Though Julia seemed to find the music invigorating, Madeleine apparently found it to be a lullaby, as she conked out cold about twenty minutes after we set out. Upon seeing her asleep in her car seat, I felt my stomach sink, because it's a given that an impromptu late-afternoon nap means a wide-awake Madeleine at bedtime. Attempting to rouse her, I called her name loudly several times until she awoke, then told her that one of her favorite songs was playing.
"Don't you want to listen to 'The Sunny Side of Life?" I entreated her.
She responded by nodding her head, nodding off to sleep as she did so, sitting there conked out with her head drooping down in front of her.
Julia was not at any point lulled to sleep by the music, though she was occasionally lulled into inattention to her own OCD rules of conduct.
JULIA: Mama? I'm doing a thing where EVERY song, I switch dolls (pointing to her pile of four American girl dolls that she brought along for the car ride.) But sometimes, I, like, just start, like, relaxing, or, like, ENJOYING the music, and I FORGET to switch dolls, so then when I remember, I just SWITCH them.
Madeleine, fortunately, did not sleep for the ENTIRE car ride, but unfortunately, was not particularly thrilled to be stuck in the car once she awoke. In fact, neither kid was loving our extra long drive down to Yiayia's house, made even more fun by recurring pockets of heavy traffic the whole way down. Julia seemed to think that Ethan and I were the gods of the highways who had omniscient understanding of why everything was the way it was. "Mama! But WHY are these cars all driving so SLOWLY? WHY is there so much TRAFFIC? I just wish we could get to YIAYIA'S HOUSE!" she would lament over and over again from the back seat. I'm not sure she fully understood that no matter how badly SHE wanted the drive to be over with, Ethan and I actually wanted it to be over ten times as badly.
In a final desperate attempt to quell the kids' boredom, I suggested we play the Alphabet game. I explained the rules of searching the signs, license plates, and storefronts around us to find each letter of the alphabet in subsequent order.
ME: Okay, so first we need to look for the letter A!
JULIA: Okay. Oh! Mama! I see an A!
ME: Great job! Okay, now look for the letter B!
MADELEINE: (pointing aimlessly) Oh! I see a B!
ME: Where?
MADELEINE: (pointing aimlessly again) Right THERE!
ME: Okay. Let's look for C!
MADELEINE: (pointing aimlessly) Oh! I see a C!
JULIA: Madeleine, can I PLEASE have a turn to find the next one?
ME: Yeah. Okay. Let's take turns. Julia, you look for D.
MADELEINE: (pointing aimlessly) Oh! I see a D!
JULIA: Moooom! Madeleine! Mom, she's not giving me a turn to FIND ANYTHING!
Julia's gusto for the game lasted until we got temporarily stumped on the letter H, at which point she decided to try and alter the rules.
JULIA: Well, Mama, I can't find any H! So...should we just skip it and go on to the next letter?
ME: No! We have to find all the letters in order - that's the rule of the game!
JULIA: Well, WHY do we HAVE to find every letter?
Because, Julia. This game is SUPPOSED to take a long time to keep you entertained and to keep you from asking every two seconds how much longer until we get to Yiayia's house. Help me out, here.
By the time we got to K, Julia was really pooping out on the whole game idea.
JULIA: Mama, I just can't FIND any K.
ME: Really? Keep looking. I've seen FOUR already.
JULIA: Well, Mama, then why don't YOU just find the letters?
Happily, I managed to keep both kinds interested enough to get through the whole alphabet. As we approached our exit, we were down to the last few letters, and tensions mounted as we wondered if we could complete the alphabet before arriving at Yiayia's house. Madeleine was so sucked into the excitement of our down-to-the-wire letter search that she jumped in to contribute in the only way she knew how.
ME: Quick! We need to find W!
MADELEINE: (pointing all around her and crying out in delight) SIGNS! Mommy, I see SIGNS!
JULIA: Oh! Mama, I saw a W!
MADELEINE: Oh! Mama, I saw a D!
ME: Okay, look for X! Quick!
JULIA: I see an X! In the word EXIT!
MADELEINE: (shrieking enthusiastically) Mommy! I see SIGNS!
ME: And is there a Y on our exit sign?
JULIA: YES! I see a Y!
MADELEINE: (in frantic excitement) SIGNS! Mommy, I see SIGNS!
It seemed that we were doomed to lose the game, however, as we pulled off the highway and were stuck with one of the most elusive letters of the alphabet to find as we drove through small town roads to Yiayia's house. THANKFULLY, Miranda's Pizza saved the day. HOORAY! I'm not sure if we were more excited to have completed the alphabet or to finally be off the traffic-laden highway, but the car sure was full of wild delight.
The girls were, of course, amped up and full of energy once we got out of the car, so it was not only a late bedtime for both, but they were up - literally - at the crack of dawn the next morning. As the adults got busy readying the house for the big party, the kids managed to keep completely entertained playing with toys in the play basement. Once the guests arrived, however, Madeleine literally became the life of the party. Hanging out in the laps of relatives she had never even met before in her life (or hasn't seen since infancy), she was her usual confident and gregarious self:
Madeleine even managed to hold her own in conversations with various relatives, and if she didn't have something relevant to say, she wasn't afraid to forge on ahead with total confidence regardless of her tangent. As we sat at the table eating dessert, I announced to the girls that after they finished their cake, we were going to take baths and put on pajamas, which spawned a conversation about baths between Madeleine and one of our relatives.
ELAINE: Ooh, bath time! Do you like taking baths, Madeleine?
MADELEINE: Oh, yes!
ELAINE: Do you like soap?
MADELEINE: Uh...when...you can be PUTTING YOUR HAIR in your eyes like this and it's, like, CRACKING ME UP!
I can't imagine there could be a more clear and concise answer to "do you like soap?" than the one Madeleine gave above.
As we went upstairs to start the bath, Julia announced dreamily, "That was a reeeeally fun party." Then, suddenly curious, she asked me, "But Mama? Do you KNOW the names of all the boys AND the girls down there?"
You mean my relatives? Uh, yeah. I know their names.
After baths were finished and pajamas were on, we began packing up the car to get on the road back home. The girls made their rounds with hugs for all our relatives, and the transition seemed smooth until we were heading out the door and Madeleine discovered she was borefooting. I had assumed she would prefer to ride home borefoot so that she could conk out in the car, but I could have not been more wrong. My uncle was fortunately able to step in and help me out with the process of getting my sad little borefooter to the car.
ME: (opening the front door) Okay, come on girls, let's go to the car.
MADELEINE: (bursting into tears) Oh no! I need my SHOOEEES!
UNCLE DAVE: (lifting Madeleine into his arms) Can I carry you to the car since you don't have your shoes on?
MADELEINE: (burying her head in Uncle Dave's neck and releasing a heart-broken wail)
UNCLE DAVE: Are you sad that I'm carrying you? Do you want your Mom?
MADELEINE: (inconsolable) I just RILLYRILLY need my SHOOOOEEES! (breaking into a fresh wail of injustice.)
I think she may have been a little overtired. About ten minutes into the car drive, I turned around to see this:
Luckily, we had Julia, wide awake in the back seat, to provide cheerful chatter the whole ride home, despite my hopes that she, too, would conk out in back.
At any rate, they had a great time partying down with the Bellas family. Happy Birthday, Yiayia Megali!!
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