Nathan Schmoe and his grumpy girls

Grammie, zonked. She is the queen of car sleeping. She puts on her shades, so as to remain inconspicuous, folds her arms and bows her head. One is hard-pressed to tell if she's actually sleeping or deep in prayer. 

Sometimes after being away Nathan comes home on a late night flight, and on such nights it is up to yours truly (with Stella in tow) to pick up said husband from the airport long after the sun and all sane creatures have gone to sleep. And if there's one thing I have learned about my child, it is that she requires the same exorbitant amount of sleep that I do in order to function in any normal way. Needless to say, these late night pick-ups have been pushing our limits and testing our sanity.


So this morning we thought we were scot-free when we BOTH woke up happy after a measly 5 hours of sleep. Tired, sure. But so glad to have Nathan home that sleeping in just wasn't an option. Stella followed him around like a faithful little pup. She watched his face while he talked and after every sentence she'd throw her head back with a boisterous laugh and say, "THAT'S HIL-AR-EEOUS."


That girl.


We decided to take her to see the new sea turtle exhibit at Sea World, and it was on the way there when things started getting testy. Approaching a toll booth we realized we had no cash except a few nickels and an ash tray full of pennies. The cars were lining up behind us and I started barking demands as Nathan tried to quickly sort through the change. "HURRY UP!! COUNT THEM OUT!! PEOPLE ARE WAITING! WE NEED 75!!!" The lady rolled her eyes and in an annoyed, nasal-y voice shouted, "JUST GO ON THROUGH", mumbling under her breath. Stella wanted to watch Jack!...no Elmo!...no Abbie's Flying Fairy School! and kept chucking the phone at the front seat in frustration. We let her eat an entire bag of yogurt pretzels and when they were gone and the whining continued I was about ready to lose it. Luckily Nathan keeps his cool in such moments and kicked it into high gear distraction mode. "Stella, look at that Spiderman billboard! OOh, look! There's an airplane! And a red semi-truck! Your favorite!" etc, etc.


The Turtle Trek was a series of rather anticlimactic aquariums which involved a lot of waiting in cramped quarters with our fellow smelly Sea Worldians. Stella took to balancing on a skinny cement ledge and then throwing herself off of it onto a row of wheelchair bound child haters. They shot her whiskery scowls every time she squealed or laughed or bumped their tire. Stella thought that the highlight of the experience was the 3D movie. Well not so much the movie, but the 3D glasses. When we had to give them back at the end of the trek all hell broke loose.


We drug her all the way back to the car while she wailed, "MYYYYY YELLLOOOWWWW GLASSESSSSSSSS!!!" I heaved myself into the front seat, slipped off my shoes and put my feet up on the dash. Stella stopped flailing as soon as Nathan strapped her in her car seat. We were both asleep before we left the parking lot.


He's REALLY happy to be home.