A Choice

I made a bad choice today. At the street next to our house, I told two toddlers to "keep going". They were riding their four wheelers and it was a cool, sunny Sunday afternoon. It seemed like a good idea at the time. My neighborhood is one giant loop, and when you are walking it takes about 15 minutes to make it around the loop. Guess what? When you have two year olds on four wheelers, it takes about 4 hours to get around it. I thought we would never get home. Along the way, we met a kind gentleman that I have talked with a couple of times before, and he asked me how old the twins are. When I told him "two", he told us to wait while he went inside to get something for them. I was expecting a lollipop or something similar. Meanwhile, he comes running out with a GIANT box. Inside was another four wheeler... almost identical to the two that were already making the four hour journey around the loop. It was a gift for someone that ended up not working out for them, so he wanted to give it to my kids. There was no nice way to say no, so away we rode. No, I wasn't riding the new four wheeler. I wished it could have held me because I was tired of dragging around the loop. I would have gladly ridden the mini-wheeler if it had been possible in any way. But alas, I had to carry it. Meanwhile, the temperature has dropped at least 20 degrees, and Rush keeps telling me he is cold. SF was a pretty good trooper and continued to ride. Rush, on the other hand just stopped about 3/4 of the way around, and said, "I not wide {ride}. I hold you, Mama. {Pick me up, I am tired.}" I told him to keep trying to push on because of course, I am already carrying a four-wheeler. I could not add a two year old to the load. He said, "No." And, then he just sat there. I tried to just keep walking thinking he would follow SF and me, but he didn't. Just sat there on his little green four wheeler.... He was done. I finally got him to make it to the corner, and we took a rest. Then, when I told him we had to keep going, he got off the four wheeler and left it sitting there. He walked toward me, and then turned to cry out.."MY CYCLE" while bursting into tears and wailing at the top of his lungs. I couldn't help it. I just started laughing. If any neighbor caught a glimpse of us out the window, they were laughing, too. When we finally got to where we could see the house, we left Rush's "cycle" and got the other two into our yard. Then, I picked Rush up and we walked back to get his cycle.SF rode it home for him because he was completely beside himself by this point. I was laughing hysterically by the time we got home. It was one of those laugh or cry situations, so I just chose to laugh this time around.