Splintered

Today started out so well…

It was just another day, really. No preschool, but Harper had Rolly Pollies with Mema so Dakota and I headed out to the park with some other kiddo’s and their momma’s. She basically ate the entire time we were there, but she ate in the swing, so that was new!

We met Mema and Harps at Chick-fil-a for lunch afterwards so that the kids could play for a bit. We had the whole play area to ourselves and that was super awesome! I didn’t have to worry about a big kid knocking into my little ones…

We came home for nap and quiet time, but Dakota only slept for about an hour when she woke up crying. I never did figure out what was wrong, but she tried to sleep while I held her, but as soon as I put her down, she’d cry again. Since her nap was clearly over, we headed downstairs to play.

Harper wanted to go out on the deck to play so out we went. We were only out there for about 2 minutes when he hit his foot and told me it hurt. I gave it a quick kiss then told him to hang on while I ran right inside to grab their shoes before he got a splinter…but, it was too late. When I got back and looked again, I saw a big splinter in the ball of his foot. A big splinter. When I got him inside to look at it I could see a piece of it sticking out, so I grabbed the tweezers (as he screamed and cried, poor kid) and pulled it out. Unfortunately, there was another one wedged in there much deeper than the first that I couldn’t get to. I tried and tried calming him down so that I could attempt to pull the other one out, but after about 45 minutes of him crying and my not getting anywhere, I gave up.

He and I headed to CVS to see if they might have anything to help me get it out. They didn’t, so we headed to another CVS that had a minute clinic inside. We waited for more than an hour to be seen and I was just about to lose it when we were finally called back. After giving her all of our information she finally assessed his foot and decided to try to get the splinter out. It did not go well.

She had me lie on the table and hold him on top of me so that she could try to get the splinter out of his foot. It was okay for a minute, but as soon as she started digging, he lost it. He was kicking, screaming, crying, and wiggling everywhere and I was only able to control so many flailing things at a time. She wasn’t able to get the damn thing out in the end and told me I’d have to take him to his primary tomorrow. (insert scream here)

So, we wasted our time and money and my kid still can’t walk on his foot because it’s in so much pain. Great.

We’ll be missing preschool and Dakota will miss Rolly Pollies tomorrow because I’ve gotta get this thing out of his foot. I absolutely dread taking him to the doctor’s office too. I just hope they’ll be able to numb it a little before they attempt to remove it. I know Harper is going to freak out when I tell him we have to go too since he thinks the splinter’s out because she put a band aid on it.

My stress level is through the roof tonight, so I’m hoping this blog makes sense! Wish me luck.

Lots and lots of luck.

Testing…Testing…

Testing. I feel like my life is a giant test these days. Test of endurance, skill, PATIENCE, balance. Each day is a battle, a test of my commitment to motherhood it seems. Things just aren’t easy right now.

My house is in a constant state of disarray. I’m thankful my kids actually play with the toys they have, but damn!?! do they have to play with every single one of them every single day? With Harps being 3 and Koko being 1 I can’t really leave them to their own devices and then tell them to clean up at the end…it just doesn’t work like that. Nope, it’s more like, the mess is made and then I’m singing that stupid “clean up, clean up” song and trying to coax the two of them into helping pick up said mess. I usually end up doing the majority of the cleaning up while the two of them follow me around demanding snacks of some sort.

I swear I am feeding those two kids all day long. From the minute Dakota gets up in the morning till bedtime, all she does is eat. She’ll eat a slice of cheese, a gogurt, an applesauce, a cereal bar and a few bites of a bagel before she can even think straight in the morning. Harper isn’t quite as ravenous, but it’s like they tag team me all day with it. If one gets a snack, the other needs one too. If one gets a drink, well, you guessed it.

And the tantrums around here! Holy hell. The tantrums. It’s like the world is ending 48 times a day at least. Per kid. Full blown melt downs over shit that we’ll never know or understand. Back arching, floor writhing freak episodes that still make me cringe remembering them. I am fully prepared to watch one of those two little kids’ heads turn around in a complete circle.

And, while the two shrimps are busy being dramatic the older two think it’s okay to attack me at a different level. They may not throw themselves on the floor and spin in circles, but they sure do have their moments. Stomping, slamming doors, saying things that I’d better NOT hear under their breath. It’s a damn circus around here. Sometimes I just want to hide. And, I don’t mean in the bathroom because that never works…they always find me and they always want in.

Bits of the Weekend

This past weekend I worked at a consignment sale for the Mom’s Club that I joined awhile ago. I volunteered to work during the pre-sale on Friday night as well as the regular Saturday sale. Since I worked both days I was qualified to shop the pre pre-sale, only open to those of us working both dates, and I scored some pretty good loot.

I paid $10 for a cute little table and chair set for the two littles. I’ve been wanting to put a little table in the kitchen for them to sit at while I’m busy doing whatever in the kitchen, so I knew I had to get it. It’s perfect, really.

Dakota was into it the minute she saw it…

I also picked up some random toys, puzzles and even a small lego table. I haven’t shown them most of the stuff yet, I’m waiting for those cold/rainy days when we’re looking for something to do. They’re right around the corner, I just know it.

Zoe came home this weekend.

This is the first time she’s been home since we dropped her off in August and she was feeling like it was time to come home. She didn’t get to stay too long on Sunday because she had to be at work by 4:15pm, but it was nice when she was here. Of course when Zoe’s here Brandon’s here too! (He’s here more often that she is though!)

We had some beautiful weather this weekend. It wasn’t too terribly hot and the sun was bright and shining. We spent a lot of down time outside with the munchkins.

I brought that new little table outside for some painting. Neither of them were really into it, but it did keep them occupied for about 3 minutes! Dakota just couldn’t stop putting the paintbrushes in her mouth.

At one point, I was in the house helping Landon with homework, Tony was making dinner and the two littles were playing on the deck. We had the door open and could see and hear them playing and then all of a sudden I realized it was quiet. I ran out the door to see why and discovered that Harper had moved our deck box (it blocks the stairs on the deck) and the two of them had taken off for the sandbox in the backyard! I looked over the rail to see Dakota walking around in the grass while Harper dug in the sand! I couldn’t help but laugh…little stinkers.

I suppose the deck box is no longer going to work as a gate…

Here’s a little video of our day:

Keeping busy…that’s us.

Since we’re having some gorgeous fall weather, we decided it was time for some of our favorite fall fare. Tony (at my request) made the wonderful Sausage Stromboli that we all love. It was AMAZING! He even makes the bread and let me just tell you, it is divine!

Landon had two games this past weekend. One at 9pm Friday night (I got to go while Mema stayed here with the kidlets. Unfortunately, Dakota didn’t sleep worth a crap for her and she was still up when I got home. Still have no idea what that was all about.) The game was pretty good even though we lost. Those boys are due for a win any time now. It was quite cold that night sitting on the field. I had jeans and a sweater on and I was still chilly. Can’t believe it’s already so darn cold at night! Saturday’s game was at 2:30 and it was awesome to watch. Our boys were playing better than I’d ever seen them play and Landon was terrific! We tied 1-1.

That’s our weekend in a nutshell and as you can see it was jam packed. I’m probably missing some stuff, but I gotta get to bed!

Pool Party (Layout)

My first page in awhile! Bought some new papers and embellishments and decided it was time to get a page done. These were pictures of our last pool party of the summer. It sure did seem to go by quickly!

Enough Already

It sure seems like we’ve had our share of drama around here lately. Last week was that awful accident with Mema and Harps, and now this week there was a shooting incident very close to where Tony works.

I’ll start at the beginning.

Tony texted me this morning around 8:30am letting me know he’d just gotten to work because of a massive traffic jam after a produce truck overturned on the highway. He usually makes it to work before 7am because he leaves so early, so he was in traffic for quite some time.

After some brief texts I went about my morning as usual as the kids and I were planning on going to playgroup at the library. We had just gotten on the road to the library when Tony called. Our convo went something like this:

Me: Hi? (We’d already talked earlier so I couldn’t figure out why he was calling again.)

Him: I just wanted to call to let you know I’m fine.

Me: Huh?

Him: I didn’t know if you’d seen what Aunt Martha had put on Facebook this morning, so I wanted to let you know I’m fine.

Me: What are you talking about?

Him: Well, there was a shooter at the Navy Yard this morning and although it didn’t happen in my building, we are on lockdown, but I’m fine and just wanted to let you know.

Me: What the hell? A shooter? Where? When? Why? Who?

He explained to me what he knew, which really wasn’t much, and then we got off the phone. I knew he was okay but I couldn’t help but go down that road…you know the one. The one where you have to think about what if. What if it’d been his building. What if he’d been walking in at the same time the shooter had been…after all, he was arriving at work much later than usual and around the same time the guy started shooting random people as they did their job.

As sad as I am for those families that lost someone today, I am ever so grateful to have my husband safe at home. When he got home I couldn’t wait to hug him. Zoe was here and she too was eager to give him a giant hug…of course the little’s had no idea, but they got some lovin’ too, just because.

Tony assured us that he was never in any direct danger regardless of the lockdown. He said he didn’t even know anything was going on until his mom called him to check that he was okay! He said it wasn’t an immediate lockdown and he’d had no idea anything was going on because their building is quite a ways away from the one that the shooter was in. Crazy shit, huh?

Hug those you love, people. Let them know you love them & often. You just never know what could happen.

Red is For STOP

That is a picture of my mother-in-law’s car yesterday morning after she had a run in with someone who failed to stop at a red light.

Here’s the story.

Wednesday mornings my mother-in-law picks Harper up and takes him to Rolly Pollies. She came to the house like she usually does and as they headed out the door to pollies, Dakota and I also headed out to spend a little time at the playground. She and I had just started climbing on the equipment when I heard my phone ding. I looked at the text and saw that it was Tony and his message was at once alarming. It read “Hey call me now”. I knew it was urgent and I immediately thought something had happened with Mema and Harps. Of course I called him immediately and he told me that yes, they had been in an accident, but that they both seemed to be okay. I quickly started to gather up my stuff (stroller, Dakotas water, Dakota) and we raced to the car to go find where they were.

As soon as I could I called Mema’s phone and she picked up. She was quite upset but assured me that she and Harper were both okay. She told me that a woman failed to stop at a red light and that she’d hit her and that the other woman’s car had flipped over. I couldn’t work out what she was telling me, it just didn’t make sense at that moment, all I knew was I wanted to find them as quickly as possible and make sure they really were ok. She told me where they were and about 10 L-O-N-G minutes later I spotted all the flashing lights and wreckage.

When I got there I didn’t really know where to park, so I just found a spot in the middle of a blocked road and hopped out. I imagine I looked a little frantic as I half walked half jogged to the ambulance but as soon as I got there they asked me if I was “the mom” and when I nodded they let me climb in with my baby. (They had let Mema and Harper sit in the ambulance because it was so hot outside.) I can’t remember exactly what happened at that point, I just remember staring at Harper and Mema and thinking that they did indeed look okay. Of course Mema was shaken up and upset, but she looked fine otherwise. And Harper, well the second I climbed in he started to tell me about how Mema bumped another car…and he talked and talked and I was so thankful! The EMT told me it was up to me whether or not we take him to the hospital to be checked over, but everything about him seemed fine. I ultimately decided to skip the trip to the ER; he seemed fine, there was no damage to the area of the car he had been in and the EMT told me that he too felt that Harper was okay.

We got out of the ambulance and went to get in my van while we waited on the police to give us their report. As Harper climbed up in the van he asked me if we could go ahead and go to Pollies now. I explained that we’d missed it for the day, but I told him I’d turn on the AC and a Barney movie while we waited. We drove Mema home, had a little lunch then got in the van to head home. As we were driving home, Harper stopped watching his show and yelled to me to be careful and to watch the other cars so I wouldn’t bump into them. I told him I would be very careful and did my best to explain to him that what had happened hadn’t been Mema’s fault, but that another person had made a mistake.

For the rest of the day I made sure to talk to him about what had happened when he brought it up and did my best to reassure him that everything was okay. I also made sure to hug and kiss him a few thousand more times than I already do every day. I am ever so tahnkful that my baby wasn’t hurt in that wreck. My mind keeps doing the “what if” thing and I guess that’s just normal, but the “what if’s” were enough to give me bad dreams last night. I cannot imagine my life without that little guy nor would I want to have to experience it. I am ever so grateful that my mother-in-law is also okay and unharmed, she too is very important to me and we all love her very much. She is sore in her back, neck and shoulders and also seemed to hurt her foot somehow, but for the most part, she is okay. Harper has never exhibited any pain at all and for that I am also thankful.

He is definitely still thinking about the accident though. Today was his second day of preschool and as we got ready to leave he got a little upset and said “I only wanna ride in your car, momma. I don’t wanna bump in Mema’s car!” I told him he would be riding with me and that everything would be okay, but on the way there he was still asking me to drive slow and to stay away from the other cars. At one point he told me he was “pew-pewing” the other cars so they wouldn’t bump us. (I don’t know how to spell what he said but he was basically shooting the other cars with his pointer finger.) I suppose it is going to take a little time for him to work out how he feels about the accident and I suppose that is normal for anyone who’s been in an accident. I guess he didn’t see the other car flip (Mema said it flipped completely over landing back on it’s tires.) and that’s probably a good thing. I can’t imagine how terrifying that must have been to see much less experience.

At dinner last night Harper started to tell Landon about everything. He told him that Mema had bumped another car and that he had been scared. I chimed in and said “Did you cry a little bit too?” and he said “No, I cried a lot a bit!”. Ha ha!

I love that boy.

First Day of Preschool

Today was Harper’s big day. His very first day of preschool. It was really my big day too, but I won’t pretend that this is all about me here…even though it sort of was.

We got off to a somewhat rocky start this morning since Harper had some trouble sleeping last night. He was up at 10:30pm and 4am to pee and then wasn’t interested in getting up at 7 when I went in to get him. His school starts at 9, but it’s a good 20 minutes from here so I had to get him up early so we could be out the door on time. We headed out the door just after 8:30 and about half way there I remembered that Harper never used the bathroom before we left. Actually, he hadn’t gone since 4am and I immediately started freaking out. I asked him if he needed to go and his response was “I can wait till we get there” which translates to, “I need to go, now.” I decided to pull into Chick-Fil-A to let him run in and do his business, and thankfully we made it that far. The only problem after that was Dakota…she was highly upset that I got her out of the car then immediately put her back in. She cried and cried about it.

We made it to the school at exactly 9 and ended up in the back of the drop off line. At his school you just pull up to the curb and either a parent helper or the teacher comes to the car, has you sign your child in, and then helps your child out of the car and into the building. There isn’t any parking at his school save for about 8 spots designated for other use, so this is the solution they’ve come up with. This is the biggest reason I was panicking about him going to school too. I just did not see that whole scenario going well…

*He was unbuckled and waiting for his teacher. He looks worried, but he sure acted brave. I guess he was being brave for his worried, pathetic momma!

Lucky for me, Harper was a total trooper. We have talked and talked about exactly what was going to happen when he would go to school and I think that helped. He knew exactly what to expect, no surprises. As we were in line waiting to get to the drop off area, my heart was in my throat. I might have even been a little teary eyed as I thought about my baby going to school without me…but not Harper. He was ready. When I told him it was almost his turn he blurted out “If someone is not nice to me, I’m going to throw fruit on them!”. (We were asked to bring in a favorite fruit to help make a class fruit salad. I’m guessing this is why it was fruit he was going to throw…good thing we weren’t making a class block tower!) As his teacher walked to the car he told me he was going to say “Hi, Mrs. Hammer! I’m so glad to see you” when she got to the door. Sure enough, as the van door slid open, he said exactly that to her! That little boy is something else!

*There he goes! I can tell he’s just a touch nervous because I can see that he has his fingers in his mouth. That’s something he does when he’s nervous or excited.

So, basically, I can sum this up by saying that I, as usual, worried myself sick while my child was perfectly fine with the whole thing. I just need to give these kids more credit than I do. They are perfectly capable of being without me, and even capable of being happy while they are away from me. I love watching them grow up and turn into awesome humans, but at the same time, I want them to always need me or more importantly, want me.

When I went to pick him up, he was just as cute as I remembered him. I wanted to jump out of the van and hug him, but I didn’t. I waited my turn in the line and asked his teacher how his day went. She said he did great and that they made trees with apples on them to represent their family members. She also said that they had just played outside for a bit and that he had been selected to be the line leader for the day. When she mentioned the line leader bit, Harper gave me a look that told he’d really enjoyed that part.

At pick up time, we pull up to the drop off/pick up zone, and the teacher helps your child into their vehicle. After they are in their seat, we have to pull up to a curb, get out and go around to buckle them in. It isn’t the easiest thing to do, but it works. When I went to buckle him in, I grabbed him up and gave him the biggest hug and kiss…and he gave me a smile that showed me how much he loved me. I asked him if he had had fun and he assured me he had. He said he really liked playing with all the toys and on the playground.

I tried asking him a little more about his day, but he just kept asking me if he could watch Barney, so clearly, our moment was over, but he did say he wanted to go back, and for that, I am thankful.

Hot Date at the Grocery Store

This weekend was jam packed full of stuff. So much to do in such a short amount of time, but somehow we got it all in.

Saturday morning Landon had tutoring, then a soccer game at noon. While the boys didn’t pull out a win, they played well. I’m sure hoping we can get at least one win this season…it’s tough on morale to keep coming so close yet walking away with a loss.

The two little kids were pretty good during the game, but it was hot and I didn’t have time to grab any toys for them to play with, so we spent much of the game walking around the field. After eating their picnic lunch they dug in the dirt, walked up a big hill, tripped over a soccer net (many, many times) and just generally kept themselves occupied while we tried to catch a few glimpses of the game.

After the game we went home for a rest. Haha! REST?! Got ya! No, I think I did laundry, picked up toys and cleaned a bathroom. Dakota rested (she lives the good life). Tony…I don’t remember what he did and Landon was supposed to do homework (but never actually did any) and Harper played with toys and then my iPad. But, none of that even matters. I just don’t want anyone to think there was any rest going on around here…

Once Kota got up, Tony wanted to keep them from getting into trouble so he trapped them in our tunnel.

It worked pretty well until he decided he didn’t want to be trapped in there with them anymore. Needless to say, they both got loose and tore the house apart. Just the usual, really.

Mema invited us over for dinner on Saturday night, so we headed over there around 4:30. After dinner, Tony and I wanted to go out on a hot date, so we grabbed our grocery list and went to Wegmans to get our shopping done. You know you’re jealous.

We shopped for our weekly groceries while Mema watched the kiddo’s. It was quite nice, actually. There were no fighting kids, no one wanted in and out of the cart, no one needed to pee when we were just done strapping them into their car seat. Tony and I may or may not have even brushed hands as we reached for the same box of rice, but I’ll never tell! *blush*

After our blissful shopping experience Tony and I skipped over to Dunkin Donuts for some ice cream. We’re really adventurous like that. He got a scoop of strawberry and I got a chocolate chip shake. Devilish, huh?

After all the fun we had we raced back to get the kids so that we could get them home and in bed at their regularly scheduled bed times. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, is going to get in the way of us getting those two little stinkers to bed on time. Not even a hot night out at the grocery store.

Final Pool Party of the Summer

Pools here in Maryland (at least where I live) close on Labor Day weekend. Our community held a pool closing party this past weekend and it turned out to be a lot of fun. I’ve never actually seen so many people at our pool at once! The association provided hotdogs and a big cake (a sendoff for our lifeguard) and everyone else was asked to bring either a side or a dessert.

Landon showing off his cannonball skills.

The kids played games while the adults chatted. We were the only family there with really little kids though, so we were the only ones using the baby pool which was kind of nice since the big pool was so crowded.

Here Dakota and Harper and playing “pool boy/girl”. They just love cleaning out the drains…

It’s hard to believe that our summer is over. My favorite time of the year is fall though, so I am more than ready!

This and That

I haven’t been in the mood to blog much the past few nights as I’ve been completely exhausted by 7pm. We’ve been running around like crazy this week and I’m just plain tired. It seems impossible that things are going to be even more hectic next week, but with preschool being twice a week starting next Tuesday, it looks like that is exactly what is going to happen.

Right now I’ve got Harper in school twice a week, and on Wednesday morning’s he’ll be going to Rolly Pollies with Mema. Dakota has Rolly Pollies on Thursdays while Harper is at school. Landon has school all week (duh!) 2 sessions of tutoring per week, 2 soccer practices plus at least one game a week. We are running around like we never have before. It’s nice to be so busy but damn I’m tired at night.

Anyways, I’m not here to complain, but rather to post some photo’s from the past several days that I’ve been too busy to put on the old bloggeroo…

• I bought a couple of these (photo below) from Amazon and I’m loving making the two little kids’ lunch in them. They like to eat a little of this and that so this makes it easy to feed them a lot of good stuff all at once, and it’s easier to judge portions when I only have a small square to fill.

• I feel like half of my day is spent feeding kids. With Dakota lately, it has been a never ending ordeal. She’s only been getting one bottle a day for the past 4 days now and she seems to want to eat the house down because of it. She’s also cutting some molars (one is in, the other right there) so she’s not been in the best of moods this week. She’s still sweet as sugar but darn is she isn’t always demanding I get something out of the fridge for her to eat!

• Harper, Dakota and I were playing with some balloons and Harps wanted to try to blow one up on his own. Of course, Dakota has to do everything her brother does…

• Dakota really thinks she’s scary and loves to watch us jump when she screams at us. The more we jump and act crazy the more she laughs!

First Day of Preschool

As crazy as it sounds, Zoe and Landon weren’t the only two that started school last week. My little Harper had his first day of preschool too!

His school starts at 9am, so we were up and out the door bright and early. I was scheduled to work that day (he goes to a co-op) so I had to be there, but it was an orientation for the kids so all the parents stayed.

Harper did really well with everything but any time he couldn’t see me, he worried and got a little frantic, so I’m not sure how it’s going to go next Tuesday when I drop him off on his own for the first time. Honestly, I can’t even think about it without feeling just a tad sick to my stomach, so I just don’t think about it. At all.

The routine is basically, free play until everyone arrives, then circle time, then half of the kids go to art and the other half go to the play room, then switch. After snack and story time they get some outdoor play and then it’s time to head home. They have quite the well oiled machine going at the school and I have to say I really like how smoothly it runs. I’m so glad that it’s a co-op too because I love being right in the thick of it and being able to see exactly what’s going on.

They have a really nice outdoor play area and the cutest bicycle thingy I’ve ever seen! I don’t know what it’s called, but here’s a picture of it. Five kids can ride at a time and they kept saying “uh-oh, so and so is gonna catch me” and their little legs would pedal as fast as they could. They were really cute!

One funny thing that happened:

The teacher tells them that they have to “put a bubble in their mouth” and put their hands on their tummy when they go from one room to the other. (Keeps them quiet and hands to themselves.) They were in line facing her and she had just given them the instructions then she said “now, just do what I do” so as she started to walk slowly, backwards down the hall, Harper turned backwards in line too! She said to do what she did!  

That’s my smart little guy!

My 7th Grader

Landon’s first day of school was this past Tuesday. He was really ready to head back and was ready to see his friends again. This summer sure seems to have flown by though…

He’s taking French this year, and he also has two gym classes, so his schedule isn’t looking too grim, and that sure helps when you aren’t a big fan of the school scene.

Here’s to a successful year!

Off to Towson

The day after we got back from Alabama was Zoe’s move in day at school. I wanted to get up early and go but it sure didn’t work out that way. We ended up going to Costco right when they opened and then after unpacking that stuff, we loaded up my van and headed out to Towson; it was after 1pm when we finally got out of here. (Brandon followed us up in his car to give us a hand.) I was dreading dragging all of her stuff to her room and just as I started picking up bags, a girl came running up to me and told me that she and some other students would deliver her stuff to her room! Score! Zoe really didn’t have that much, but when it was up to just the three of us, it could have taken quite awhile.

She was really excited to have gotten housed in an area of the campus that had just been renovated, but once we got there and saw how small the room was, she questioned her choice. I have to admit that I too was a little surprised that this room was an “upgrade” from the towers that she stayed in last year…but, once we got the room rearranged, it wasn’t too bad. There aren’t any closets, but wardrobes instead and last year the girls had a bookshelf to share whereas this year there wasn’t one. The bathroom connects to a triple, so there are 5 girls sharing one bathroom…

She’s all moved in again for the year and within the first week of school she interviewed and got a job at a country club! I have mixed feelings about her working and going to school, but I guess it’s really up to her what she does at this point. I know she can handle it all, I just hate that she’ll never be home…just me being selfish, really. I sure am going to miss her.

Home Again

Our trip home from Alabama was like a polar opposite to the trip there. On the way there, everything was smooth and easy. Coming home ended up being quite stressful.

Our car rentals didn’t have GPS so we were relying on our phones GPS to get us to the airport. We started off fine, but midway there our phones lost internet connection and we were in a panic trying to find our way to the airport. My phone picked up signal at one point and I started to give Tony directions, but the directions I was getting lead us straight to a runway, not the actual airport! It was crazy! Then, I asked Zoe if she could get a signal (she was with Mema, Umpa and Landon in a different car) and she said she could, so we began following them only to be led back in the crazy direction my phone had been going. Zoe’s phone did route us back to the highway though and just as we came off an exit ramp Tony realized where we were and thought things were going to be fine, but Zoe was telling Mema which way to go and they exited back onto the highway. Tony was yelling “NO! NO! Come back!” But it was too late as they had already gotten on the ramp. So, we raced ahead of them, got ourselves turned back around and onto the right road headed towards the airport. It was a mess and I’m pretty sure everyone’s blood pressure was through the roof.

We had left the hotel around 7:15 or so to get to the airport and we made it to the rental car drop off sometime right after 8am. Tony got our car checked in and took off with the kids to the desk to check our bags while I hung back with Mema and Umpa waiting to get their car situation settled. We didn’t have a wheelchair for Umpa and we must have looked pretty panicked because the car rental guy offered to drive us up to the front doors right where we needed to check in. So he zoomed us around to the front and as soon as I got out I ran to find a wheelchair for Umpa. I found one right inside the doors, but the brake was on and I couldn’t figure out how to unlatch it so I just pushed with all I had to get it to them and Mema figured out the brake and got him and their stuff settled while I tried to find Tony and the kids.

I didn’t see Tony or the kids at the check-in counter so I thought they must have already taken care of the bags and gone through security, so the three of us got in line at security…and then my phone rang. It was Tony saying he was waiting for me with the bags because he didn’t have the boarding passes to check our luggage! GAHHHH! So, I jumped back out of line, ran to meet them (they’d been waiting for us downstairs where they came in different way) got our bags checked & then we all took off for security once again. The kids and I made it through with no problems, but one of the diaper bags had drinks in sippy cups for the two littles. I packed them intentionally that morning for the dive to the airport and had intended to dump the contents once we got to the airport…but, with all the extra drama, I forgot about them. So, security had to have me open the cups so that they could check the contents, and once they saw that everything was okay we were allowed to go.

We made it to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare. I can only imagine how crazy the 8 of us looked running back and forth through that tiny airport! We were such a mess! But, we made it and vowed to never do it again! :)

We made it back to Baltimore about 5 minutes ahead of schedule, got our bags then met the limo outside to take us home.

This one was even bigger than the first and boy was I happy to be heading home! The two littles were so happy to be home too, and they were content to play with their toys like they’d been gone for months! Landon couldn’t wait to jump on the computer to play Mine Craft and Zoe was excited to get her bags packed to head to Towson the very next day.