Remembering to breathe

Matt and I have been looking forward to this weekend for a while now - yesterday was Jake's annual fall bash and today was Mazza's annual pumpkin fest. It's a weekend full of pumpkins, cider, good friends, yummy beer and food, hay rides, pony rides, and just being in the fresh air. Fun, right? Not quite.

Acadia was in the WORST MOOD EVER yesterday. I mean, from the time she woke up until we left Jake's party, she was either crying, throwing a tantrum or in general, just being cranky. Oh my word. This kid tested our patience. One or two tantrums, and I barely even notice. 5 hours of NON-STOP tantrums is enough to turn a person into an alcoholic. Oh my. Jake rents a bouncy house every year, has pony rides, face painting, and toys all over for the kids. Nothing worked. Our girl was just miserable. The only thing she wanted to do was go on the bouncy house, and we thought she was a bit young for it. There were kids as old as 12 jumping in it, and all I could picture was someone jumping into her face and turning her into the toothless-wonder. Finally, a couple of our friends and their sons went on it with Acadia and I. We tried to wait until the "big kids" were out of it and went in with them to hold their hands. This made Cadi happy for about 10 minutes, and it was the happiest ten minutes of our day. When it was time to get off, it was back to throwing herself on the cold, wet grass and screaming like only the devil can.

We ended up having to leave in the middle of dinner, because 1) Acadia refused to eat and 2) you guessed it! She was throwing too many tantrums for us to deal with. We said goodbye to some of our friends and took off - steam coming out of our ears, and all. We got into the car, and our little devil turned into an angel. She was quiet as a mouse and was perfect for the ride home. Next year, we are going to take Jake up on his offer and leave her with the babysitters he hired for the night.

She was much better today at the Mazza's fest and we had a lot of fun. She had her first bite of pumpkin pie and LOVED it! She carried the spoon we served the pie in for the rest of the day, just sucking on it every now and again. I'll post pictures soon!