Zip it

There are certain things in a boys life that are in essence a right of passage. As a father, I try to warn Apollo about some of these events when they become age appropriate. It is inevitable that these things will come to pass, and I feel I can lessen the blow by forewarning my boys. This is one such story.
  ~Apollo, when you stumble across this story as a teenager, you will probably be very upset. With a few years of therapy and when you reach your mid to late twenties, hopefully you will forgive me for sharing this.~

  It was a dark and not so stormy night. By his mood, I could tell that Apollo was extra tired. Everything was a travesty. It had been a long day for him; up early, no naps, and full of running and playing. When he gets to this stage, we have learned that the best thing to do, is get him into bed. It was 8:30pm, and normally, this is early for him, but the symptoms told a different story. I took Apollo to his room, and he had brought along with him, his mothers’ Ipad. He was playing a game on it. I asked him to get into his “jammies”, which he did begrudgingly not wanting to stop in the middle of his game.

   It is important to note that Apollo’s pajamas are the full body type with the feet built into them. Apollo never liked these type of pajamas when he was younger. He hated to have his feet covered up. Consequently, we have never put him in these type of pj’s before. I guess that after watching Orion wear the “foot Jammies” every night for so long has changed Apollo’s mind. On a recent trip to Costco, Apollo spotted some “foot Jammies” in his size. “I want these!” he proclaimed with excitement. Wouldn’t you know it, he loves them. Having only two pairs, he is upset when both pairs are dirty and has to wear regular pajamas.

  Once Apollo had his jammies on, he started to play his game again. “Apollo, you need to go use the bathroom before you go to bed,” I told him. Okay, truth be told, I am not that formal with him. That is how Melanie would like me to talk to our boys. In reality I said, “Apollo, you need to go empty your ding-ding.” (Yes, “ding-ding” is what we call...it.) “My ding-ding is NOT full!” Apollo protested. “You need to go and try to empty it anyways. We are going to bed, so you need to at least try,” I replied. After a few minutes of Apollo debating with me, even to the point of almost breaking down in tears, he admitted that he thought Orion, would steal the ipad if he left it in the room. “Then take it with you, Apollo,” I reassured him. Off he went to the restroom, which happens to be right next to his room, with ipad in hand. The door closes. In the meantime, I am wrestling around with Orion on the bed, waiting for Apollo to return. About two minutes had lapsed, and then I hear Apollo yell out in distress, and can hear him jumping up and down. No words, just crying out. This is not unusually, for Apollo if he is extremely tired. The smallest mishap turns into a giant one. What popped into my mind at that moment is that he dropped his moms, ipad in the toilet, and was so upset that he couldn’t think to grab it and pull it out. I am also thinking about the wrath that Melanie will unleash upon me when she finds out that I allowed her ipad to get ruined.

  I race to the bathroom door, grab the handle and burst inside. I scan the room for the ipad, all the while Apollo is jumping up and down wailing. I spot the ipad on the counter, safe and dry. Perplexed, I turn to Apollo, “What, what, what!” Still jumping up and down and a look of horror on his face, Apollo brings his right hand around to his stomach level, and points down urgently. I then realize that his jammies are open and zipped up to his ding-ding, where he caught some skin! “Ouch! Okay, hold still!” quickly grabbing the fabric of this pajamas, and the zipper, and with a light tug, he was free. I zipped him up properly, and scooped up my defeated little man, who crumpled onto my shoulder, and carried him to his room to console him.

  The thing is, I have been warning Apollo for over a year, that that this would happen, and he needed to exercise caution when “zipping up”. I did not offer him an “I told you so,” Just held him while he whimpered and told him that he would be okay. I told him that I did this several times when I was his age and that back then, the zippers were all made of metal and did some real damage. Apollo escaped unscathed, with only his pride damaged.

  As Melanie was not at home when this occurred, I forgot to tell her about it that night. A couple days later, I remembered the incident and began to tell her about it while Apollo was in the room with us. “Oh Apollo, I am so sorry that happened to you. Dada told you that this would happen someday,” Melanie said empathetically to Apollo, “It must have been scary for you, huh?”

Apollo turned towards me.

“Zip it, dada! I don’t want to talk about it!” he snapped.