Cupcake Wars

Well, Fans.  The day was bookended by tantrums. Julie took the bambini to Yum!, as promised, for dinner.  All was going reasonably well until the end of the meal when Julie purchased a cupcake to share.  Joe wanted his own and you know, Fans, Julie can appreciate that, but it's not the call she made tonight and it's certainly not a call she was going to go back on in the wake of what unfolded.  By the time we left, everyone--everyone--who was dining at Yum! around about 6:15pm knew that Joe wanted his own because he kept screaming, "I WANT MY OWN!" He started not long after Julie gave Clara a third of the cupcake, and kept it up as Julie got a to-go container for the rest of it; wiped Clara down after she'd finished her third; got Clara into her coat, hat, and mittens; dragged--dragged--Joe out to the car (sans coat, hat, and mittens); and lifted him, thrashing, into the car.  Julie had parked in the street along the windows so these last moments were like an encore to the main performance the other Yum! patrons had just witnessed inside the restaurant.  The main performance probably lasted less than three minutes because Julie made the decision to leave pretty quickly after Joe's first screamed "I WANT MY OWN!", and it was solidified when he pounded the table hard enough that the screams were punctuated by the utensils clattering, but of course, it felt like an eternity.  Julie considered stuffing Clara's cupcake covered hands into her coat sleeves, but that would have just mandated a load of laundry tonight.  About the only lucky break we caught was that we happened to be at the table that is right next to the door, so Joe didn't have to be dragged screaming through the restaurant, between tables and other diners.

He screamed the whole way home, pounding on the windows of the car.  He kept it up into the house and all through bath time.  He screamed about not having his coat on, having to remove his own shoes, needing more food ("PUH-LEASE!  I. NEED. FOOD!"), not getting to take a bath, for Daddy, and for Teddy (Bear), but always he came back around to "I WANT MY OWN!"

By the time Clara was in her pajamas and ready to read books, Joe had quieted down enough to hear Julie when she said that if could pack it in and get his pajamas on, he could read books with Clara and Mommy, all of which he did.  After Clara went to bed, Julie had to break the news that we wouldn't be going back to Yum! until at least after Christmas, and probably not any other restaurants, because Joe had made such poor choices tonight.  Joe just took it.  He looked awful, probably felt awful, and frankly, Julie felt awful, too.  The only silver lining she can find is that she didn't lose her temper or raise her voice.

The rest of the cupcake didn't taste good at all.