The 4th

Long weekends make you want to come back home. This last long weekend made Ollie want to come home early. He had his typical trip meltdown on Sunday night. Ollie was well behaved for the entire weekend. He was just tired and out of sorts. So after screaming at the top of his lungs for 1/2 an hour and not settling down for the night I got him up. He cried and cried until he got his mama. Since it was the fourth he went outside to watch the fireworks. He liked the sparks and light from them, but hated the noise. Granted he was tired, upset and crabby at this time, so he was sensitive to things. After a little while he was able to settle down and go to bed.

At about 4 am he awoke and wouldn't go back to sleep, so his mom got up with him while his grumpy dad tried to go back to sleep. About 6 I got up and Ollie took a nap on the couch while we packed and got ready to leave. He woke up when we finished loading the car and was fairly good the entire way home.

He was just as good on the way down. He had a few fits from being tied up in his car seat for almost 5 straight hours. For the most part though he just played with his toys and occasionally stared off into space during the car rides.

He had fun the rest of the time and was nice to everyone. He took to the pool without a problem. He let you know when he wanted in and when he wanted out by pointing. He even went swimming a couple of times on Saturday. He tried to blow bubbles (swallowed water), splashed, kicked and played with the pool toys while the adults jumped off the board and made fools of themselves. The only thing he didn't really like was getting splashed in the face, but who really likes that?

Ollie also got to meet a 18 month old boy named Keaton. They played around, shared crackers and raced down the driveway. They both ended up with scraped toes, but neither seemed to mind. Ollie also had to investigate the cars in the driveway. He opened and closed the gas tanks several times, played with the license plates and pounded the sides. At one point he went to the front of the car, then Ollie head butted the Plymouth! Right in the middle of the Plymouth symbol. Luckily it was round and flat or Ollie might have an imprint of a boat on his forehead.

All in all, Ollie had a good time and was well behaved. Other than his 1 bad night, he hardly fussed. Unfortunately, any other trips we may take will have a bad night as well, but at least we know it is coming. Guess we'll see on our next trip.