, and pretended to be the server talking to everyone at the party. He even participated in the parachute which he hasn't done since his second birthday. That was a very proud moment for me seeing him laughing with the other kids as they shook the parachute and took turns running underneath.
And as the day became night, and the party began to wind down some, I went in search of my son. I found him inside with his friends playing the Wii. And that's when the Supermoon talk began. His friend who was anxiously awaiting the Supermoon mentioned something about it, and it set Jacob off.
"What! I don't want to see the Supermoon! No!" he said the panic already setting in. I knew things were about to get out of control quickly, so I phoned my husband who was home putting our baby girl to bed informing him that Jacob would be home soon and of the impending meltdown due to the moon.
"Jacob, it's fine. It's nothing to worry about. There's no moon," I told him as I guided him outside."
"But I don't want to see the moon!" he said loudly his panic rising as we began our walk through the party.
As we walked down the driveway, there was moon talk everywhere around us. I could feel Jacob stiffen in my grasp as I saw the moon brightly shining through the trees. A well meaning neighbor unfamiliar with Jacob's fears must have heard Jacob say moon, and said to him, "You want to see it? It's right there."
I quickly intervened, "Oh no. There's no moon here in the city tonight. That's just a street light," and as fast as I could I guided Jacob across the street to our house where my husband was waiting, thankful that the tree shielded his view of the Supermoon.
The thing is, had Jacob seen the moon on his own he would have thought it was the coolest thing ever. He would have proudly pointed it out and we would have discussed how awesome it looked. But just hearing that word "Super" in front of it, made it scary. Something was different about this moon to draw so much attention and a new name, so therefore his guard was up. As much as I would have loved to share that moment of looking at the Supermoon with my son, it was better to just put him to bed. As I laid beside him in his bed, his little eyes could barely stay open, yet he continued to cry fearful of a terrifying moon. I can only imagine in his mind what he had envisioned a Supermoon to be.
The day was done with no major meltdown to mention. They had all been warded off somehow. What would tomorrow bring? Oh yes, that's right.
Thunderstorms!
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