We were kinda curious how Micah would react to the singing again, but we needn't have worried. We chose a night when The Red Robin himself was strolling the premises. That? Freaked. Him. Out. The singing would have been infinitely better.
The boy does not do costumed characters. Not clowns, not his brother wearing a Halloween mask, and certainly not a larger-than-life bird walking among us. I thought he would throw himself out of my arms trying to get away from the friendly bird trying to shake his hand. The look of sheer terror on his face spoke volumes. He didn't need a voice to say it.
That Thing strolling casually through the restaurant, occasionally stopping to pat small children on the head, was enough to throw the boy into a hysterical mess. I am not even exaggerating. Micah stood up in his booth, eyes wide, and scanned frantically right and left to be sure that IT wasn't sneaking up on him somewhere. If IT was ever in his line of vision - even the whole way across the restaurant - he would wave his arms around and start hyperventilating.
The people behind us were not amused.
There was no calming the boy. I tried turning his head but "Holy Cow, Woman! That thing might sneak up on me and I have to keep an eye on it at all times! What do you think you're doing?" He was a quivering, sobbing mess until I took him to the front of the store to play video games. It was there that I realized The Robin scared the crap out of him. Literally.
I took him to the van to change his diaper and My.Word. was it a bad one. Thankfully once we were back at the table the manager came along to see if we needed anything. We asked if the robin could disappear. She made it happen. We left her a nice tip for that kind gesture.
And then, wouldn't you know it? Micah fell promptly asleep. He slept through the whole meal. Either the boy is getting very, very sick or he was that worked up over the costumed character. Either way is not good. Our grand plans of taking him to Disney someday may not be as fun as we'd envisioned.
I think this gives all new meaning to the term "give someone the bird." It'll scare the crap right outta you.
(Poor Becky. It's her birthday, her birthday meal, and the talk is all about Micah. Such is the life of a teen.)
14 comments:
This is Joyce. You have described Sarah to the tee. I think it started at her second birthday when we had a tweety bird party because we called her tweety and I dressed in a Tweety costume. She went into a total body shaking, pooping, gaging freakout. It has lasted to this day. With the exception of Disney characters - she loves them.
"(Poor Becky. It's her birthday, her birthday meal, and the talk is all about Micah. Such is the life of a teen.)"
Such is the life of anyone in the family with an adorable little man like Micah.
Birthdays just might not be Micah's thing.
Poor Micah. I have to say that I really wonder about the people in those costumes -- clown and otherwise. Do they LOOK at how kids are reacting so they can possibly leave the freaked out ones alone?
Happy Birthday Becky!!!
And yet again, something that Micah and I have in common...I don't like costumed characters either.
Birds are freaky - I don't blame him. I once had the Icee bear torment a child I was watching. I kept telling him to go away while the poor kids was screaming and trying to climb me and the stupid bear just kept coming.
Disney is OK, though, since the characters don't roam around - you have to go to them, so you can avoid them.
wonderhubby always tells the story of j-bear's birthday party at chuck e. cheese.
when the "giant rat" showed up, she screamed and ran out of the restaurant.
poor becky. ;-)
Maybe you have a nice excuse to just have some birthday girl time one-on-one. "But, Sam, Micah totally ruined Becky's Red Robin dinner!" :)
I have not tried mixing my toddlers with giant costumed characters yet. I can't think of one instance. And we get around -- zoo, mall, library. Hmm. I'm sure it's future blog fodder.
ciao,
rpm
I'm with Micah - keep the giant bird away from me. I don't even like sports mascots.
Giant birds are scary. I try to keep costumed people away from mine whenever possible. I agree that maybe some special mom and daughter time might be the right medicine for the birthday dinner being all about Micah. But he is so cute, it would be hard for it not to be all about him.;)
Aww, poor thing! Those big furry animals are always so creepy. My daughter is terrified of all of those huge character costumes. Even at Chuck-e-Cheese. We're anticipating that she may not be thrilled of Mickey when we take her either.
I started to type a comment about how I find birds to be creepy when my son Will walked up. He saw Micah's picture and asked if he could come over for a playdate in our backyard. Will said Micah looks like he would be his best friend. That is high praise since his BFF used to be Handy Manny.
That is a rough night for a mom. I'm exhausted for you. We had a similiar reaction out of our four kids when we took them to the Rainforest Cafe in Tempe, AZ.
Peanut is the same way, well, not the pooping part so far. MA also hates those characters. Even today she hates them and wants nothing to do with them. The good thing about Disney is you can kind of avoid the characters if you want to. Just don't do any character meals! We did that with MA when she was 4. Big mistake!
Happy Birthday to Becky. (Hope she's feeling better AND she's wise to know that hospitals are GERM HAVENS -- EEEEWWWWW and ICK all at once . . . STAY AWAY!)
[Regains composure . . . ]
Better rethink the Disney idea. Not a pretty thing to traumatize a child with "FUN." My son Matthew avoids costumed ones. He knows weird and he doesn't like it. He loves Disney sing-along in Disneyland, but you'd never get him there without a breakdown.
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