A surprising parenting moment.

I promised, and I don't even know why I did so, that we could go to Jungle Java this afternoon.  It's not that I dislike the place, but it's pretty stressful. There are a lot of triggers for kids there, between food, overestimation, crowds, noise.  It's a love-hate relationship with the place.

Normally we try to go early in the morning to avoid some of the chaos, but today we saw a dear friend in the morning so it was in the afternoon. I tried to prep him to eat and drink before we go (he always wants to buy food there, which is pretty pricey and not very healthy) but he refused. Some days we last two or three hours there, but today within a few minutes Griffin was clearly tired, hungry, and thirsty. TROUBLE. 

In the midst of the chaos, a younger boy of maybe one and a half, max two, came up to Griffin to try to get him to play. He didn't talk much but smiled kindly at Griffin. At first he didn't see the little boy, but then when I pointed out to him that the boy was trying to get his attention, Griffin did something super cool for a kid: he knelt down so that he'd be at eye level with the little guy and said hi to him. I watched the way the little guy's eyes lite up, and he was instantly attached to Griffin. He tried to lead him away from me to the little kid area, and Griffin kept telling him that he wasn't allowed to play there because he was older than three. The little boy didn't mind, of course, and didn't quite understand. He hugged Griffin to get him to follow him, and Griffin was so so patient.

Griffin went back to playing for awhile, then came back, clearly still very tired, hungry, and thirsty. He began to whine and complain, being pretty unkind. We eventually left without too much of an issue, and started on our drive home (the long way, also known as the nap way in my book). A few minutes into the drive (and before he noticed that we were going the long way) he apologized, completely out of the blue. He told me he loved me and was sorry for how he had treated me early. He made no excuses, he just stated it.

Something, somewhere, is going right for us.  Gotta keep going in this direction.