Meltdown City

Yesterday when I went to pick up the boys at daycare I didn't know I was going to meltdown city. We all made it out of the building happily. On the way to the car Nicholas asked to go to Frankie's Fun Park again. I told him going there is a special treat. "It's not a treat, Mommy. It's a place." Oh, such a literally interpretive boy. Thus, the first meltdown ensued in the parking lot. Hopefully any parents within range have been in my place before and were sympathetic.
We're getting all buckled in when he realizes his chocolate milk from breakfast had been left in the car all day. On occasion I do remember to bring his leftover milk into work and store it in the fridge. Shame on me for not remembering this time and causing meltdown number 1 to escalate into a combined super meltdown.
Thankfully I've had some experience already in this department. I've found if you calmly acknowledge said meltdown and explain that it's not going to work out for them, they realize their efforts are fruitless. We were not going to Frankie's and nothing could be done about rotten milk. So about a mile down the road he was calm and asked for some grapes to eat on the way home. But we're not done yet...
We're going down 540 approaching the routine congestion of Hwy 70 merging in. Nicholas takes this moment to announce he has to go potty "right now!". Being halfway between school and home and stuck in traffic between exits, nothing could be done. Again, I've been here before, it happens about once a week. You can imagine what happens. He wets his pants and starts another meltdown. We calmly bring things down to a reasonable level and decide it's going to be all right.
And before you know it, we're home and Nicholas is changed into dry clothes. Travis is extra tired and heads off to bed a little after 7 pm. Nicholas decides to make confetti and help me on the computer. Bath time comes and so does the last meltdown of the day. He wants to watch his show and Iron Man is all done. I explain to Nicholas that he is a big boy and that he chose to hang out with me and cut up paper and that he knew he wasn't watching his show. Once we're in the bathroom starting his bathwater Nicholas accepts the fact that his TV show is not going to happen. He gets cleaned up, pajama'd, and read his Transformers story. He goes to sleep without any problems as if his trips to meltdown city were no big deal. And we'll start another day and still love each other very much.