Four days…one nap…and one cranky toddler…part 3

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Saturday was the day of the actual wedding.  As my wife was part of the bridal party, this kind of tied her up for most of the day.  My daughter and I struck out on our own.

Actually, the morning was mostly consumed by a visit with some family that I had in the are.

For all her lack of sleep, I was amazed by how charming my daughter could be.  She got over her hesitation around new people very rapidly and spent most of the morning running around and playing with cousins that she had never met until that morning.  (Of course, I am a father and my judgement on such things could be slightly prejudiced.  I was also pretty tired myself.  So she might have been an absolute terror that morning, and I would be able to tell you.)

The only exception to her general outgoingness was around my cousins’ new puppy.   They had asked me before hand if it was alright if they brought along their new puppy to meet me and my daughter.  Given my daughter’s attitude about our own dogs and the neighborhood dogs, I had thought that that wouldn’t be a problem.  I was wrong.  For some reason she seemed to be absolutely terrified of this little 10 week old puppy.  Go figure.

We spent the morning back at the giant State Fort Park, and then had lunch at the local Five Guys.  They dropped us back off at the hotel in just enough time that it’d be possible to put my daughter down for at least an hour or so before the wedding.

Ha.  Foolish daddy.  My daughter doesn’t take naps on demand.

After an hour or so of careful monitoring and occasional cajoling, I finally gave up.  I’m pretty sure that eventually she would have gone down…just in time to sleep through the whole wedding and then stay up all night.

Instead, I decided to get her ready for the big night.  We’d been talking about “the Wedding Party” for weeks now, and my daughter was pretty pumped up about it.   Her mother had made her a special wedding dress, and this was the very first time that she was going to wear it.

Everything seemed to be going just splendidly…right up until it was time to go to the actual wedding.

Now, I admit that I started things off on the wrong foot.  Expecting a bit more of a fight, I actually got my daughter ready about 45 minutes early.  Surprisingly, she went right into her dress without a fuss.   I then made the mistake of turning to the TV to keep her still for the remaining time.  What luck!  There was a Sponge Bob marathon on at that very moment.

This worked very well right up until it was time to leave.   I don’t know why I was surprised that my daughter kicked up such a fuss when I went to turn off the TV, but I was.   Fussiness of an extreme variety ensued for about five minutes.  I finally got her out the door and we were on our way.

The actual wedding was being held on the front lawn of the hotel, in front of a magnificent vista overlooking the ocean.   As we headed to the seating area, my daughter grew more and more reluctant.  With 10 minutes to go until the start of the ceremony, her good humor dissolved and she went into full out hissy fit.

I dragged her back away from the seating area and across the lawn to a more remote location.  There was a bench there where I could plop her down for an impromptu Time Out session while still keeping my eyes on the proceedings.

Eventually she calmed down and we made it back to the seating area just in time to see the bride walk down the aisle.  And I mean literally just in time.

No, strike that.  We were a little late as she was about halfway down when we got back.

I had lost one of the two seats that I’d been trying to reserve, but my daughter seemed more than happy to cuddle with me on my lap while my jacket was spread across her.

Two minutes later, she was asleep.

It figures.

She woke up just after the recessional, and spent a few groggy minutes getting acclimated.  Then we were off to the real wedding party.

My daughter did quite well that evening.  She played well with all the other children, ate all her food, and danced like a mad woman.  Really.   She was the hit of the party.  At one point there was a circle of about a dozen adults surrounding her on the dance floor, trying to teach her moves and cracking up when she tried to execute them.

I honestly think it was the most fun she’s had in her two years.

Best of all, she crashed just after we got back to the hotel room.  No fussing or fighting.  Just utter exhaustion.

I only wish my wife and I could have enjoyed the respite.   Unfortunately we had a 6:00 AM flight the next morning out of Boston, which meant I set my alarm for slight before three in the morning.  Eastern time.

Sunday was a very long day.