Our day ended on a freeway.
5:27am. Tate was awake, though not happy to be awake. He woke up whining a bit, pretty much like he went to sleep. I have realized that he usually 'comes up' the way he 'went down.' If bedtime was a whiny, slobbery mess the night before, our morning starts off whiny and slobbery. C'est la vie!
After 20 minutes of whining with no real conversation I told him I was going downstairs to finish sleeping and when he chose to speak like a human he could join me. I came on downstairs and climbed onto the couch and huddled under the covers while Vincent wondered why my presence didn't mean immediate food for him.
Not 2 minutes later little feet came down the stairs along with a couple of hiccups. His small face came very close to mine and he said in a nice normal voice "I want you to take my band-aid off my finger."
All this because he wanted the band-aid off?
Such drama.
Off came the Winnie the Pooh band-aid he just HAD to have last night. He climbed onto the couch with me and we cuddled for about 15 minutes. And then we were up for the day! I got him his breakfast...the usual plain oatmeal, plain yogurt and some cheerios. He ate while I threw a load of laundry in the wash, packed his swim snacks, got myself dressed, the cat fed and my hair done (it was a make-up free morning!) Got my teeth brush, his teeth brushed, his swimsuit on and we were out the door at 7:18am on our way to pick up Aunt Lindsey and Miss Janine to take them to the airport for their flight to join my parents in Puerto Rico.
We arrived at the airport a little after 8, got them unloaded and they were on their way to sun and fun.
Tate and I made our way back to Houston with a little time to spare, so I suggested we go to the park. Oh goodness, the whining. This kids LOVES being at home. LOVES it. Once however I pulled up in front of the park and gave him a Happy Tots pouch he was happy as a clam. He sucked down that Butternut Squash/Apple mix like nobody's business and hopped out of the car; energy to burn now!
He played for about 5 minutes; it was a gorgeous morning.
Then he informed me he needed to go poop. Sigh. He was not happy that I had forgotten the portable potty, so unlike his other bathroom adventures at parks I needed him to hold it! But he was a trooper. We drove on over to his swim lessons and he got to go in the 'light blue' bathroom.
Swim lessons began at 9:30 with the beloved Ms. Veronica. As usual Tate was fantastic. She had them in the deep end (6ft) the majority of the lesson. He swims the width of the pool with aplomb! He starts off tummy down, then he flips onto his back and floats/kicks almost to the other side and turns over to swim to the side. She even has them 'diving' in! I'm so impressed. I'm thinking that I won't need to be in the pool with him this summer...yay! Of course I'll still get in sometimes, but it'll be nice to let him play with the big kids without me too!!!
We were dressed and on the road by 10:10. I was starving, so made a quick stop at Chick-Fil-A for a chicken biscuit and some yummy sweet tea. I always forget there is way too much bread on those breakfast sandwiches...just too much too much. But the tea hit the spot. Raced home to pick up Tate's lunch and my phone charger and dropped him at school at 10:35. After lots of hugs and kisses I ran out to make it to my 11am hair color appointment! I made it with 2 minutes to spare. For 2 hours and 12 minutes I got to text, FB, relax, hang out and just be while I had my hair colored, deep conditioned, dried under the dryer and styled. So very nice. I left there around 1:15 and went to pick up some train cut-outs for Tate's sticker chart at the teacher supply store near my office. I finally got home a few minutes before 2. I heated up my leftover Pei Wei after throwing my laundry in the dryer and started the washer on its tub clean cycle with bleach! (Now I gotta remember to go run the vinegar cycle!) Ate a bit of ice cream then changed the sheets on my bed, folded some other clothes and made Tate's dinner for the evening, got his clothes together to wear tonight, changed my clothes, put on some make-up, 'fixed' my hair (how funny that I always have to re-do my style at least a little when it's done!) Talked briefly to Christian then headed out to pick Tate up at school at 3:50.
All the kids were dripping sweat when I arrived! It was about 86 degrees out today and they had run themselves ragged. I chatted with the teachers as today had been the Teacher Appreciation Luncheon. I wasn't able to really participate as I had had this hair appointment set weeks ago, but I knew of all the hard work that had gone into making it a success. They all seemed just thrilled with the lunch we provided, their gifts and items for their classrooms. And our PTO president came up with a fantastic raffle, so they all got something a little extra!! We gave away Dynamo and Astros' tickets, movie passes, some gorgeous flower centerpieces and the PTO pitched in to provide a vacation day with pay for one lucky winner!
Tate dragged his feet about going to our big evening event. Again he just wanted to go home. He actually cried, when I had told him earlier this week where we were going and he was thrilled, as he was this morning. He cried, didn't want to get changed and all around sucked some of my excitement away!! But I persevered because I knew once we got there he would be excited, at least happy. So into the car we went. Halfway there at a stoplight he said from the backseat "Mommy, I REALLY don't want to go."
Sigh.
I didn't turn around.
We made it to the Zoobilee!!!!! I had promised him we could ride the train...his favorite pasttime ever, so we did that first (thank goodness cause the line for the Zoobilee was horrendous when we arrived at 445!).
There we are on the train after a short wait!! Lots of smiles on this gorgeous spring day from my sweet boy.
We headed over to the zoo after our ride and saw some fantastic animals, heard some really fun live music (Tate's favorite song was the one about the turtles! However, he refuses to dance and wiggle around with the other kiddos at these types of events...a bit shy my guy!) and had one turn in a huge inflatable slide (Had a 25 minute wait for that, so he only got to do it once!)
He ate dinner from home happily in his stroller as we meandered through the zoo getting his 'passport' stamped and seeing some really cool animals.
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| Hornbill |
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| Flamingos |
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| Shoe-billed Stork |
Tate was ready to go though! He just wanted to go home. We made our way to the exit, picked up his coloring book prize for getting his passport stamped (!e had to make a few stops along our journey in the zoo. There were 5 animals from all over the world whom when you saw them, a zoo employee would stamp the passport they gave you at check-in. If when you left you had all your stamps you got a coloring book; it's a really nice coloring book!)
I gave him his Singulair and Benadryl...he's been so stuffy these past couple of weeks. I wish Zyrtec would help him. The Benadryl makes him so tired, but it works on his runny nose AND his cough. Zyrtec does nothing for his cough. But I only do the Benadryl at night since it makes him so sleepy. I'm thinking by Sunday I might try to go back to Zyrtec or maybe try alternating. Anyway, I got his meds into him and we were back at the car at 7:20. I changed him into his pjs with the intention he would fall asleep on the drive home.
The best laid plans.
He was in a fantastic mood. Gorgeous smiles and just content.
I think he was so damn excited to be going HOME.
And good grief, this forward facing business is for the birds. Now he's all interested in the world.
I realized he wasn't getting sleepy, so opted to hop on the freeway to get him to fall asleep. Always works for me!
Sigh.
No. Nope. Nyet. Nada.
I drove 15 minutes out of my way, which doesn't include the 15 minutes it took to get to the street that would have taken us home!! Another 15 minutes back and he's still awake, and I'm ridiculously fuming. I hiss at him every few minutes "Close your eyes."
We finally got home at 8:15. I put some dinner in the oven for me and took him on upstairs. I rocked him for about 5 minutes then put him in bed complete with kisses and 'I love yous' and "Don't you get out of this bed mister." He was out within minutes.
And here I am. I've blogged, eaten dinner, downloaded our pictures, fed the cat, loaded the dishwasher, hand washed a few dishes and now I'm headed off to wash my face, wrap my hair, run the vinegar cycle on the washer and get into bed.
Even though our night didn't end as sweetly as it began, it was a really good day. A long day. A full day.
And I'm content.
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