The Day

I sometimes find that I fixate too much on what went wrong with my day and not enough on what went right. The vast majority of my birthday was wonderful but interspersed were some trying moments--scratch that-screaming moments that had me pounding my fist at the sky shouting "WHY??!!!"

I awoke to a kitchen full of streamers and balloons. McDreamy even remembered to put out the birthday flag. But something was amiss with Grace from the start. . . . She was edgy and not too happy of a camper. Regardless, we headed down to the zoo to meet Mom Mom, Aunt Sheila, and Sara and J.D. You could not have asked for a more beautiful day.

The kids just devoured the zoo. Grace has the attention span of a gnat and wants to whiz through everything. It was hard slowing her down. Luke doesn't show much interest in the animals but did have a fascinating encounter with a chameleon. He must have locked eyes with this little guy for a good minute before they both moved on.

At some point Grace became obsessed with getting her face painted. No problem I said--when we see it we'll do it. But the whining would not stop. On and on and on it went. It was on my last nerve. After all, we were there to see the animals. . .

So the kids got their faces painted and even Luke sat still. People all around us stopped to admire my strikingly adorable guy painted as a tiger. Grace chose a butterfly and how cute they were. I could tell Grace was headed in a downward spiral so we tried to hightail it out of there but too late. She put on her best exorcist-inspired performance I have ever seen. Have you ever seen that mom struggling to get an over sized, screaming toddler to the car while pushing another in the stroller? That was me. I won't go into all the details but let me assure you it was heinous. Like, top ten spazzes. . .

Grace passed out 20 minutes after we hit the expressway confirming my suspicions that she was exhausted. Got home and amidst the screaming, baked myself a yummy cake. Tom came home, we sang happy birthday (Luke softly sang happy day which was adorable) and we packed them off to bed. Had a really nice visit with my aunt who stopped by and then enjoyed a steak dinner and chimay.
The End.

Here is how I'm choosing to remember my day. Think happy thoughts. . .

Oh my gosh--how freakin cute is he???? I mean seriously--he's adorable! And he knows it;)
Grace shows off her butterfly face (which was washed away with tears by the time we got home. But never fear, mommy repainted it. If you could call it that. . . )
The cousins waiting for the train. Look at poor Lukie trying to see!
Grace loved the goats.
What? Who me? I'm just brushing a goat. Just brushing a goat. . . Move along mom. Nothing to see here. . .