Finding the Humor

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I 100% believe that you have to face challenges with humor and grace.  Otherwise you're going to be miserable and your struggles will only be that much harder.  You need to be able to laugh at yourself.

That being said, holy moly did we have a moment this morning!  Scott and I took the kids to Target today, solely so they could have Pizza Hut pizza and I could get my Starbucks fix and we could all get the hell out of the house for a little bit.  Transitions outside the house seem to trigger tic attacks with Gerry, so before we'd even gotten out of the car he was turning his head from side to side, twitching his face, and sniffling.  We get inside and get everyone situated at a table with their food and drinks.  40 minutes later, we've survived a meal with three kids and we pack up and head back to the car.

And that's when Gerry's goat noise tic comes out.

This particular tic is by far the loudest and most annoying of them all.  He has no volume control with it and he simply cannot just do it once and be done.  TS forces him to do it repeatedly until the "urge" leaves his system.  This can take quite a few minutes, which feels like even longer when you're out in public and it's in full force.

The parking lot is covered, so all sound echoes.  We get two steps outside the doors and Gerry immediately starts with the goat tic.  Loud.  High-pitched.  Dying animal-like.  Scott and I don't stop him.  We don't even acknowledge it because doing so only makes the tics worse.  So Gerry's bleating his way out the door, Scott and I are pretending we can't hear it, and I don't even know what Bailey's thinking but, bless her heart, she doesn't say a word either.  But Lincoln?  Well, Lincoln thinks it's the greatest thing ever. At 3 years old, loud and obnoxious is his jam.

So he starts making the noise with Gerry.

And now we're walking through the Target parking lot with two boys making tortured goat noises at the top of their lungs.  With people around.  Bailey damn near flew to the car and Scott and I did our best to navigate through the parking lot and get the boys inside while not acknowledging the noises and not laughing out loud.  We get all 3 kids inside and buckled, shut their doors, and then make the mistaking of making eye contact with each other over the top of the car.  Cue our embarrassed, snorting laughter.

But it doesn't end there.  Because, once inside the car, the boys are still making the goat noise.  Gerry because he can't help it and Lincoln because he sees his brother doing it so why the hell not?  And that sets off my own tic attack.  I'm in the driver's seat clearing my throat, sniffing, and flicking my fingers like a mental patient and I can't stop laughing about how ridiculous this must all look to an outsider.

We're a mess, you guys.  But we're finding the humor in it all.