We knew we wouldn't have very long before Eli got tired, so we headed to the mall first. Josh and I enjoyed a yummy lunch at Quiznos (I haven't had that since we moved here 4 years ago! Turkey, ranch, and swiss is my all time fav there). We got our food and sat right next to the carousel. We knew Eli would find it quite interesting and would remain relatively quiet since he had something to watch while we ate. After we all finished our lunch (Eli enjoyed some yummy veggie baby food), I decided that Eli needed to ride the carousel. I'm all about giving him some new experiences. Since I tend to get a little motion sickness and we don't know yet if Eli does or not, we decided to play it safe and stick to a stationary animal this time. I don't know if his little tummy could handle around and around AND up and down all at once.
Eli was very intrigued at first. He found Josh standing behind the gate and gave him a HUGE grin. Then the bell rang and the carousel started...
The first trip around was great. Eli was still smiling. I'm thinking, "I hope Josh is getting good pictures."
The second trip around was good. Eli wasn't smiling as big, but he wasn't upset. He was just taking it all in.
The third trip around things started to get a little worrisome. Eli remembered that he hated confinement and proceeded to try to get out of the belt by yanking down on Mommy's shirt. I'm thinking, "I hope Josh IS NOT taking pictures of this" and "Please tell me people aren't watching us. We're not that interesting..."
The fourth trip around Eli was D-O-N-E! He wanted off the stupid tiger, off the stupid carousel, and back in his Mommy's arms. The carousel operator gave me a pity smile when we passed by. I'm pretty sure she was thinking, "Thank goodness that's not me!" Actually, it wasn't that bad. As you can tell in the picture, I was smiling because I thought it was quite funny that he had actually sat still THAT long.
Finally, the bell sounded (actually, I heard the bell and I thought, "Oh no! She's stopping the carousel because of Eli's crying. We're about to get kicked off the carousel! But luckily for me, it was time for everyone to unload, not just us. Whew!). Eli was so happy to be off the tiger, out of the belt, and in his Mommy's arms.
Eli and Josh did so well at the mall. I was able to shop and get a couple of things I needed and both of my boys didn't rush me or pressure me to hurry up. Eli, in fact, chilled the entire time we were in the mall. There was so much activity going on all around him that he never got bored or tired. We also found out that he rides around just like I do...with both feet up on the dashboard. It's the only comfortable way to travel in my book.
We finished up at the mall, hurried to Edwin Watts for Daddy to look at some golf clubs, and then went to Target. By the time we checked out at Target, Eli was ready to go home and so were we. You can see how tired his little eyes were.
We loaded back up in the car and before we even made it to the interstate, Eli was sleeping. I would love to say that he slept the entire way home, but after the one hour mark, he woke up and was not in a good mood at all. I think the last 25 minutes of our road trip was spent listening to him scream. Nothing I did would calm him down. It definitely made both of us rethink going on vacation with him (probably not going to happen). We had visions of him screaming like he did in the car on the plane with a 100 other passengers and that pretty much sealed the deal. We'll just wait until he's a little bit older for our sake and for the sakes of all the other passengers who would have potentially flown with us. They'll thank me one day :)
We made it home, Eli calmed down, drank about 1/2 a bottle of formula and then was in the best mood ever. I had a such a great time with my boys (even with the 25 minute crying fest that Eli had on the way back home). They make my heart so incredibly full :)
Wow! three posts in one day! I'm impressed. Really.
ReplyDeleteI know how much fun the screaming in the car is! Leon cried big time for MOST of the 1 1/2 hour ride from McComb, but then the three hours back to Hattiesburg-- he was SO good and only fussed a couple of times. Go figure! =)