Chuck-e-Cheese. A kids dream or a kids nightmare?

We recently went on a play-date with a friend from JC's preschool. That's when I learned that Silas is deathly afraid of Chuck-e-Cheese. No, not the scary rat costomue some dude sports around for a few minutes, but the rides, the music, the jungle gym, the whole shabang. I had to take both kids by myself that day because Andrew was working. I didn't think it would be such a big deal because doesn't every kid like Chuck-e-Cheese? JC adores that place!! As soon as we got there she ran off with some tokens to start riding the rides. I sat down with my friend to chat and watch the kids. As soon as the rides started up Silas started SCREAMING his head off. I'm talking about screaming, clawing, climbing up me, trying to catch his breath kind of cry! I thought to myself "Are you serious?" I'm here and what am I suppose to do now? Make JC leave after 2 minutes of being there? Then I would have 2 screaming maniacs. Nope. Not going there! He cried so much that a man who worked there came up to ask if everything was ok, even a Grandma sitting a few booths over asked if she could help. Silas seemed to be extra scared of this Jeep ride that sat near us. I thought that maybe if we moved to another area he would calm down. I found a booth next to a Barney car ride. Ahhh Hah! Barney! Silas loves "Bahn". I packed up everything we had and made our way over to the new seat. Silas screamed the entire time I was pushing him over in his stroller. We sat down and I showed him Barney. More screaming! Silas made claw marks all over my shoulders trying to get away from the rides. I seriously couldn't believe it. I was trying to console him while handing JC tokens and keeping an eye on her as she rushed around with her preschool friend. I tried giving him anything from crackers to sprite to a cup full of tokens to dump out and play with. He cried so much he was doing that weird heaving things kids do when they have cried them self out. Finally after about 30 min of being there he started to calm down. He eventually made his way off my lap and down into the floor to walk around. He even walked over to a phone toy and played for a few seconds. That's when he saw it. JC had jumped on a bike ride that you pedal round and round. It turned on and started playing music. Silas ran as fast as those little legs could carry him, screaming the entire way. He literally jumped into my lap and said No, No, No. He kept shaking his head. Then he said NO CHEESE!! I about died. I laughed so much. I didn't mean too but it was so stinkin cute. He never got back down off my lap after that, but he did eventually calm down enough to eat some crackers and play with some tokens. I've learned that Silas and I will not longer be taking any trips to Chuck-e-Cheese.

I often wonder if Silas will be one of those kids that stand behind their Mom's legs peeking out to see what's going on. It's a good thing he's going to be little because my legs run out of hiding room around the age of 2 :)

Today a commercial for CeC came on TV. He looked up at the TV, shook his head and said, "NO Cheese!". Next time you see Mr. Silas go ahead and ask him if he wants to go to Chuck-e-Cheese. :) He'll give you the same answer every time. No!