5am - wake up to take my friend Jenny to the airport. If you know Nathan, you know he doesn't handle it well when he wakes up on anyone's terms but his own. If he gets me up at 5:30, he doesn't seem to mind, but somehow the reverse isn't true. (I need to talk to that kid about double standards.) But miraculously he seemed in ok spirits yesterday, so before he started crying I went ahead and played the airport-Lucas-Grandpa cards all at once. That's right, I just laid it all out there. Probably shouldn't have shown my whole hand at once, in hindsight. (Someone needs to talk to me about maintaining a poker face.)
6:45am - after a traffic jam, a mild adventure on back roads with the GPS, a slightly-too-close-for-comfort terminal dropoff, and a tantrum when Nathan realized that we weren't stopping at the airport to watch the planes, I am headed west on I-40, just outside the triangle, when I realized I hadn't brought any shoes for Nathan. (He goes barefoot in the car for long trips, helps him curl up his legs to sleep better, and normally I just throw his shoes in my purse or the backseat.) That's right -- I took my kid on a road trip... barefoot. Not my best SAHM moment.
9am - arrival into Millers Creek (on the other side of the state) at the home of the Church family.
Nathan had not slept a wink. Good thing he was barefoot so he could curl his legs up for napping well. [shakes head]11:30am - after sorting through several huge bags of clothes and other hand-me-downs worn by both Nathan and Lucas over the last few years, it's fun to see the boys actually playing together (not just near each other) for the first time. They are exactly six months apart, which seemed huge when they were infants... but now it's becoming more and more obvious that they really are peers. It was fun to see them wrestle and run around in the sunshine and talk to each other (or at each other, I should say... it was mostly a bunch of saying each other's names in excited voices, and naming the toys). And now I'm even more excited for our beach trip next week with Lucas & family, and one other family with kids their age as well. It's also kind of sad that there won't be many more hand-me-downs, since they wear the same size now. Lucas is still a little bigger, but not by much. Before the era of hand-me-downs ended, though, LeAnn hooked us up with a pair of sneakers for Nathan so he didn't have to go the rest of the day barefoot. Because what else are friends for, if they can't clothe your children
when you have a big FAIL MOMMY day? Nathan called them his "Lucas shoes" for the rest of the day, and he seemed very happy that his friend shared with him.12:30pm - We arrived at my Grandpa's house for a visit with him and my dad, who was also in town. Nathan and dad went down to Grandpa's pasture and barn to ride the tractors (thanks again for those shoes!), and we learned once again that Nathan really likes them best when they're not on. I think the loud noise is too much for him. Then I ate two feet of Igloo hot dogs for lunch. Even though they are the best hot dogs on the planet (don't question me on this, people), it might have been a bit much. Especially with fries. And soda. And cookies. Beanie wasn't real happy with me, I'll just say that.
1:45pm - We left Grandpa's in plenty of time to get back to Raleigh for dinner and church stuff, but despite the fact that Nathan had been up since 5:30am and hadn't napped, he was still very wide awake.
We saw lots of cows leaving town (go to Wilkes County, you'll understand) and instead of dozing off like I had hoped, I was just getting a chorus of it's a cow! it's another cow, I see it! that's a cow right there. ooooh, it's a big cow! from the backseat.1:50pm - Never mind about the wide awake thing, Nathan sleeping soundly. Cows must have worn him out.
3pm - Of course I didn't remember to get gas while he was awake, so driving back across the state, I nervously watched the gauge fall lower and lower, until it was an inch below E and the gas light had been on for fifty miles. Then I stopped for refueling, which woke Nathan up, and even with milk and a snack from the gas station, he was not happy to get back in the car. Uh-oh.
4:30pm - We opted to go directly to church and get there half an hour early to play on the playground (Nathan, not me, of course) instead of trying to get back to the house before dinner. Again, thank God (and LeAnn and Lucas) for tennis shoes.
5pm - We met friends for dinner at church... and Nathan didn't eat any spaghetti. Which is kind of the weirdest thing ever. He loves spaghetti; I would actually consider it his favorite food. (It was an omen of the evening to come.) I got to have an adult conversation with Mark and some other friends while Nathan ran around with our buddy Hayes, who is eleven and is probably the closest thing Nathan has to a big brother. I know Hayes is probably exhausted today, but he was a rock star with Nathan and I was so grateful for the help keeping him distracted and happy last night!
8:30pm - I emerge from my weekly Russian class (a blog post for another day) frazzled by my exhaustion, frustrated by the cyrillic alphabet (and frankly feeling kind of downright dumb), fairly worried about Nathan and the state he must be in, way past his bedtime, still at church with the Chamblees -- Hayes, sister Mary, and mom Lois. Now I have mentioned before how much I love this family, but last night they really outdid themselves. They had driven him home to my house, given him a bath, put him in PJs, read him some books, brushed his teeth, tucked him in, and he was sleeping soundly. (In his toddler bed that used to belong to Hayes, for the record.) Can you think of anything better to come home to after a long day, especially when you were anticipating more tears and crankiness? Because frankly, I can't. I counted my lucky stars, returned some emails, and crashed in bed around 11.
But.
BUT.
God had other plans for our evening.
12:00am - a thunderstorm rolled in. Nathan has recently decided that he's not a fan of thunder, so I held my breath and prayed for it to pass before it woke him up. No such luck. Tears and terror ensued, and I found myself huddled on the floor of Nathan's room, with a toddler sobbing into my chest and Bowden cowering as far under his bed as she could get (she's a little clingy during thunderstorms as well). Eventually we moved upstairs to my bed so that I could doze while keeping up my hugging duties, and by 1:30 Nathan was back in his room and sleeping.
2:45am - more thunder in the distance. How is this day still not over??? Predictably, Nathan woke up when the storm was right over our house, and sobbed some more: thunder all done, too loud, fireworks too scary (that's what he calls lightning). Poor baby. But we got through it and he was back in bed by 3:30 or so.
And we all slept past 8 this morning. Except Mark, who returned from night shift and stayed awake until I left to take Nathan to church this morning. That way if Nathan woke up early, I could still sleep.
Because the Chamblees aren't the only rock stars around here.
For pictures of the better part of our day (the part in Millers Creek), click here.