Rocky Top Part 2 & Mother’s Day

After the graduation ceremony on Friday we ate lunch at the pizza place where Mandy works - Sergeant Pepperonis. Seriously some of the best pizza I’ve ever had!

Can you guess who shared the spotlight with Aunt Mandy this weekend? I’m glad I was able to bring H along with me. She’s gotten a lot less family time than Knox had. Most of my family hadn’t seen her since Christmas - that’s like a third of her life! She ate up the extra attention.

Mom and Nick drove us back to the Nashville for our flight home Friday afternoon.

Hadley got a decent nap on the way there but considering her lack of sleep it wasn’t nearly enough.

We killed some time at the Opry Mills mall once we got to Nashville. Our flight home wasn’t until 7:30, putting us in around 9:40. Yuck! So you can imagine my excitement once I checked in at the airport around 6 and the guy told me he could put us on the 6:30 flight back… I thought it was just the luckiest day ever since that would put us home around 8 and Hadley’s fuse was already running short.

We RAN through security and rushed to grab a quick “dinner” (a banana, water, and box of Frosted Mini Wheats), and then it was time to board…

I was not excited about our new seat in the back of the plane, but hey… An earlier flight is an earlier flight, right?

We were on the runway, engines ready for take-off when the pilot announced that there was bad weather moving through back home and it would delay us 30 minutes… Which turned in to another 30 minutes, which turned in to 45 minutes, and so on and so forth. Our “6:30” flight didn’t take off until 9pm, so you can just imagine how sweet, hungry, over-tired Hadley dealt with that…

Awful! She was the only little one on the flight and I’m always so paranoid about being THAT mom and kid that everyone dreads… I felt like part clown part wrestler pulling everything I could think of out of my bag trying to keep her calm. She really never had an all out melt-down she just fought everything… She wanted to walk, but didn’t want me to put her down. She wanted a snack but didn’t want me to open it. She wanted to watch a show, but not really…. There aren’t enough DumDums or apps in the world to prepare for that.

I’m so thankful that the flight attendants and other passengers were very understanding with us. Everyone was irritated about the delay but I think more than anything they just felt sorry for us. It was obvious that it was WAY past H’s bedtime and that I was doing any and everything humanly possible to pacify her.

It was rough, but we survived and as soon as we took off she passed out like I knew she would. I had to go to the bathroom from the moment we got on the plane but didn’t get a chance while dealing with her and once she fell asleep I didn’t dare wake her up, so I was pretty much miserable the entire flight.

But anyway - on top of the initial delay, the pilot spent 45 minutes circling the airport until he was cleared to land and we waited another 45 for an open gate. By the time I got off that plane it was past 11 and I was too claustrophobic, exhausted, and hungry for words…

James and Knox were waiting for us at baggage claim. Knox’s reaction when he saw us *almost* made it all better. He ran up and gave me a hug, then he and Hadley had a 5 minute hugging/giggle fest. It was priceless. If I hadn’t been so delirious I probably would have gotten pics ;)

We hit a traffic jam for night construction on the way home and had to stop for gas so it was 1am before we got to bed. Nuts!

My kids usually do really well flying but there’ve been about 3 or 4 other times when we’ve been delayed like this and it just seems to be one nightmare after another… Although, I do believe the fact that it was Mother’s Day weekend worked in my favor. People are usually pretty helpful whenever they see me juggling kids/strollers/bags, but they were exceptionally so this trip… I didn’t once have to worry about lifting my bags or folding/unfolding the stroller, security let me slide on a few unauthorized liquids I’d forgotten about and let us bypass the jumbo x-ray machine, and we received so many words of encouragement from strangers, especially on that rough ride home… I hope I remember that one day when my kids are grown and I get stuck next to the mom with the cranky kid ;)

Needless to say Saturday and Sunday were spent recuperating for H and me. James let me sleep in and Hadley took some looong naps. I don’t think I did one single productive thing Saturday. I was pretty lazy Sunday too but I did catch up on some laundry and cleaning. I know - cleaning on Mother’s Day… But I told James it actually was a “treat” because since he had the kids I was able to get to the things that never get done.

{The kids played dress-up all day Sunday. James sent me this picture. Cutest little pirate and princess there ever were!}

For Mother’s Day my crew surprised me with a new Tiffany’s necklace Knox picked out himself. He was so proud of it! Melts my heart…

We went out to eat Sunday night at a local Italian place. Yummy food made by someone else and a night off cleaning the kitchen is always a present in and of itself :)

I love sharing my first mommy pictures every year, so here’s Knox and me…

May 29, 2008 - Literally, the MOMENT I became a mommy.

And Hadley…

August 20, 2010 - Precious, precious girl! I remember before she was born worrying I wouldn’t be able to love another child as much as I did Knox. It’s amazing how your heart grows and loves each one differently but somehow equally.

I can’t believe I just celebrated my 4th Mother’s Day (well technically that first one I was VERY pregnant with Knox…) and that I have 2 kids that are as big and wonderful as they are. I feel like the luckiest mommy ever :)