I’m writing these out of order (but will post in order – feel like disclosing this fact just in case it helps make sense of my ramblings) so before I tackle Monday’s post, let me recap our last day here at Sterling Springs in Sevierville, TN. I’m going to try and get as much done in the car as I can (my camera is somewhere in the back so pics may or may not make it to this post by the time it ends up on the blog.)
Friday (x2). We arrived on a Friday and pretty much stuck around the resort and settled in. Today was basically the reverse of that. We didn’t do much until after Max’s first nap and then Tom and I headed down to the pool for one last swim (maybe for the summer) with the kiddos. Michelle, Craig, Caitlyn, and Ingrid went into town to check out the Titanic exhibit which turned out to be a worthwhile trip for them and then they headed to the Apple Valley Winery (name?) and stocked up on some of the local “juice”.
Sophie sure does love the pool but Max was kind of being a stinker today. Really, he’s been building up quite a temper this week. He’s really perfecting that whole “standing” thing and would get so upset if you would move him away from whatever he was standing on (usually something dangerous like a dining room chair or the stone-top coffee table.) Other temper-inducing events included taking away shoes so that he couldn’t chew on them, stopping him from climbing stairs (he was able to make it up one before I put an end to his Mt. Everest training), or any time you removed him from what he wanted to do. He had a rough week on the wood floor, banging his head a few times and yelling about that too. He did get a chance to hang out in the pool some – he liked it when I was carrying him out of his floaty tube and he could look at and poke at my sunglasses.
It sure seems like Sophie has aged about 6 months this week (Max maybe only 2). Everything she says and does just seems so much older. She is definitely going to miss Tom when he goes back to work on Monday. Seeing her today in the pool she could care less what I was doing as long as she could be with her Daddy.
After the pool we went back to the cabin, quick bath for the kids, put Max down for a nap, shower for me, then start to get stuff ready to pack. When Max woke up we headed out to Golden Corral for one last dinner (Sophie fell asleep about 5 minutes out despite my best attempts to keep her awake; Tom tried to stay in the car for a few more minutes and then bring her in but it took sitting her in a chair to get her to wake up.) She could have been a real monster but she actually pulled it together and ate a little, including an ice cream cone. That’s something she really has perfected this week! Tom taught her how to eat the chocolate off of the outside of ice cream bars and sundae cones and now there’s no stopping her!
After dinner it was a quick 1 hour of packing and loading, then off to Michigan before 7. We decided to leave before the kids fell asleep to maximize their sleep time in the car and avoid the logistics of having to pack the Pack and Play and where to put Sophie to sleep (so we wouldn’t have to wake up Ingrid at 1 am). It’s 9:15 now and the kids are sleeping, so it would seem like this was a good plan…unless you had witnessed the events from about 8-8:45. First, Max wanted the rest of his bottle. Good, nothing wrong with that. Then he pooped…big and stinky. OK, still good. Sophie’s not asleep yet so it’s a good time for him to get a little more comfortable for the trip. So we get back in the car and he just can’t get settled to sleep so after some loud crying I figure I’ll make him another little bottle and he’s just about to sleep when Sophie says she has to pee. Well, at least she said something and isn’t yelling. Tom stops at the next exit but there’s nothing there so we just stop on the side of the road and he’s going to just hold her instead of getting out the potty. But she starts screaming since she’s afraid of cars and there’s a semi parked down the road behind us that she thinks is coming to get us and we’re kind of at the intersection so she thinks those cars are constantly coming for us and then her pants are on the ground so she’s blubbering about that but Tom doesn’t understand that is one of her issues at the time. Oh, did I mention Max had forsaken the bottle at this point and was screaming in chorus? Because he was. Then comes the potty chair exchange between me and Tom (conducted over two screaming kids and passing traffic while I’m in the back of the van):
TOM- Where’s her potty chair?
SHAUNA- On Max’s side under his seat.
T- Can you hand it to me?
S- I can’t reach it, it’s under his seat.
T- No, the potty chair. It’s by your head.
S- That’s the high chair. The little potty chair is on Max’s side, come around and get it.
T- Not the one underneath (referring to the Dora seat in the floor Stow-and-Go space).
S- I know. Trust me, it’s on Max’s side under his seat.
(Maybe not word for word, but you get the gist of it)
Tom does come around and get the potty chair and Sophie won’t sit on it outside (cue amped up screams) so he has to put it on the front seat and she finally peed there.) Talk about having a potty break in comfort! Once we got on the road, she was pretty much ready to cash out after the scream fest so that left just one. Max had a hard time falling asleep but finally I kind of snuggled up close while he finished his bottle and he dozed off. Which leads us to now. On the road again, on our way home.
I may not add much more to this post, and if that’s the case then this is the ending of another Fox Family Adventure. I do want to add some pictures from Sophie’s, Michelle’s, and Ingrid’s cameras but it looks like I’ll have to wait until I get home to get Ingrid’s so it may or may not make it on the post. Still have a long drive ahead of us tonight so maybe I can finish up the earlier days’ entries.
No comments:
Post a Comment