Yes. It's true. Your day probably ended some time on Friday night. It's Saturday night and my Friday goes on...
It was a brilliant plan, based on past experience and entirely fool-proof. Enter toddler.
Grandpop lives at the beach. And if you're going "downy ocean" (to the ocean) and you're from the area, then you know that summertime traffic is hell headed to the beach, and the worst part is the Bay Bridge. I know this. I'm used to it. Daddy and I used to either eat out in town and then drive down, or wait until late and eat at an Applebees half-way down and get in around midnight. I've even left town at midnight and arrived in the early a.m. just to avoid traffic. It works. Who wants to drive that late? Me.
Enter my
I might have over-estimated the fool-proofness a little. Okay. A lot.
He cried for the first two hours. Yep. Cried. "I don't want it/I want it". That old argument with anything I tried to give him. Then he decided he wanted some of his toys that either were not in reach without causing a massive traffic accident or were back at home. Useless! Why didn't I bring ALL of his toys? Mommy fail.
So, in an effort to curb the crying I started to talk up all of the wonderful points about going to visit Grandpop. First, there's Grandpop. And Grandpop has flowers. Well, they're Nana's flowers, but they're at the house. And then there's the beach and the ocean. Ooh, and puppies.
Well, the crying stopped. Bonus. But, unfortunately, Billy didn't going to sleep. I made a rookie mistake. I got him excited about going to Grandpop's and so, instead of sleeping, he was woofing and meowing in the backseat in anticipation. Damn.
So, at 11:30pm when I pulled into the driveway at Grandpop's, Billy was still awake. Well, okay. At least he got to say hello to Grandpop and meet the dogs. So, we visited to two minutes and then I whisked him off to bed. He went down no problem.
That was great because I could visit for a few minutes before heading off to bed.
Boy did that boy have me fooled. He wasn't sleeping. He was waiting for me. See, here's the problem with sleeping in the same room with him- he can bug me and he's got a captive audience.
He cried and cried.until finally I started giving him some new toys that were my old toys that live at Grandpop's. Specifically bunnies. So, I gave him the bunnies. You would think after making one rookie mistake tonight that I wouldn't repeat the same mistake. And that would be where you're mistaken.
He settled for awhile and then started crying again, "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" The pitch getting higher and higher until it cracked over and over again. And so I relented and cuddled him into bed with me with all of the bunnies that he refused to put down while screeching loud enough to wake all of the real rabbits in the county.
And there we are lying in bed and he tells me he asks me to sit up and then sits up himself. I remind him we're sleeping. But he sits up and starts bouncing the bunnies up and down "hop, hop, hop!"
And I'm done.
So, I put him back in the crib and climb in the bed, pull the sheet up and close my eyes and pretend to sleep. I laid there listening him howl, pretending to be asleep and silently begging him to go to bed. It was after 2 when he settled enough that I dared to move enough to look at the clock. And much later when his breathing finally calmed and I was sure he was out.
I hate the sun. Well, not usually, but this morning I truly hated the sun. He was up at first light, stirring, hopping bunnies, and crying. I tried futilely again to move him into bed with me to get him to settle, but that hopelessly failed again and I stuck him back into his crib. He cried and cried and cried. And after he settled, it was close to 6:30 but then Grandpop popped his head in to check on us and Billy started screaming again. He didn't go back to sleep until well after seven and by then I was awake.
I think now that Saturday is almost at a close that I'm ready for my Friday to end.
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