Such A Trooper

Carly gets a gold star today (or really 3) for being such a trooper.

Our Saturday started like any other Saturday. I got up and ran (or attempted to run) and then Dave and Carly woke up shortly after I returned home. After we were all dressed and ready for our day we ventured out for a bagel breakfast (we needed to carb load for the remainder of our day). We then returned home for an hour or so of playing. Then at 11:00 am our "scheduled" day began.

We loaded into the car and began our trip down to South East Charlotte for Matthew's fourth birthday party. Thankfully durning our trip Carly fell into a nice deep sleep and got about 45 minutes worth of a great nap. During the party Carly sat on the sofa with Matthew while he read her a few books. She followed him around and tried to play with everything he played with. (Matthew was great about telling her it was his turn, then explaining what he was doing with the toy, and then handing it to her for her to play with.) She also sat in a little kid's sized folded chair at a kid's sized card table to eat her hot dog lunch and cupcake. She was also eager to use the Cars napkin to demonstrate her ability to wipe her hands and mouth. (She was definitely showing off for the older kids.) She played balloons with the kids and sat very well for a 17 month old while Matthew opened his gifts.

Following Matthew's party we packed ourselves back into the car and headed towards East Charlotte for Ty's first birthday party. Carly didn't nap during this 45 minute trip, but she did relax. We arrived just in time to see Ty with his cake. While Dave and Carly were making their away around the party, Carly saw a large kiddie corral full of toys. She was thrilled and spent most of the party playing with different kids in the corral. This gave Dave and I a chance to sit, relax, and talk to other adults (such a foreign concept at a kid's birthday party).

After a second fabulous birthday party we piled back into the car and started making our way back to Cornelius. We arrived home shortly before 5, giving Dave just enough time to take a power nap and Carly just enough time to play with her toys before we piled back in the car to meet some friends who were in town for dinner. Normally, we wouldn't have scheduled a dinner out after such a busy day; however, we really wanted to meet baby Parker while he and his parents were in Charlotte visiting from Indiana. So, off to dinner we went. During dinner, Carly wanted to walk around and check out the new restaurant. She was quite fascinated with the fish tank, until a large bunch of balloons were delivered to mark a table as reserved. Carly wasn't a super eater during this meal, but she did color while we waited on our food to arrive and she did eat while we ate the first half our meal. While her restaurant behavior wasn't perfect tonight, it was a whole lot better than it could have been with the busy day she had (and the lack of a crib nap).

So, three gold stars for being a trooper on such a busy day!