Yesterday we packed up the whole crew and headed to Niagara falls. We had friends that were on a road trip, and were making a 2 day stop at the falls, so we decided to meet up with them for the day. We told little man monday night that we were going to go see big waterfalls the next day (we can't tell him things too far in advanced, because if they fall though, we ALL pay for it with wining for DAYS.) He woke up yesterday so excited. We told him we would be going on the Maid of the Mist, showed up a bunch of pictures, and a video of what it was going to look like, and he was beside himself. All morning all he talked about was going to see the "big water" on the "big boat." We decided to meet up at 1:00, which was perfect because it gave us time to give little lady a nap at home, and then go as soon as she woke up.
We woke up little lady at 11:30, we were on the road by 11:45, we live about 45 minutes away, so we figured giving our selves an hour and 15 minute would be more than enough time. We didn't hit any traffic, we got there by 12:30, perfect! We had a plan, and it was going to work! HA! Annnnd then we parked, which seemed about 10 miles from where we had to be. So there we are, a big huge stroller, little lady in the front, little man in the back, my husband pushing it, and me carrying the 45 lb diaper bag. We were in a touristy area, and we had 10 minutes to walk from our car to the maid of the mist port, which was easily a 25 minute walk. And of course little man had to pee as soon as we got there, so that set us back a good 5 minutes... so now we had 5 minutes to walk a 25 minute route. I HATE being late, HATE HATE HATE it.. yes.. I KNOW that with kids, being late is par for the course, but I am usually pretty good with being places on time. We were on a mission, get to the dock CLOSE to on time, and it seemed like the hundreds of leisurely tourists were sent to stop us. So many times I wanted to yell at someone "YES! PLEASE stop your ENTIRE family in the middle of the side walk so you can look at your map, PLEASE don't move over so anyone can get around, the 20 of you aren't at all in the way!"... but we got through. We navigated our way through the crowds and made it 15 minutes late.. my shoulder and back were killing me from lugging the heavy bag, and we were panting from the near sprint we did, but hey.. it was cardio for the day, right?
So there we were, all in one piece, only 15 minutes late, our friends were very patiently waiting for us with their girls, so we took a quick breather, I fed little lady to stop any future meltdowns, and we were on our way. I brought my moby wrap, thinking I would just pop her in there, and put the little poncho over both of us and all would be well! Little man was SO excited in the line, kept talking about how he couldn't wait to get on the boat and see the big water, little lady was just happy to be out and was flirting away with anybody that would pay attention to her. Everything was going perfectly.... until...
Those damn ponchos. I ripped mine in the front so that little lady could poker her head out with me and so we would both stay dry. Apparently little lady did not want her hands covered and that sent her into super meltdown mode. To say she was pissed would be an understatement. I was bouncing, rocking, shushing, anything I could think of to calm her down, and it just pissed her off more. I ripped my poncho most of the way down so she could get her hands free, but it was too late, I had already pissed her off and she was going to let everyone around us know that her mom was an asshole. The passengers around us were all politely looking at me and smiling. Some of them with sympathy in their eyes, some with the fear of god "please.. please lady don't bring that screaming devil child on the boat.".. I politely smiled back and kinda shrugged as to say "sorry, I paid 20 damn dollars to get on this damn boat, screaming baby and all, THIS is happening!" As we boarded, and little lady screamed louder and louder, the smiles turned more into looks of desperation, I was really shocked someone didn't try to bribe me to stay off. But we got on the boat, and surprisingly little lady stopped when we got on. I took her out of the wrap, the poncho wasn't going to keep either of us dry since it was pretty much torn in half at this point, and she wanted to go with my husband. The boat started to move, so I asked little man if he wanted me to pick him up so he could see the waterfalls, he said yes, so I picked him up. He took one good look around, saw the huge waterfalls and felt the mist and SCREAMED "put me down!!!!!! I'm all done!!!!" For the next 5 minutes he clung onto a railing and just screamed, a loud, high pitched girly screech, then asked me to put him in his stroller. Once in, he stared at the floor, in full shut down mode. Every time I would ask him to look at the water, he would momentarily, scream, then look back down. The whole time I am trying to calm him, my poncho, which is really now just a big plastic cape, was constantly catching the wind and wrapping around myself, and anyone around us. Meanwhile little lady was getting SOAKED because she had to protection from the mist, but she loved it. She thought it was great! My husband and I enjoyed the views, but we got off feeling like we just ran a 10 mile marathon, soaked, and just exhausted.
After our draining experience on the boat, we decided on grabbing something to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe, which was BY FAR little man's favorite part of the day. He really could have cared less if he saw the falls, I doubt he will be asking to go on a boat again any time soon, but for the rest of the night all he talked about were the Elephants in the restaurant, and the big green frog on the bench out front. After we ate, little man and our friends (ADORABLE) twin girls sat around a big elephant in front of the restaurant laughing and giggling their little behinds off. Despite our sprint to the dock, and the meltdowns on the boat, it was a great day with the family, the kids smiling and giggling made it all worth it. :)
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