Catastrophic Car Ride

on the way home from dinner tonight, jackson was crying in the car. this is not a big deal as this is the norm. we went to eat at a restaurant that shares the parking lot with a mall. now i'm smart enough to know to stay away from the mall on the 22nd of december but obviously not smart enough to stay away from the restaurant near the mall. it took 10 minutes to just leave the parking lot. usually, this is not that big of a deal unless you have a screaming 2 mo. old in the car with you. so we finally make it out of the parking lot to find ourselves in traffic @ the street light. you know, the kind of traffic where the signal turns three times before you get to make a left turn. now, jackson is totally cranked up, screaming at the top of his lungs. i'm trying all my usual tricks and nothing is working. he just keeps screaming louder and louder. at this point, i think there must be something wrong with him, so at the light, my friend and i do a chinese fire drill. Now he's driving, and i'm in the backseat with jackson. i am trying my best mommy tricks, and finally i get him to suck on his pacifier. aahhh, silence! we pull into the driveway at home, and i look down at jackson who must be just as frazzled as we are from all that crying, and he looks up at me and smiles! he smiles?! i swear he whispered, "Gotcha!"

*sorry for the lack of capitals. i'm typing one-handed.