After a long, smooth day of travel, our son was about to fall asleep in the car. He was rubbing his eyes like crazy as Daddy put him in his seat. And then he started screaming like a banshee. He wouldn’t open his right eye, and I thought he might have got something spicy in it from dinner.
And then I tried to open the eye, only to find that his eyelid had curled in on itself and was restricting him from opening his eye. It was freaky. My biggest mistake was in showing my wife, who let out a loud yelp and took 10 steps back from the car in anguish and horror, her hands clasping her mouth. The next thing I heard was a lady’s voice from the car a few spaces over, “Ma’am, is everything alright?”
With my wife in hysteria, I did all I could do—I peeled the eye back to its normal position, wiped the stream of tears from my son’s face, and tried to get my wife to calm down and get into the car. Priceless.
Second Best
The other priceless moment of the trip came somewhere in Kansas City, when we were listening to a message by C.J. Mahaney, a pastor from Maryland, ask a group of pastors, “Are you a joyful pastor?” My wife turned to my son, then screaming, and said, rather therapeutically, “Son, are you joyfully sitting in your car seat?” Priceless moment number two.
4 responses so far ↓
Grandma Dorothy // May 13, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I thought I would die crying, it was so hysterical! I could just see this young, mother-for-the-first-time reaction. Keep driving on, as we are anxious to see you. Dad asked me today to ask you when would be a good time to come see you and I said “Wait until they get here”!
Love, Grandma Dorothy & Papa Rich
Mimi // May 14, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Eric, I loved this story. It reminded me of the time when Jerilyn was about Benjamin’s age. We were driving and a bee came in the window. I screamed so loud, I didn’t want it to get her. Jeff has made fun of me of that for years!
Love you all,
Mimi
Lucinda // May 14, 2008 at 6:34 pm
CRACK me up! Praying for safe travels for you guys! Thanks! Aunt Cinda
gloryofhisgrace // May 14, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Mimi:
So you’re saying it runs in the family. I’ve had the bug thing happen more than once. Driving peacefully down the road, jolted by my screaming wife (before having a child)—thinking that someone was firing on our car—and yet it turned out not to be a spider, as suspected, but a piece of fuzz. Now I know where she gets it from.
Eric
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