Sounds like a breeze right? After all, G3 travels well, he usually does better than I anticipate in a strange environment, and for me, hanging around with Erin is sort of like hanging out with a cleaner, skinnier version of myself. Read: completely and utterly relaxing and comfortable. We only get to see each other a few times a year, so our get togethers are much anticipated.
Unfortunately, the weekend didn't really go as I envisioned. Let's just say it was a bit more challenging than I expected. In fact, it was probably my hardest few days as a mom so far. Sigh. Highlights include....
* G3 being awake from 2am-5am on Friday night...we were sharing a room, and though he is a light sleeper I felt confident that between the sound machine and my stealth-mode skills he would stay asleep. Wrong. An attempt to go to the bathroom at 2a.m. started a chain reaction of G3 being awake and happy, awake and unhappy, screaming, and finally comatose. NOTHING would make him go back to sleep. Finally sheer exhaustion kicked in (not sure if it was me or him first) and the next thing I knew I was opening my eyes to a creeper sitting 2 inches away from my face with a huge grin on his face. And it was only 7a.m. Lucky for him he's pretty cute.
* G3 was a bear ALL. DAY. LONG. on Saturday. He wasn't "bad" at Ken and Erin's, just whiny. We took him to Trader Joe's where he screamed like a banshee and threw things on the ground. He did take a nap but things weren't much better when he woke up. Moving right along to Ashlee's house...here, he played with glee with Vanessa, his 2nd cousin, while Erin, Ashlee, and I caught up and I got to meet baby Lily Christine, 3 months old. This was the best point of the day.
* Vanessa's party. At a gymansium with a gazillion people. As I've mentioned before, G3 is generally a good sleeper...and without sleep he becomes Evil G3. He was restless, wild, misbehaving and just in general exhausted. Picture screaming, whining, flailing, hitting (me), dumping juice on the floor. I really don't know how to explain the state he was in, except that I have only seen it like...well, never really. And this is partly my fault--I defintely expected too much of him at a late hour in the day, in different surroundings, on virtually no sleep. Needless to say, Erin and I had to cut out before the party was over. G3 was absolutely miserable...we took him straight home, put him to bed, and thankfully did not hear a peep until the next morning. Still...exhausting. But, here's a cute picture of 3 of the 4 great-grandchildren of the Kramer family (prior to meltdown!)
Vanessa (3), Lily (3 mo) and Gabe (19 mo)...interestingly the same age difference that there is between Ashlee, me, and Erin...
* "Uncle" Ken decided G3 needed some product to tame his unruly I-kept-mommy-up-all-night hair. We dubbed it the Edward Cullen look...
* Drive home was relatively uneventful. Thank God for DVD players for the car. It was great...for the whole damn hour it held charge. In the middle of Barney it crapped out and Meltdown #400 occured. A pit-stop at McDonald's served for distraction and led to a nap, but the last 45 min our drive was a lot of whining and crying.
Overall...I guess this is just part of life with a toddler. I am happy that 95% of the time G3 is pleasant, well-behaved, and easy to please. It just sucks when he ISN'T like that, especially away from home. Still, it was great to see Erin, Ken, Ashlee and her fam, as well as my friends Megan, Charlotte, and their kids. (We pit-stopped at Megan's house on the way there, where G3 dove right into the mix of 3 other little boys and had a blast, played well, ate well, shared well.)
Meanwhile, back at home, Kellie and Gabe were left to fend for themselves. Apparently the weekend consisted of eating out, drinking, playing guitar, and a roadtrip to Wilkes-Barre, where a pet fish named Oscar was purchased for little Gabe. He is thrilled:)
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