It's 1:00 a.m. and I can't sleep. Could it be the new workout plan I'm on and the new healthy diet? My guess is yes. I always have more energy when I eat right and workout, so why do I fall off the wagon? You would think I would remember how good it feels to feel so good. I'm bound and determined this time to make it happen. I will keep you posted. I'm glad my little bout with insomnia has allowed me to catch up on my blog. It's been a couple of weeks since I've been able to write. One of those weeks we were in California, which I will write about soon and post more pictures. I will give you a little snipit of our plane ride home from Cali and some pictures that were taken at California Adventure. I'm sure at any moment I will have to stop writing and go lay with Sydney because this is usually the time she wakes up and starts to cry. Brian usually goes in and lays with her, but since I am up I will let him get a good nights sleep. I am hopeful that one of these days she will sleep through the night.
Did I mention that she's definitely in the stage of the terrible 2's? I mean look at the sweet face. How can such a cute little girl throw such a mean tantrum? We kind of skipped the 2's with Brooklyn and hit them when she was 3 so I got an extra year. It seems like Sydney can throw a mean tantrum at anytime for really no reason at all. Did I mention she is incredibly strong too so it doesn't make wrestling with her easy. You can ask any of the 100 or so passengers on the plane back from California to Nashville about that and they will agree with me. My hope was that with the aid of Benadryl she would snooze the 3 or so hours it would take to get home from our layover in Las Vegas. Nope. She slept from Cali to Las Vegas, a 45 min flight, which blew the rest of the naptime. She didn't take a nap at all on the flight home. She was all over the plane and finally about the last hour she had had enough and wanted to just run around. The pilot had put the fasten
seat belt light on because of turbulence so this was not an option. Well she went ballistic. I was so tired I just couldn't hold on to her any longer. People were giving me the evil eye. I was sweating and at my wits end. This went on for at least a half hour. She screamed and cried at the top of her lungs. Finally one of the flight attendants from the back came up to me and said, "Ma'am would you like to come on back and stand back with us". I was relieved. I had wanted to do that, but didn't know if I could because the light was on. I got back there and just started to cry. I was so tired from lack of sleep the whole trip and completely embarassed that I could not control my child, that I lost it. The flight attendants were great. I was back there for about 10 minutes when I decided to go back to my seat and try to rock her to sleep as best as I could in such a confined space. It worked. She fell right to sleep. All that crying did her in. Finally some peace and quiet. She slept all the way through the landing too. She didn't wake up until the lights came on in the cabin. I told Brian I never want to fly again with 2 toddlers for quite sometime. He reminded me that I said that last year when we flew to Orlando and she cried the whole way there. He's right. I will probably forget about the whole thing this time next year when we take our trip to Orlando to go to
Disney World. It got me thinking. I have to take the good with the bad. She won't be 2 for long and I know it's just a phase. She has such a sweet spirit about her when she's not throwing a tantrum. She is very compassionate towards people and very concerned. When she sees her sissy sad she'll say, "What's the matter Brooklyn"? "Why you sad"? She loves to give hugs and kisses. She'll say, "Kisses" and then kiss you, "Hugs" then hug you and then she'll say, "love you mommy". Oh it is just the best to hear her say that. I tear up just thinking about that. I love it when she says it to Brooklyn and when it's least expected. Today they were wrestling on the bed after
nap time and Syd just leaned over and hugged Brooklyn and said, "love you Brooklyn". I love to watch them interact and I love when they play nice together. I can't wait to watch them grow up and become best friends.
The aquarium is divided up into 2 huge buildings. The first building we went into was the "Ocean Journey". It houses the penguins, stingray petting zoo, jellyfish, sharks and the butterfly garden.
I love this picture because Brooklyn looks completely bored out of her mind. We told her to make a scared face and this is what she came up with.
Building 2 is called the "River Journey". Here you will see the reptiles, sea otters, amphibians, fish and the biggest turtle you've ever seen in your life. I just realized I didn't get a picture of it.
After we finished going through the aquarium, we let the kids run around outside and play in the streams that they have. It was a beautiful, warm day so it was perfect for getting wet.
The girls keep asking us when we will go back to "Chagganooga". To say they loved it, would be an understatement. If you are interested, you can visit their website here. The aquarium is ranked one of the highest rated in America. It was definitely a weekend to remember.
(Warning! Post with alot of pictures. I took about 500.)
They had an activity center up on the roof with a huge bubble pool and a chair with a pulley system. I couldn't believe it, but the girls were actually strong enough to pull themselves to the top.
We stayed at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel. It’s an old train station converted into a hotel. We stayed in a regular room, but they do have converted rail cars that you can sleep in. A little too narrow for my taste, but cool none the less. We got to take a trolley ride that they offered at the hotel. The conductor was great and let the kids ring the bell over and over and over again.
Part 2 and our time at the Aquarium will be coming tomorrow so this post doesn't end up being a novel. I know y'all are dying to see more pictures. :)
