Vacation Day 7 & The End

Saturday. Ah the reason I came in town...Jamie's wedding shower!! Dad kept Donovan & Nolin so that we women could relax & have fun. She really racked up the gifts! The food was amazing, the company was awesome & the games were fun (even though I couldn't play most of them since I knew her too well lol). I sure hope she had fun. I know how she hates being the center of attention! Unfortunately I was taking pictures on her camera so maybe someday I'll be able to add those. Otherwise the only picture I have from that day is of my little buddy...Who entertained everyone, especially while he was eating & slurping lol!

Sunday we headed to church. Nolin was surprisingly well-behaved...Til he spotted D's train under the pew. Then all hell broke loose!! He didn't understand (or care) why he couldn't play with this obnoxious toy in church. I tried to distract him by asking if he wanted to color but he thought I said "car" so he tried to dash out of the sanctuary!! Luckily I had some friends running the nursery that morning with their little boys that were his age. It was fun to see him playing with other boys his age. And catching up with old friends!

Nolin wouldn't stay still so I had to wait until he passed out to snap one!

After church we headed to Cheddar's. I had been begging to go there all week & Mom had requested it as her belated birthday lunch. There are just certain restaurants in KY that I miss dearly up here in OH :( That's one of them!

Once we had eaten I packed up the car, we said our goodbyes & hit the road. Luckily the trip home was a little smoother but not by much. Nolin slept most of the way while Mason alternated between sleeping & screaming. At one point I couldn't take it anymore so I pulled over at a rest area to check on him. Of course he had pooped lol. And then figured he would eat since we were already stopped. Booger. When we finally came home...It was to a house without power. Awesome. So we unloaded, re-packed some essentials into a duffel bag & headed to a hotel. That was probably the best sleep we had in months haha!

All in all, it was a great trip. It was no vacation by any means but it was nice to see my family & friends again after 9 months. I missed Adam though. Hopefully some day we can actually take a family vacation together!!





Vacation Day 5 & 6

Ah...These 2 kind of blur together! Since Nolin kind of lost his marbles that Tuesday when Donovan was at daycare, Jamie was awesome enough to let D stay home with us the rest of the week! Man do these boys play hard! It was 2 days of non-stop wrestling, tackling, balls flying through the air & car engine noises lol! But they play very well together. And bonus? Nolin came home with a TON of new words & phrases...Which included "yes" & your basic manners. Score!

Thursday, Jamie's friend Katherine & her little boy Landon stopped by for some adult conversation & to let the boys get together & rough house. I miss hanging out with girls. And talking to adults in general! But it was especially nice to hang out with her since she's jumping into the healthy lifestyle with both feet! We had tons to talk about & different ideas to bounce off of each other! Unfortunately the boys were like blur so I don't have any pictures of them.

Friday, my friend Jessika drove in from Lexington. It was SUPER awesome to see an old friend & catch up. Plus she's a behavior analyst so she evaluated Nolin for free (take THAT stupid old babysitter!) While many of her suggestions sound time consuming & complicated they make sense. And overall I was more than happy about what she had to say, the different techniques she suggested & her observations. It was nice to have my belief validated that my kid wasn't a psycho lol!

Both days the boys were obsessed with movies. The hot ones were Toy Story 3, Madagascar 2 & Rio. Side note: Quite possibly the most entertaining thing I've ever seen? Nolin & D doing the samba & acting out the monkey vs bird fight scene in Rio! Complete with them attacking each other at the end hahaha! Oh how I wish I had captured that on video!! But I at least managed to capture them eating breakfast together one morning. LOVE these boys!

Vacation Day 4

Yeah, I'm a little late finishing this series since it was 3 weeks ago but I needed the computer to do so & I can only get it out when Nolin is sleeping since its broken :( You MAY get the rest of the posts by the end of the year haha!

Anyway...This was the one day we had playdates scheduled. We had one for each morning & afternoon but end up only having one. Ahem Nikki...Distracted by Phoenix's birthday party that weekend haha! Oh well, we'll catch up another time! Our afternoon playdate was with an old high school friend who happens to have an absolutely adorable little girl Lucy.

Isn't she beautiful?!

After discussing several possible options my friend Sarah & I finally settled on meeting at Puzzles Fun Dome. We thought this would be a good place for the kids to run & jump around while we caught up on some Mommy conversation. We could not have been more wrong...

While Lucy was an absolute ANGEL, Nolin decided to play DEMON. I should've known when Nolin refused a morning nap & only slept for 20mins on the way there. Once we were there he had no desire to eat lunch despite starving. I strapped Mason to my chest & headed in to find Sarah & Lucy. As soon as we entered the building his eyes went wild & he tried to rip free from my grip & take off. We were warned that there was a HUGE group of kids from the YMCA there that would be leaving within the hour...But things were loud. And crazy. I was immediately concerned that Nolin would soon be over-stimulated.

Things were fine for about 30mins. They happily bounced around together in the Mickey Bounce House (which came complete with inflatables for Nolin to tackle) & attempted to play in the soft play area but they were both too short to climb on it & reach the slide.

Nolin attempting to climb up the soft play while Lucy thinks thinks he's nuts lol.

They both quickly became bored & headed back to the bounce houses. Lucy was content to go back into the Mickey one but Nolin was determined to explore. The problem was that with so many kids there, most bounce houses had a line. Nolin has never had to stand in line or wait his turn for anything so he had no concept of this & immediately tried to just crawl in. Several older kids protested, one tried to shove him down & before I could make it over there a YMCA camp leader had picked him up & removed him from the line...Which of course cause Nolin to freak. Note to others: Don't pick up a child you don't know. Unless they're in immediate danger. Just explain to older kids that he's younger, doesn't understand & then find the mother. Otherwise, don't get pissed when the kid you don't know & picked up freaks out & kicks the piss out of you. Use common sense people.

Then he spotted it. The giant bouncy slide...This was the beginning of the end. He had a hard time climbing up the inflatable ladder since it was so steep which held up the line. Once at the top, the look of pure JOY on his face was undeniable!! But once he came down...He realized it would be easier to just keep climbing back up the slide to come down lol. So while the attendant (a funny, patient young guy) & I both tried to coax him to come down & wait his turn to go back up, the kids waiting to come down the slide are yelling at him which pisses him off. Finally, the attendant has to go fetch him & drag him back down (with my permission of course since I can't with Mason strapped to me). That was it. Nolin lost it. It was non stop kicking & screaming as I dragged him across the floor. At that point I knew he was hungry, over-stimulated & pissed off so all I wanted was to calm him down. And all he wanted was either to go back on the slide or be held by me. Without Mason being there. Which was not an option lol.

I take him over to the food stand & stand there FOREVER with a screaming, hysterical toddler while the guy behind the counter ignores me & goes on to prepare his own lunch. All I want are some freaking mini corn dogs!!! While waiting for our order Nolin spots the candy, which of course I won't allow. It all has food coloring & his hysterical rage induced tantrum is evidence that he has already consumed something within the last 24hrs that contained dye. Once we get his food & head back to the table he starts to calm down. Meanwhile, Lucy is staring at him like he's possessed hahaha! Thank God Sarah was so sweet & level-headed since I was about to lose it. And of course, as soon as Nolin calms down Mason wakes up & wants to eat. Good. Grief.

The rest of our time there was a little better. The YMCA kids left which made everything more bearable. Nolin & Lucy found a bounce house with a slide inside & had a blast! But after chasing each other around for awhile they each wanted to do their own thing: Lucy wanted to play games, Nolin wanted to conquer the big slide again.

This was the best Sarah could capture of them since Nolin never stopped moving haha!

Nolin was cracking me up on the slide!! The fact that 1/2 the time he rolled head over heels down the slide made no difference to him (which I had a great video of but its only the 1st 4sec of a minute long video of some one's leg...Yeah, I won't be winning any contests any time soon lol). I just prayed he didn't break his neck!! He was able to play on the slide for a good 20mins before other kids (bigger kids) started bullying him & we had a repeat of our earlier episode. But thankfully he just got pissed & walked off...

lol!

Once he walked away he found an empty bounce house to go nuts in while we waited for Lucy to finish playing games.

Kinda resembling a blurry demon-possessed kid here. Not too inaccurate lol.

Afterwards they played together a little more until Nolin kept getting bored & walking off while Lucy complained that he wasn't playing with her lol. Sorry Lucy...Next time we'll go somewhere you pick so that you guys can actually play together!

Vacation Day 3

Jamie & Dorie both had to work early so they brought Donovan to the house so my Dad could take him to daycare when he left for work. However, when Nolin woke up at 630 & saw his cousin...He went [excited] bonkers!! Which resulted in a major tantrum when D left. And he asked for him allllll day. And then another tantrum when Mimi left to take D the shoe he somehow left in the driveway (see a pattern?!)

We had 847 things to do. But after his tantrum Nolin fell asleep from 930-1230. Our plans of going out to lunch for my Mom's birthday got thrown to the wayside & we ended up at Skyline. Where, since he never gets cheese, he eagerly devoured a bowl of it. That's right, just a bowl of shredded cheese...

Next we had an appt to view Jamie's wedding venue so that I could get an idea of setup & decorations needed. That lasted all of 10 minutes...Mason was screaming for food & Nolin was running around like a lunatic yelling (just to hear his echo).

Then we headed to Mom's work to visit all of her friends so they could see the boys. Luckily Nolin behaved...Since he was the center of attention & all! He rearranged Mimi's desk, scattered her sticky notes & made sure he took down her despicable UofL doll hahaha (that one was COMPLETELY unprovoked). After making our rounds we headed home for pizza & to wait for Jamie to get off work before heading for ice cream. Although Nolin's favorite flavor of EVERYTHING is banana, because Graeters doesn't add dyes to their food (thank God) it wasn't yellow & he wouldn't eat. Round 2 brought chocolate. Too bad I don't have a picture of THAT mess <insert eye roll>

Lastly, we headed over to check out Jamie & Dorie's new house. Nolin made himself right at home by running around, acting like a troll (including escaping the tub during bath time to run around wet & naked)  before passing out watching a movie. We finally headed to my parents' house around midnight where I finally mastered the whole "carrying 2 sleeping kids inside without waking them up" thing. Super pumped about that one ;)

Vacation Day 2

The Zoo

Of course, when I want Nolin to take a nap at his normal time...He doesn't. Its pretty much a law of physics! So by the time we arrived at the zoo, we had to BOOK IT to avoid being caged with the animals for the night lol!! Here's the basic run down of that evening's events...

• While taking the curvy road down to the zoo, the boys felt it was necessary to say "Whoooa!!" & wave their hands in the air like they were on a roller coaster. Smart asses.
• Nolin did every thing Donovan did. If D jumped on the dinosaur track, Nolin did. If D climbed on the stone wall, Nolin did. 
• While climbing on a fence Donovan lost his sandal in an animal cage. Luckily it wasn't an animal that ate sandals! Jamie had to find someone to fetch it out while D stood by crying hysterically about his shoe.
• Nolin decided that he was SO hot that just standing in the misters wasn't enough. He had to roll in the mud & splash in the puddles.
• Poor D kept trying to point out cool animals to Nolin who had ZERO interest in anything other than running around in circles like a lunatic or the above-mentioned mud...Until a camel farted.
• By the time we made it to the lions, Mason was screaming for food. He HATES his breastfeeding cover...Especially in heat like that. So guess who whipped out her bare boob in public?! Yep. This girl.
• 1/2 way through Nolin's chubby little legs couldn't keep up so we had to carry Mason & put Nolin in the stroller. Muddy & sopping wet. 
• Jamie lucked out carrying Mason...Who was so hot that Jamie had to strip him down to his diaper. He thanked her by drooling mercilessly down her back. I hope it at least kept her cool haha!
• Every drink machine was sold out. Seriously?!
• We were more or less escorted to the gates by employees at closing time
• Luckily we returned home just in time for dinner! The boys only ate corn on the cob though lol 

 

Vacation Day 1

Our first day of vacation began on Sunday...And with me driving a 2 year old & a 2 month old to Louisville. By myself. We were doomed from the moment we pulled out of the driveway.

I'm not sure when Mason decided he hated the carseat but lately he resists being strapped in & then screams NON STOP until you either take him out or he screams himself to sleep. The latter of which he did not give into this time. At all. For 2 1/2 hours. Did I mention I was by myself?!

Nolin was pretty content watching his movie for the 1st 45 minutes. But right about the time we were crossing the bridge into KY he decided that he had had enough of Mason. So in addition to Mason's screaming, I was now listening to a toddler scream "SHUT UP!!" at his baby brother while holding his hands over his ears. 20 minutes later they both passed out. Halle-freaking-lujah! Did I mention I was by myself?!

Ah, but the peace only lasted a short while. My gas gauge started beeping to remind me I was low on fuel so Mason quickly resumed his screaming. Meanwhile I just prayed Nolin would sleep through it. And he did for awhile. But alas, the last 30 minutes of our trip involved more screaming & the back of my seat being kicked mercilessly. I was actually relieved to leave the car to stand on hot pavement inhale fumes to pump gas lol. Did I mention I was by myself?!

Can't wait to do it all over again this Sunday <insert eye roll> Aye yi yi.

I'm such a push-over by Friday...

Yup. I gave in. He ate a vanilla almond ice cream sandwich for breakfast :/ Then got pissed because I took his picture. But not pissed enough to throw it haha! It was gone in seconds :)

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