we should have stayed in bed

we had plans saturday, but we should have stayed in bed. the plan was to meet friends at a local farm at 9am, eat lunch, and maybe pick a pumpkin. i have been looking forward to going to a farm and picking a pumpkin for about a month. i was trying to go a few weeks before halloween and after the weather had gotten cooler. that was the plan, but here is how it actually went...

madelyn woke up screaming at 6am. i got her settled back down and then she woke up to start the day at 7:30am. i was still exhausted from madelyn's night of vomiting, but since matt had been up until 3am working on the basement floors i got up with her. while she was eating her breakfast, i was working on putting together a packed lunch for us to take to the farm. and then madelyn started screaming. she fell into the chair next to her at the table. i guess she was distracted (she gets a little dance-y when she starts to feel full) and tripped landing lip first on the neighboring chair. well, her lip busted open and blood started pouring out. i was torn about if i should take her to the emergency room for a stitch or two or if it was just a bad cut. the bleeding seemed to stop in a reasonable amount of time and once she was calm she wanted to finish her breakfast. so i assumed that we didn't need to go for stitches because from what she would let me see, it wasn't too bad.

once matt was up i was able to start getting myself ready to go. once i was presentable it was time to get maddie into her halloween shirt so that we could get some cute pumpkin patch pictures. by the time i had directions on how to get to the farm it occurred to me that we were going to be two hours late. if we were two hours late madelyn would be cranky and hungry by the time we got there and would be ready for her nap. but i was determined, so we all got in the car.

on the way to the farm madelyn started to get sleepy - as expected - and yawned. the yawn opened up the cut on her lip and it started bleeding profusely. i was trying to reach back and control the amount of blood stains by this time we were late, exhausted, and madelyn was wearing a now bloodstained shirt with more blood coming from her mouth - it was time to give up. so matt turned the car around and we headed back home with a hungry, tired girl demanding "snacks" in the back seat.

still unwilling to give up on our fall fun i suggested that we head to a nature center just down the street from us to hike up one of the trails to the top of a hill and check out the fall leaves after madelyn woke up from her nap (with her hand, thumb, face, and linens stained with blood). the day was gorgeous and surprisingly warm and i refused to spend it indoors.

the nature center was pretty crowded, but as soon as we headed up to the information center (to check out the fish tanks and stuffed wildlife) we realized that this too wasn't really going to work out. the ladybugs were swarming! it doesn't sound like a big deal, but ladybugs here bite. we were covered from head to toe with ladybugs by the time we got inside. after a quick brush off of the bugs we spent some time inside taking in the staged wildlife. madelyn was excited to see all the animals and we spent more time inside than we would have if it hadn't been for the ladybugs.

when we finally decided to venture outside again we just went on a quick lap around the short trail to check out the apple themed scarecrows. madelyn didn't quite know what to think about them - they were a little creepy and not in the fun halloween way. about halfway through the trail madelyn started to melt down and we had to leave.

after the nature center ladybug swarm, we went home and i started dinner. matt got to finally start preparing the basement floor for stain. i decided that since it was a nice evening i would grill the fish outside instead of cooking it in the oven. madelyn was snacking on some apples while i was preparing everything for the grill. when i would go out she would sit in a chair by the glass sliding door so that she could watch me put the food on the grill without getting too close. when i came in the second time she jumped down to follow me into the kitchen and landing face first down on the hardwoods! and as you might remember from the beginning of this long post, madelyn had already busted her mouth in the morning. the blood was twice as much this time. she and i were both covered in blood all over our shirts and she wouldn't let me anywhere close to her mouth to see where she was bleeding, if she had any teeth left, or wipe off any of the blood. in the mean time it was time to get the fish off the grill and matt was still downstairs in the middle of applying the etcher/degreaser to the floor.

i got madelyn calmed down, took off her shirt, got her some milk and put on some "bob" (aka veggietales). this time her bottom lip was split in two places on the inside. i think that it split more because it was still swollen from the trama in the morning.

bed time could not come soon enough! all and all the day was a bust - literally for madelyn. the weekend could only get better, right? love.