not doing that again any time soon.

Today Babysitter8741 and I took the kids to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Haven’t been there in years — since E-Niner was two and I realized it was way overstimulating for him. Figured we had nothing going on — at the worst, we’d leave — and I’d give it a whirl.

Plus, for Christmas E-Niner got what has been dubbed The Silver Train which was purchased from the gift shop of the Museum, and T783 has been jealous ever since. I figured when we were done, I could pop by and get another train to stop the constant bickering the in the house.

Long story short, T783 managed to have a meltdown inside the museum. E-Niner did awesome while we were there, and then proceeded to meltdown in the car on the way home.

Backstory, T783 has become infatuated with the Polar Express movie ever since I recorded it last week. You know the Polar Express movie — the one where the train pulls right up to the window of the little boy, who is on the verge of failing to believe in Santa Claus, and takes him straight to see the big man himself.

Every night since that movie, T783 has looked out the window several if not a dozen times trying to find that train to whisk him away. (Hm…can we say chaotic, stressful home life??)

When we got to the train section of the museum today, they had a real (but disabled) steam locomotive. You can stand where the fireman stands — between the coal hopper and the firebox — and pretend to shovel coal. The firebox is lit as though there is a live fire in it. Very realistic. Perhaps a bit too realistic for T783.

At some point, he had taken over the small space and as people entered, he would shout to them, “Welcome to the Polar Express!” Cute. The first time. I left T783 there with Babysitter8741 so E-Niner and I could keep exploring.

After half an hour I got a phone call. “We gotta go,” said Babysitter8741. “T783 has lost it.”

Apparently T783 had become more and more possessive over his small space (no, they had never left it!), and proceeded to deck a little kid who wouldn’t move over. When Babysitter8741 removed him from the situation and gave him sitting minutes in an out-of-the-way place, T783 managed to chuck his toy tractor into the crowds, nearly hitting another kid.

So. E-Niner and I caught up with the hooligan (who was still screaming and carrying-on) and we proceeded to make our way out of the museum.

Only E-Niner couldn’t handle T783 being upset, and E-Niner started to gear up for a little meltdown himself. (One of the things we learned from E-Niner’s neuropsych exam is that he has trouble separating himself from others, which I think is what was happening here. E-Niner couldn’t decide if he was the kid who was upset or not.)

Which is when I totally pulled out all the Mommy Stops and said that if the two of them could get themselves together and behave by the time we reached the gift shop (which honestly seemed light-years away from where we were — at least three staircases, one of them giant), I would still get them The Silver Train I promised them when we arrived.

This was enough to snap the kids in shape.

We were able to walk to the gift shop without a hitch. Though, I could tell that E-Niner was getting apprehensive. As we walked down the tallest staircase that overlooks the enormous lobby now full of people standing in line for tickets, E-Niner kept telling me it was “too loud,” “too crowded,” “too many people,” “too many eyes looking at me.”

He was working himself into a little anxiety spin. Wonder where he gets that from? (By the way, I’ve just started new meds for that. ‘Nother post, ‘nother time.)

We made it through the gift shop just fine. Amazing how a shiny toy train can motivate. E-Niner got his right away since he did a great job in the museum. T783 had to do an additional step of following directions and holding hands through the parking garage — and behaving — before he could get his.

So. We were all strapped in the car. T783, train in hand. I thought all was right with the world. Apparently, not so.

E-Niner kept it together inside the museum and let out his over-stimulated sensory overload in the car on the drive home. The artificial trigger is that he dropped his Tinkertoy on the ground and couldn’t reach it (and neither could I), which degenerated into a kicking, screaming, throwing escapade.

I managed to get home before all-out warfare, so luckily none of us had to suffer through his own suffering. The great thing about having E-Niner in a car seat when he has his breakdowns is that he’s safe (strapped in with a 5-point harness) and you can close the doors of the car and not have to hear it as much.

So he tantrumed in there for a good half an hour. I would check on him frequently to see if he was done. And then when he was finally calm enough for me to say more than, “Are you done,” I asked him if he was really mad about his toys or if he was mad because his body felt yucky.

His eyes lit up, like I just put words to what he was feeling. “My body felt yucky.”

“From the museum?” I asked.

“Yeah. From all the people and the crowds. It was way too crowded for me.”

Then I went through the whole “I’m glad you told me that, we don’t have to go there again if you don’t want to, you need to pick a better way to be angry that doesn’t involve jeopardy to others or property, plus now you owe me a stiff drink so I suggest you start boning up on martini concoctions” litany. And magically, it was better.

I’m going to have to pull out the Yucky Body card more often. I think it happens to him more than I realize, and it seems like putting a name to it helped him a lot.