This past weekend had nothing on the calendar. We were going to continue to work on projects for the house, do our taxes and stay home. Then I learned that our niece, Brittany was going to be playing possibly her last basketball game of her career. She is in a junior college and this is her last year. She's been playing for gosh, so long, and is very good. So after talking to John, we wanted to go and cheer her on! It would be a perfect event for the boys, as they can be loud and it is a.o.k. :) It also was in the Milwaukee-area, so it wasn't too far of a drive to go there and back. It was in the afternoon, so how perfect that during our drive there would be during the boys naps. They'd be refreshed and ready to go and then we'd have a nice dinner with John's brother, Andy, Brittany and adorable little Myella...then head on home - which was convenient since it would be their bedtime. So to prep for this, I packed their pajamas. We also dressed in their school colors to show our support. Things were going great. We got some projects done in the morning, the boys were nice and tired. Okay, that all sounds great....almost too great.
The car ride starts - Carter is asleep by the time we are at the bottom of the driveway. Great! We stopped to get Wendy's to get some lunch. Within 15 minutes, Logan fell asleep while finishing his 2nd chicken nugget. Good! It was a little snowy, but the roads were good and we were on our way to being on-time (which we were). Lovely. 30 minutes into the ride, during a stretch of our drive that is at stoplights, Carter stirs when I stop at a light. Problem is when Carter stirred, his bright blue eyes just popped right open and that. was. it.
He wasn't pleased almost from the get-go. As I do most of the driving (I have trouble turning around a lot to help the kids when I'm the passenger and John isn't a huge fan of driving), John did everything to try and calm this kid down. We tried his blanket, taking off his socks, putting on a movie, feeding him 2 chicken nuggets, giving him some milk, playing peek-a-boo, shush'ing him, feeding him a pb&j, which as you can imagine went horribly wrong, feeding him crackers, you name it. The poor little bugger cried and often screamed during this trip. He eventually woke up Logan, who woke up crying for milk of which we didn't have, just the lovely, boring water. Luckily Logan calmed down quickly and we had only 15 minutes to our destination....where a Grandma, Godmothers, Aunts and cousins awaited these two lovely boys.
Really, during the game, the boys were pretty good. At times they were a little clingy to us, but after Aunt Kaye busted out candy for Logan and Grandma bought him some popcorn, he was pretty appeased. He clapped when the crowd cheered and had a good time. Carter was busy, going from person to person, crawling on the bleachers...sometimes a little too far, where he started climbing on this guy, using his butt. Um, sorry there college student. :) But Carter too enjoyed himself. It was nice and Brittany played very well...and they won!!! It was very exciting.
We said goodbye to most of the famil then left for a restaurant and Carter fell asleep - good, even a 15 minute nap will do him good. We ended up at TGIF. While it is nice to go to a nice sit down restaurant, doing it with a one and two year old can prove to be exhausting. We only had about a 20 minute wait, which we hung out in the bar area (yes, with our children) and they were well behaved. We then were escorted to our huge semi-circle booth, which sat about a foot and a half above the rest of the section seating - so we were kind of on display....like the head table at a wedding. We felt like entertainment and we didn't disappoint.
Our waiter came to the table to get a drink order. We ordered and also asked for a booster seat for Carter. The reason why became apparent within the next few seconds where Carter, while standing on the booth at the table, slipped and banged his lip. Blood-curdling screams ensued, heads flipped around to stare and I tried to laugh off this moment while trying to console my almost now hyperventilating child. Naturally, this didn't go well so within 30 seconds, I scooted my way out of the booth (naturally, Carter and I were in the back). Scoot, scoot, scoot. While scooting, I noticed that he was bleeding. Of course. So I scooted faster and tossed out an apology to all the people staring and bolted to the bathroom. As soon as I was walking away, Carter stopped his hyperventilating. I was able to clean him off in the bathroom. It wasn't a terrible amount of blood, but he did cut the inside of his lip and the outside of his lip. Okay...
So we went back to the table and he was okay, while we kept feeding him a snack. We ordered our meal which seemed to take a while to come. Why can't places learn to bring out the kids meal as soon as its ready? I'm sure the mac n cheese is in a vat that can easily be scooped out and heated up. I digress. They ate well. Sometimes at dinner I feel like an octopus. Since Carter was in a booster, I held onto his seat (it was leaning forward and I didn't want him to fall a second time) with one hand and ate with the other, while spooning some mac n cheese to Carter. He kept wanting to do it himself, but he gets way too messy, so I had to be on-guard and fast. It came with a side of mandarin oranges, which are Carter's favorite so he just chowed down. During octopus like moments, we did our best to carry on a conversation with Andy & Brittany, while they tended to their quiet and low-maintenance 4.5 month old baby. :) I was thankful that she did join in the craziness by crying for a few minutes while trying to fall asleep in a noisy restaurant. Thanks Myella. :) I also think during this time we secured Andy & Brittany's thoughts of not having a second child 'right' away. :)
The check came, coats went on, we got in the van. Keep in mind, we still needed to change the kids into pj's. I thought (and was correct) that this would be way easier in the van than a restaurant bathroom. Thankfully we still had our back seats down so I climbed back there and changed one child, then the other (love my van). Okay, breathe....all is okay.
I don't think I've mentioned that is was snowing like CRAZY up in WI...it just didn't stop!!! Which of course, made the roads, not so fantastic. Then boys both fell asleep within minutes....ah, peace and quiet. Then...yes...Carter woke up about 30ish minutes later. Cried, screamed pretty much the whole. way. home. The roads were bad, we were driving slow and hearing a screaming kid. John after going through the gammot of things to appease Carter, finally said, okay, I just need to stop trying for a moment and take a breather. And wouldn't you know, Carter took his queue and started quieting down? He still had moments of whining, but within 20 minutes, he fell asleep. Hallelujah!!!
We got home and successfully transferred both boys to their beds. Ahh....
To make up for it, Carter slept in until 10am, napped well and just wanted to cuddle all day. I really think part of it was a teething issue (he still only has 4 teeth and I feel some top ones coming in). But I hope this isn't the case on a car-ride as we have a long roadtrip ahead of us soon and I need them both to love the car!! Typically they are fine, just go figure that he has a rough time during a 2 hours drive.
All in all, we were able to see Brittany's last winning game...And hang out with family that we don't get to see too often. Despite the screams and the incident at the restaurant, we had a nice family day. :)
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