not so good day

Today Carsten and I went over to a friend's house from Moms and Tots along with a couple of other moms. I had initially decided that we would not go since it would take 1.5 - 2 hrs one way by public transit. One of the other moms who lives near the middle of our train line offered to pick me up in her car to save transit time if I got myself to the stop closest to her house. This was a super nice offer and I did want to go hang out with other moms, so I accepted. I got to the appointed stop a few minutes early and waited for a little while for the other mom to pick me up (which was understandable since she has a 3.5 year old and a 8 month old). We were able to fit our car seat in the middle of her two seats and her infant took our car seat while Carsten took his since Carsten has out grown our seat. We got the two babies in their seats and the both pretty much immediately started screaming. And when I say screaming, I mean SCREAMING. I've never heard Carsten cry that hard before and he puked before we had even left the parking lot - that's how hard he was crying. Poor baby boy :(. The babies seemed to be feeding off of each other so we stopped a few minutes down the rode to get them out and cuddle them and try to calm them down. I took the opportunity to change Carsten's clothes and I felt really badly that he threw up in their car seat. We made it about 15 min and then the boys cried for about the last 10 minutes to our destination. Carsten actually fell asleep about 3 minutes to the house, which showed that he had completely exhausted himself out because the other baby was still crying right next to his head and he was still managing to sleep. Once we got there I carefully got him out of the car seat, but he still woke up relatively unhappily.

We made up into the house where I fed Carsten and he seemed to calm down pretty nicely (which was a relief). He played outside in the yard (yes, a yard which had grass!) for a while and really enjoyed sticking his hand in the kiddie pool (he couldn't get into the pool which was nice :) ). Carsten even played nicely while I ate lunch - usually when I eat he feels that he needs to eat. It was a pretty warm day with a pretty strong sun, so I pulled him under the awning to play. Despite the fact that he had a horrible trip over and it was way past his afternoon nap time, Carsten was happy and engaged the entire time, which was a nice blessing. My only complaint is that the house really wasn't Carsten-safe (open dishwasher and trash, nice big TV at his height, etc.), so I pretty much had to follow him around for most of the afternoon which meant that I couldn't converse with the other moms very much.

We started heading back to our respective homes around 3:30 pm and both babies fell asleep within about two minutes of getting the car in motion which was such a blessing :). Carsten fell asleep with a rice cake in his mouth (so cute!) which stayed there for the duration of his nap (~30 min). I actually got to talk to the other mom on the way back, which was nice :). Carsten woke up when we arrived at our train station and was a little unhappy to be awake, which was understandable. We left our carseat in the car so the other mom didn't have to switch her sleepy baby into another car seat, and then I didn't have to take it back with me on the train. I missed the train by about 1 minute, which meant that I had to wait about 15 minutes until the next train. It was HOT, so it really wasn't a fun wait or train ride back (unairconditioned train cars). We got back home at 5 pm, and let me tell you,  I was wiped. I carried Carsten, a heavy diaper bag, and food items back up to our apartment from the train which is about 2 blocks uphill, which made me realize that I really enjoy having a stroller to carry most of these items :).

This day made me realize a few things. 1) It could be an interesting time in the US where Carsten has to be in a car seat all the time since he's really not used to that. 2) If Carsten really is a sympathetic crier, things could get really interesting when with his cousins. 3) Even with the really nice mom who went out of her way to pick us up at the train station, we didn't save time compared to public transit, which is sad. 4) I really don't want to hear Carsten cry that hard again. 5) Even though Carsten really didn't get a great nap in today he did great at the other mom's house and at home, which proves once again that he really is a trooper. 6) It's hard for me to have a conversation with other moms when I have a toddler that likes to get into everything (this really isn't a problem at our home since we've pretty well baby proofed everything). 7) At the end of a day like this, I'm exhausted.