Danger Zone

Big1 had quite the night. She was fine, we were having fun. We went out to Olive Garden for supper, then... it changed. Her eyes got dark and shadowy, her brows dropped, her face went slack... she stopped cooperating with anything.
Dinner was over. We paid the ticket and got up to go.
On the way out the door, she started to run ahead, we asked her to stop, she slowed down but turned around backwards with a *and what are you gonna do about it* look on her face. A waitress started to cross the aisle just as we caught up with her. Big1 decided to turn around and run off JUST as the waitress walked past her. I caught the back of her coat half a second before she crashed into the waitress, whose tray I saw was loaded to the max with steaming soup and what appeared to be a still-bubbling cheese dip. Crisis averted.
We made it outside after she pushed past MommyM who had to stop in the doorway to readjust Lil1. I was behind them all. Big1 saw us catching up with her, she had started opening the van, but decided that that looked too much like cooperation and decided instead to run out into the parking lot... Luckily I'm quick under pressure, there was a car headed our way. I just had time to grab the hood of her coat and yank her back as the car stopped right in front of her. Scared the CRAP out of her, made her even more insolent... She wouldn't do ANYTHING we wanted her to do now, more less talk to me to discuss what just happened and why. I knelt down by the ramp to wait for her, she decided to back toward the "garden"... OK, so she was going to look at the rocks, her latest obsession, no big deal... Then she turned around, I stood up, there was a major thoroghfare on the other side of the (thirty-foot-wide) "garden", she didn't stop. She kepty moving toward the road. Her body tensed and I flew into action. In about three leaps I was in the rocks, behind her, she turned and yelled as I wrapped my arms around her. I carried her back to the van, fighting me all the way, "Big1, there is a BIG BIG road out there, you looked like you were going to run out into it!" (you SCARED ME MOMMY) "yeah, well you scared me, really really badly, Big1, there is a BIG BIG ROAD out there, those cars wouldn't stop for you!!"
She threw herself onto the ground while trying to claw/bite me, so I dropped with her still in my arms and held her beside the car, arms crossed over her chest... it took about thirty minutes outside of the restaurant to get her to a place where she didn't try to bolt into traffic as soon as there was a chance for freedom. We had to wait there for her because I don't have the strength to force her into her carseat and she can unbuckle it herself. FINALLY she collapsed into a heap of sobs, I miss my birthgrandma-huh--uh-uh-uh-uhhhhhhhhh... I miss my birth grandmaaaaaaaaa-uhuhuh-uh... about fifteen minutes later she was ready to get into the car and travel, the poor kid cried all the way home, then into bed...

These phone calls are the best thing for the kids... RIIIGHT...

-T