We left out of VA at about 730 AM on a beautiful chilly April morning and had to stop before we even got off the capital beltway to chang a blowout. A diaper blowout that is. Anyone living in the northern VA area understands what a NIGHTMARE this is even if you don't have children. The Capital Beltway AKA I495 AKA, the Inner and Outter Loops run a ring around the Washington, D.C. Metro area and is essentially a HOT MESS. There is constant construction, terrible traffic jams, and exits I can only describe as the 7th level of hell for travelers. Many of these exits have NO gas stations, NO where to stop, and NO warning. So while after we fight traffic through all the construction, Sadie Marie decides to blow the bottom out of her diaper just when we hit moving traffic. AWESOME. I started off driving this morning so I nonchalantly cut across 5 lanes of pissed off drivers to the first exit I see and of course it has no gas station and no where to really conduct a full waredrobe change on an 11 month old child. I pull into the neighboorhood at the first stop light, parallel park, and proceed to do what I consider magic. I stripped the nugget down, hosed her off, and redressed her in something that was about two sizes two small from her diaper bag. I bagged the doodoo clothes and we were on our way. Half an hour later we stop so I can pee. The beauty of traffic is that even though you've been traveling for three hours, you've only been 90 miles. You have to stop. It sucks ass.
After a potty break for the adults int the car, we proceed to have a conversation AFTER WE LEAVE THE GAS STATION, about how we will need toll money. MF. REALLY!?! There were about 15 different ways to get cash at that Sheetz and yet we have none. I didn't know there were tolls. I have driven this route ONCE about six years ago when I moved to this godforsaken land and I have tried to block that shit out. Don't even get me started on that ride. The saving grace then was my mother. I guess I will have to put my big girl britches on and be the mom on this route. We stop AGAIN and get some cash. Then three hours after we left the house we really start traveling and mind you we are still in Maryland. I'm thinking we may not make Chicago today.
The rest of the ride was really uneventful, I read, he drove, and Sadie Marie slept, ate, read, pooped, played, and slept. She really is a good traveler and when we finally hit Chicago about 8 PM I have never been happier until I remembered we were staying in downtown Chicago and that means parking garages and a hotel. Sadie Marie was a real trooper, since she slept alot of the day she was bright eyed and bushy tailed after we got checked in so we bundled her little butt up and headed out to grab something to eat. The Italian place was packed and we didn't want to wait, so we found a little joint serving American food and asked for a table for three. The lead us to a booth and we ask for a highchair.....the waitress proceeds to tell me they don't have highchairs. WTF. I mean I get I'm in downtown Chicago at what is basically a wine bar, but come on man, you could have told me that when I walked in. I had actually expected it.......so we proceed to eat with Sadie Marie in our laps. I will give the kid one thing, when it comes to food she's attentive and not the monster she can often be when she's hungry. I had been feeding her puffs all afternoon so luckily she was not starving but that didn't stop her from downing half a cheeseburger eggroll and a sweet potatoe. The baby daddy destroyed his food while I fed the nugget and then I ate while she played with the rest of her food. I never in a million years thougth eating out without a highchair would be so easy but I guess I underestimated the love for food my child has.
That night was surprisingly uneventful considering Sadie M was bedded down in her pack and play three feet from us AND Airhart left for work the next morning at 6 AM without waking her. We got up and after 30 minutes of trying to decide if I should take her 30 feet in the rain to the starbucks for coffee I get downstairs and realize there is a coffee shop in the lobby. Awesome, I have her bundled up for sub-artic temperatures and we have to walk 20 feet from the elevator......and mind you she's in her stroller. I look like the laziest person on the face of the earth. I don't care. I want coffee so bad at this point I would have pushed that damn stroller, who mind you BARELY fit in the elevator, through a snow storm to get it.
I trudge back up to the room and get up with a co-worker who is remote and living in Chicago so we can eat lunch. He gives me the bus route I need to take and we set off again, sans stroller this time. I only had to walk a block to the bus stop and that damn stroller is made for mountain climbing not urban travel. I have traveled the public system in Chicago before so it was not bad although I was not paying attention and fed the machine a $10 instead of a $1......I realized this when I got done eating lunch with my pal and realized I had NO money to ride the bus back. It's awesome when you have to ask a cowork for two bucks to ride the bus home. Aside from the creeper on the bus who was eyeing Sadie Marie forcing me off the bus two stops early, the trip was pleasant and uneventful. No poop while we were gone, it was glorious.
That evening I was on a mission to eat at Gino's, as seen on Man v. Food so my Ryan my co-worker told me the one to go to, gave me instructions to get there early to avoid the lines and sent us on our way. We were late, the elevator was to blame. That SOB was full everytime it stopped for us and by full I mean there was one person in it and thus the stroller would not fit. WTF. GET A BIGGER ELEVATOR hotel who's name I can't remember.
We carry the stroller down the stairs eventually and had to wait about 20 minutes at Ginos for a table, then realized it was a 45 minute wait to get the deep dish they are known for. Sadie Marie has again had a late nap so I press my luck and we order the deep dish. I have puffs, juice, and toys to feed a small tribe of toddlers for a year so I feel safe AND I ordered the nugget her first french fry. I now know what to feed the child when I want to pacify her. She LOVED it! We eat and walk back to our hotel to get a good nights sleep before we head to Iowa the next morning.
We were actually up and at them early, two adults and a nugget in the same room make for early rising. Sadie Marie had been on antibiotics for WEEKS at this point and thus her poop was liquid. It was not until the next day did we realize the impact those meds would have on her. I was showering and Sadie Marie was napping she woke up and we usually let her play a bit until she gets fussy so we can finish getting ready, well these days with all the liquid poop we learned we better check sooner rather than later because it will seep out of the diaper onto everything it comes in contact with. It's not easy to deal with this kinda shit when you are living out of a hotel! So I went to change her diaper and I almost started crying. Her little hiney was blistered and I bet that poop had not been there 5 minutes. Sadie Marie was shaking and crying while I gingerly tried to wipe her bottom. I was almost convulsing I was so mad at myself and I was hurting because she was hurting. I immediately issued a decree that Sadie Marie was to be checked for poop every 10 minutes throughout the day. The instant it was smelt diapers were to be changed.
I think it was the first time in a long time the baby daddy was actually scared of me. I scare a lot of folks, but he has learned that my because I love him and he's pretty he can get away with a lot more than most folks.
The rest of our stay in Iowa was pleasant, I got to see my Iowa buddies and my Bama bestie who married the baby daddy's bestie and still resides in Iowa. Their son was born six weeks after Sadie Marie and he's as big as she is. Mind you this child was born from midgets. He's going to be bigger than his parents by the time he's three! It was so good to see them all and it made me miss the corn state a bit. Then I remembered how bitterly cold it is there in January and moved on.
We left on a Sunday and decided to make the trip back to VA in two days. 20 hours is just too much to do in one day with a toddler even if she's a great traveler. I can just imagine after 8 hours in a car seat she views it as the jaws of death and wants to keel me for continuing to lock her in it. Luckily she can be persuaded with puffs. We stopped somewhere in Ohio at a Holiday Inn Express and before we could even get out of the parking lot the next morning blowout. I didn't care, we stopped changed a diaper and got on the road.
We made it back to VA unscathed, we took a different route home missing all them damn tolls AND all the northern VA traffic. Home had never looked so good. We got home early, unpacked, and after some doggy loving we went to bed.
The following weeks have been SUPER busy at work, commencement is a month away and there's still lots to be done but this is my third year in charge of this event so I feel like I have it under control but it never fails some things will go wrong and foil all my fantastic planning. I'm ready and waiting with a calm head :) It's a good thing to because Sadie Marie will be a year old in less than two weeks AND I have a huge party planned for her complete with a clown and a moon bouce.
So now that y'all be up to speed on our life, let's talk about today. Today is a very special day, it's Mother's Day AND we are getting Sadie Marie's one year pictures done in Fredericksburg. I am baking a HUGE cupcake for her to play in as I type and we are getting ready to go. I'm so excited. I have three outfits for the nugget to wear, I have a new dress, and it's absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside.
I will post again after her party. I will have plenty of time because I'm letting her go to Alabama for a MONTH. I can't believe I have agreed to this, but I want her to be close to my parents and lord knows I need the time to work those three weeks before commencement. She will be in good hands, but I know I'm going to miss her like crazy. My bama peeps better set up some play dates with the nugget! I want her to have a southern accent!
Below are some new photos and a video of the new mobile nugget.
Love y'all!
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