Life With The Shirleys: weekend fun

We had such a wonderful, long, tiring, exciting weekend. Here is the recap...it is a lengthy recap, but hopefully entertaining...

Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast, celebrated D's birthday by giving him his gifts (since we would be in Chattanooga on his actual birthday), quickly showered, packed bags, loaded up the car and headed out to Chattanooga. In my genius mind, I was certain The Mayor would sleep on the way to Chattanooga. Ha ha ha ha ha...oh, seriously, I have found the more I plan and expect things to happen, almost certainly the opposite will occur. The Mayor slept exactly zero in the car. Ok, that's fine...once arriving in Chattanooga, we checked into the hotel, unloaded the car and I fed Love Bug. 30 minutes later we were back in the car on the way to the aquarium.

The aquarium in Chattanooga is amazing. I was so excited to take The Mayor there. But during our 2 hour trek through the aquarium we saw every possible emotion that I think one 2 1/2 year old could possibly emit. Oh, how I was wishing he had slept in the car. About 30 minutes in, we freed The Mayor from his stroller and let him pull us through the aquarium at lightning speed literally bouncing from one tank to the next (when he is overly tired he somehow gets a superhuman dose of energy...almost as if he were to stop, he would fall asleep while standing up so he goes ninety to nothing to ensure that doesn't happen). We finally made it to the gift shop (the end!) only to find out that there was a whole other building to go through. WHAT? Oh yes, since we had been there last, they had built an entire new building...this new building was all about the ocean. The one we just went through was about the river. I almost shed a tear. But we aren't quitters! So we went through the next aquarium. It really was beautiful...I highly recommend you take your kids...just make sure everyone has napped before you go.

Afterwards, we went to the first restaurant that had no wait. We ended up at a delicious Mexican restaurant by our hotel for dinner. The Mayor was a PERFECT angel. Seriously...he sat there so quietly and ate his dinner. Every once in a while leaning over on his daddy's arm and giving out kisses. I was actually looking forward to the night ahead. The Mayor was so tired and would go down easily. Remember what I said earlier? The more you plan and expect something...the opposite occurs?? Remember? Yeah, The Mayor went down easily...only to wake up 30 minutes later screaming and crying. He was afraid. He was sleeping in his pack-n-play in the living room of our hotel and he didn't know where he was and it was dark (he is used to a nightlight in his room). D went in to cuddle with him and he immediately went back to sleep. But only for 30 minutes, when he woke up screaming again. After I cuddled with him, he went back to sleep. This cycle continued for 2 hours. So we put him into bed with us. Surely, considering how tired he was, he would go to sleep. Nope, he tossed and turned and turned and tossed and said "hi momma" and "hi dadda" for the next 2 hours. So I pulled his pack-n-play into our bedroom and put him back in it. After 5 minutes, he started crying again. D got up and cuddled with him again and told him he had to go "night night". Finally, at 1 AM, The Mayor went to sleep. I laughed that the only person who was actually sleeping through the night was the 7 week old newborn. Irony.

Saturday morning we ventured out to see Thomas the Train, the whole reason for the trip to Chattanooga. I just went ahead and lowered my expectations and expected the worst. I am really considering becoming a Negative Nelly because of course the opposite occurred and he was perfect. So well behaved and excited when we saw Thomas and Sir Topham Hatt. He actually stood still in a line to meet Sir Topham Hatt and waited patiently in line to board Annie and Clarabel (the passenger cars Thomas pulls). Where was this kid the day before??

The Mayor was so cute when he first saw the real Thomas train. He literally stood there in awe. He wouldn't budge nor take his eyes off of Thomas. He was so excited. It made the entire weekend all worth that one moment. We boarded the train and found our seats and off we went for our 25 minute ride. He loved looking out the window and talking about Thomas. But the part that melted my heart the most, was when his sister woke up from her nap. D took her out of the Baby Bjorn and all The Mayor wanted to do was hug and kiss her. He no longer cared about the train, he just wanted to love on her. And she just smiled and squealed with every kiss he put on her. Made me so proud to be their mommy.

After Thomas and lunch, we headed back to Atlanta. And wouldn't you know it...The Mayor slept the entire car ride home.