Surprise!

On Friday Nov. 7th the kids and I boarded a plane to fly to Virginia for my mom's surprise 60th birthday party on the 8th. We arrived shortly after 5:00 pm and were met by an old family friend, Margie, who I have known my whole life. Margie lives across the street from the house where I lived until I was 12 years old. We were to stay at Margie's that night and then would go with her to my mom's party the next afternoon. Since my dad wasn't able to see us until the party as to not ruin the surprise he would secretly call me to make sure everything was okay. Margie and I were worried that my mom was going to catch him on the phone and blow the whole thing but she never caught one.

At Margie's the 3 of us were sharing a room and I thought that having Sam and Claire in the same room would help them feel safe in their new surroundings but I was wrong. Sam was hysterical as soon as I left the room telling me that there were dragons trying to get him. I fought off the dragons and then laid down with him until he fell asleep. Claire on the other hand thought it was funny that I was in her room and laughed at me from the pack and play. Once Sam was asleep I left the room and let Claire scream herself to sleep. Both kids woke up a couple of hours later when I was almost ready for bed so I had to go and start the whole process over again. Eventually we all went to sleep but when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom Sam woke up and was scared when he saw that I was gone. It took him a long time to fall back asleep and he periodically would wake me up by saying "Mommy, the big turtles are coming to get me." I have no idea where this came from but I gently told him that the turtles were all asleep and that they didn't want to hurt him. Both kids woke up around 8:00 and I somehow felt like I had been hit by a big truck. I guess lack of sleep does that to you.

Saturday morning Margie's husband, Bob, made the kids eggs and toast for breakfast and while he was trying to cook Sam talked and talked and talked. Poor Bob. At one point Sam went into the kitchen and said "Here's the deal Bob." I told him that he didn't need to be making deals with Bob. Apparently I say that phrase a lot and Sam has picked up on it as well as "I have an idea" "probably" and "I'm about done." It's always funny to see how your kids will imitate you, sometimes for the good and sometimes for the bad.

After breakfast we walked to the park at the end of the street. This is the park where I spent a lot of time as a child feeding the ducks and swinging on the swing. The trees are huge and I used to pretend that when I was swinging that I could reach up that high. It was neat to be able to take the kids to a place that had so many memories for me. Claire loved seeing the ducks but Sam was scared of one duck in particular who seemed to be coming after us so we decided to go play on the playground equipment instead.

After the park we had lunch and the kids went down for a "nap." Yeah right! That just didn't happen and an hour later they were both screaming. I got them up and got them ready for the party. The party was being held at the church that we attended when I was little. Since my parents have been back in Virginia they are now going to that church again. We arrived around 2:30 and my mom was expected to arrive around 3:00 under the pretense that she had a meeting. She and my dad had plans to go shopping and out to dinner that afternoon/evening and when this "meeting" came up my dad told her he would drop her off at the church and then go run some errands. Of course what he really did was drop her off at the back of the church, park the car at the side of the church and then run into the Fellowship Hall before my mom could get in there. When my mom arrived at 3:00 the 50 guests were fixated on the door waiting to hell surprise and hope that we didn't give mom a heart attack. Sam quickly ran to see my mom who was in a complete loss for words and 100% surprised. It took her a minute or so to register that the little boy at her feet was indeed Sam and that the little girl that my kindergarten teacher was carrying was actually Claire. There were also cousins and friends from Pennsylvania would had driven down that day that were there for the suprise as well as old neighbors, church members and old family friends. I had so much fun seeing people I hadn't seen in years and Sam had the time of his life running around hugging anyone who would stand still. Claire took awhile to warm up to everyone but once she did she had fun running around too. Sam became quick friends with my kindergarten teacher, Joan, which was so neat to see. I know it was fun for her to see that 25+ years after teaching me my ABC's I was now a mommy. Sam and Joan had a great time together and she feed him and kept him entertained through most of the party.

After the party all of our friends and relatives for PA went back to our house for pizza and to hang out. Sam quickly revealed how exhausted he really was and was in bed shortly after 7:00. Claire on the other hand played quietly by herself for over an hour and everyone commented on how good she was. I told them that she rarely plays that quietly for that long and that she was so tired that she didn't know what else to do.

The next morning we met the PA gang for breakfast and it became clear pretty quickly that Claire was sick. She had been up crying in the middle of the night which is way too common for her and definitely not an indicator of illness but her lack of appetite and clinginess to me told me that she didn't feel well. After breakfast my mom, Sam and I took her to a clinic to have her looked at and it turned out she had an ear infection. We were lucky to catch it as early as we did b/c she had 2 days for the antibiotics to kick in before we had to fly home on Tuesday.

Sunday night we had dinner with some of our cousins and then by lunchtime on Monday all of the PA gang had left. Sam and my dad did a little fishing which to Sam meant that he kept pulling the fishing poll in and out of the water saying "Mommy, look, I caught a worm!" Of course the worm was the bait so he in fact did not catch a worm and there were probably some irritated fish in the water who were trying to catch this worm that kept dodging in and out of the water. Eventually he kept the fishing line in long enough to catch a catfish.

We did make it down to the ocean briefly but it was so windy and cold that we only stayed long enough to feed the seagulls a loaf of bread before leaving and going out to a birthday dinner for my mom.

Tuesday evening the kids and I boarded the plane once again to come back home. They did very well on the plane and I put their pajamas on so that if they fell asleep on the way home from the airport we could just carry them inside and put them to bed which is exactly what happened. Wednesday they were both still so tired that they took 3 hour naps!

We had a great visit with my parents and it was so fun to see family and other friends that we hadn't seen in ages. It was too bad that Bill wasn't able to go but now I know that I can survive a flight with both kids alone if I need to.