This is Why I’m Tired Today

As I was checking Facebook yesterday, I was reminded of the fact that it was Labor Day weekend by a meme a friend of mine shared:

Photo Credit: Colorado Springs Memes Facebook Page

Doodle LOVES hot air balloons! After I finished BEGGING Jake to sacrifice his last true day off before his 15 credit hour semester starts the same week he’s on-call and already scheduled to work 2 overtime shifts (sorry babe), we went up to Colorado Springs to play at the Penny Arcade (read “Quarter Arcade”) in Manitou to kill some time.

Google “Manitou Springs Arcade” – SO MUCH FUN!

After three hours of walking around, playing arcade games, and spending what felt like hundreds of quarters on 20-second rides, we were on our way to have dinner with some old friends of ours. We were CERTAIN that with the lack of a nap, the hours of driving, the full afternoon in Manitou with rides and games, the dinner with our “pretty lady” friend, and the late bedtime that he would doze off to sleep peacefully. The intention was for us to go to bed early as well so that we could wake up at 5 in the morning to get ready, get breakfast and coffee, drive the half hour across town, and actually find some parking before the balloons went up at 7.

9:00 PM – We return from dinner, get Doodle ready for bed, and lay him down to go night-night. I sing to him, and he stays in bed.

9:05 PM – I go downstairs to play Candy Crush Saga on the tablet while Jake plays Final Fantasy 7 on his cell phone. On a Friday night. We party hard.

9:15 PM – We decide it’s about time to call it, head to bed, and start to doze off to sleep.

9:30 PM – It starts. You see, we brought his owl night light that has a 30 minute auto-off function. He walked across the hall to tell me his owl has turned off. I had literally JUST started to doze off. UGH! I turned it back on, laid back down, and tried to go back to sleep.

9:45 PM – Back across the hall, he needed a sip of water… Do you see where this is going?

I’m not kidding you, at least 15 more times! He’d come in to see us, or he’d stay in the room playing with his cousin’s toys. He’d tiptoe in, as though he didn’t want to wake us, and whisper things to us, or he’d talk to us from the room about what he was playing with. I tried going in there sweetly, I tried being firm and laying down the law. Jake tried singing to him again. I laid in there next to him. We brought him into the bed with us. NOTHING WORKED!

12:00 AM – Midnight. I’m not kidding. At midnight, I FINALLY gave up and tried something that I have NEVER EVER had to do. I got up, grabbed Doodle, threw on some shoes, grabbed my car keys, buckled him in, and drove. After some harsh words about how tired he was going to be in 5 hours, it only took 10 minutes for him to pass out and stay out.

We woke up after no where near enough sleep, and Doodle was feeling it for sure! We happily rubbed it in that he should have listened to mama and daddy when we told him to go to bed.

“It’s not light out, mama. I’m sleepy.”

I’m fairly certain this was Doodle’s first true sunrise. I’m sure there have been mornings that he has been awake during the time the sun was actually rising, but we are NOT morning people, and we would normally NEVER demand that he be awake for that specific time of day. He was not hungry for breakfast, he did not want to drink any juice, and he was not happy that he couldn’t go back to sleep when we got in the car. At least he was as exhausted and miserable as we were! 😉

We finally found some parking, then walked around the lake to a good viewing area for the launch. Doodle was finally willing to eat a banana when we stopped. He was about to wake up real good…

We found a spot right at sunrise to enjoy our breakfast.

Some daddy tickles helped wake Doodle up just in time.

“What in the WORLD is going on around me?!”

They were coming up everywhere around us.

Doodle watching some balloons take off.

We were standing RIGHT next to so many of them.

He loved watching them fly right above us.

He thought they looked like flowers in the sky. 🙂

Our second sunrise of the morning.

Apparently these exist?!

Here, let me zoom that in for you. Yeah, EFF THAT!

And the 5 hours of sleep started to catch up to him about 40 minutes into the show.

Our view of the balloons over the lake as we were leaving.

Dozing off in the car for the hour-long drive back home.

Much fun was had, and Daddy and Doodle got to sleep peacefully the whole way home while Mama drove. Then Daddy got to sleep some more so he could get some rest before work. Doodle was no longer tired at that point, go figure. He has now also successfully skipped his naptime, and we’re about 5 minutes away from heading over to the neighbor’s house for a birthday party. Then I’ve got to work (been doing some work at home stuff lately) for a few hours, and hubby won’t be home ’til after Doodle goes to bed. I suppose I did ask for it…