Okay, it will be next to impossible to really do justice to Wedding Weekend 2010. It was at once an epic fail and an epic success. I will do my best.
The first leg of our journey would fall in the former category. It was honest to goodness 10 of the worst hours I've had in quite some time. Last time we drove up we left at about 7:30pm in the hopes that Ben would sleep for the duration of the trip and that we would bypass a lot of the traffic. The second part worked, the first not so much. But if awake, he was still pretty good. This time we wanted to try to get up there earlier, so we decided to leave around 4:00 when I got home from work. We left our house at about 4:15. We got to Auburn 10 hours and 15 minutes later. That means that we left three hours earlier but got there at the same time. Fail. And how did it go so wrong? Hour upon hour of human failure. I made Matt mad, he made me mad, Ben screamed for a couple of hours, we drove in circles through LA for two hours trying to find a mall that clearly doesn't exist, we got dinner at 8:00pm, we drove in frustration and silence for most of the next six hours. The upshot was that once we hit the road for realsies after dinner, somewhere around 9:00, Ben was asleep before we got on the freeway and slept like the dead for the rest of the drive. We stayed at Matt's dad's this time around, which turned out to be a great thing when we arrived because there were no dogs to play with. So when we got there, Matt's dad greeted us, I sat Ben down on the bed, Ben looked around the room and said, "Cool" (???), Matt set up the pack and play, Ben said, "Go to sleep!", then he happily plopped down in the pack and play and went to sleep. THANK YOU, DEAR GOD. We were asleep by 3, then up at 6 ("All done, Mommy!"). Um, no sweet boy. We are not done with sleep. But that was too bad, because the mini-muffin felt we were, so we got up and watched some TV and tried not to wake the grandparents. Morning fail.
But sleep-deprived or no, Ben turned up the charm and was, for the most part, nothing but a bundle of joy and love. He was sweet, cute, funny, and all the things that make him great and wonderful but without the unpleasant terrible-twos parts. For the moment, anyway. We had a nice, slow morning. Joyce made pancakes (B's favorite), eggs, and apple sausages (um, hello? how did I not know about these? yum). Then we all went into the backyard/garden where they have a goldfish pond and fresh produce. Ben was in heaven feeding the fishes and picking apples, strawberries, tomatoes and green beans right off the vine and eating them. He was also enjoying putting on a show for his grandparents, who of course were eating it up. Since we always stay with Matt's mom when we go up, this is the first opportunity they've ever really had to just spend time with the three of us, and it was really nice for us all.
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| Apples straight from the tree. Yum! |
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| Eating Strawberries with his adoring fans |
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| Raw green beans straight from the vine...yum?? |
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He also loved the cat, even though I suspect he is allergic. But the cat was only the tip of the allergy iceberg that weekend. Which brings me to...
The Rehearsal
This is the fateful hour that set the tone for the weekend's theme: RASH.
The wedding site was a bit of a drive, so by the time we got to there he'd been in the car for 11 of the last 19 hours. No good. He was going insane (as were we all). So when we got to the site and it was a big, open, grassy field, he took off like a caged animal. He was running and screaming and grabbing fistfuls of rocks and pinecones and pineneedles and anything else he could get his hands on. And the grass. Oh the grass. He just laid face-down and rolled around in it. For like an hour.
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| Seriously, these two could not love each other more |
The actual rehearsal got going, Ben was supposed to be walking down the aisle, so I stood in line with him, trying to contain him, waiting for his turn. He and the two other toddler boys were supposed to be walking down together. I was in no way optimistic that this would actually happen. Before we got there I was thinking he would just not do it, or maybe just run to me. But once we were there I knew exactly what would happen--he would simply run around in the grass behind the ceremony, completely oblivious to the wedding that he was supposed to be in. But having the time of his life. I got him to walk down the aisle at the rehearsal, though, before he ran off after his cousin and they played and played until I thought he would explode with joy. They rolled around in the grass (obviously) tickling each other, threw rocks off the hill, hugged a LOT, and covered their bodies with pollen. When it was time to go, they chased each other happily down the gravel pathway to the car.
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| The actual rehearsing |
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| Ben is supposed to be in the back, but you can't see him because I'm chasing him down in the grass |
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| gorgeous. |
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| two peas in a pod :) |
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| they're finally getting married! |
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| attack of the red-headed monster |
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| are you kidding me with these two stunning blue-eyed beauties? |
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| I'd love to say this is him practicing walking down the aisle. But it's not. He's walking down the aisle when it is not at all his turn. We did not know this was a preview of coming attractions... |
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| tired, good-looking family |
And then it happened. He wailed with a blood-curdling scream that could have set dogs howling. He started shaking and practically convulsing. Screaming, "it hurts" while his arms and legs took on a life of their own and were shaking uncontrollably, almost like a shiver reflex. I could see nothing. But he was screaming for the pain. We grabbed some water and poured it all over his arms and legs. He stopped screaming while the water was running over him, but then began anew once it was out. Eventually we had to go--we strapped him into the carseat while he shook and cried. He was sweating and shaking and screaming for most of the ride home. I saw the little red dots gradually appear. Poor little guy had a full-body rash to match his face rash from two days before. And the burning and itching were absolutely torturing him. Eventually he calmed and fell asleep. We got some food and went home, where we soaked him in an oatmeal bath and smothered him with Aveeno lotion. He ate and played, and he seemed okay. He even helped Grandpa water the flowers (and himself).
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| oops | |
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| using the hose as a microphone |
Then he took a 30 minute nap. Seriously, this kid apparently does not believe in sleep. Because he didn't really nap, neither did we, and so we left for the rehearsal dinner at 5:00 feeling like we were about to completely collapse from exhaustion. Except for Ben, who appeared to be fueled by Pixie Stix. He could not stop running. He chased his cousins down, tickled them, hugged them, and generally ran himself (and his cousins) into the ground. There were a lot of kids at the party (which was at Matt's mom's house, God bless her). Most of the parents were drinking and talking, which left me to parent the whole lot of them. There were a couple of bigger boys that were saying gems like, "Get your swords and kill the baby!" Um, no. Ben was having the time of his life--I thought I was going to die. I was so grateful for this great chance for him to play with his cousins, whom he rarely sees. But I seriously was fully prepared for the chance that I would meet Jesus that night (and that I would take everyone with me). Turbo was non-stop, and with all of the plants (that he kept burying his face in), stairs, people, pool cues, and breakables, he was a tiny, energetic bull in a very crowded china shop. Either he would break everything or everyone would break him.
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| I don't know where he got all the rashes from... |
Bummer, because it seemed like a really fun party.
We left around 7:45 (it felt like midnight), put the boy to bed, watched a half an hour of
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and crashed around 8:30.
And that's the first 24 hours. The second leg will be a different post. :)
