We are never taking aiden anywhere ever again!

We got back from florida this morning and to sum up our trip "we are never taking aiden anywhere ever again!!!!". He was awful, beyond awful, and then some more awful. I don't think I have ever apologized to so many strangers in my life. It was like our thing this weekend, go somewhere, stay a while, tick everybody there off, and leave apologizing! My frustration level with dealing with my terrible two year old is at an all time high right now! So let's start from the beginning...

Saturday morning we got up extremely early and left for the aiport (thanks to kim who took us and picked us up from the airport cause she's awesome!). We were very lucky that when we checked in for our flight there were enough empty seats that they let us move to a row with 3 seats and aiden got his own seat. We thought this was a good thing but of course it was awful!

See these are the before pictures. We are still on the ground and everything looks hopeful, like he has his own seat and he's gonna look out the window and drink his beverage. Greatness! Nope absolutely not this lasted about 2 more minutes past these pictures and then it was NON STOP screaming, crying, yelling, saying "GO, GO, GO, GO" . He did not want to be on that plane, he did not want to have to stay in that seat, he wanted to go and he wanted everyone on that plane to know about it. For 2 solid hours. Screaming, crying...you would think he would tire himself out, he would give up right?? Nope not this little boy. Everyone on that plane hated us. I do not blame them. I felt like I should send out an apology over the PA system but I settled for apologizing to everyone around me which they said no problem and they understood and blah blah but what are they really gonna say?? It was awful!

Nate is ben's best friend and the groom of this wedding we went to florida to attend. Ben was the best man, aiden was the ring bearer. Nate picked us up at the airport and we had to go straight to the tux place to pick up ben's tux and then on to the rehearsal/ dinner. Their wedding was at this beautiful farm which has been kind of transformed into a venue for weddings and it was very pretty. The rehearsal took place in the big open field (where the wedding was) and then the dinner was in this old barn. Very cool. Anyways for the rehearsal we found out that A) aiden was going to have no trouble getting down the aisle cause he would get to hold the 6 year old flower girls' hand and as long as she was holding his hand he would go wherever she went so that was exciting to us and then B) we found out that there was NO WAY he was going to stay up at the front and be quiet and still. So we came up with contingency plans of how I was going to come up there and get him.

This is the bride and groom's feet and legs that aiden continued to crawl through and peek through all through the rehearsal. Then he would run off at crazy speeds through a field and I would have to chase him in heels. All weekend I had packed heels like an idiot cause everywhere we went I had to run after aiden. I'm exhausted. Anyways so after the rehearsal was the dinner in the barn and it was BBQ and it was really nice. Of course aiden was awful and wouldn't sit anywhere unless he was eating cake or eating ice tea with a spoon. Yes crazy things we did to keep him happy and STILL.

Cake at the rehearsal dinner

I was trying to show the decorated barn

buffet of BBQ

Aiden and daddy...eating iced tea with a spoon

eating cake

And finally I was very glad they had a little playground on this farm because me and aiden spent a lot of time there.

So after all that was over we went back to nate's house (where we were staying) and I put aiden down for the night. He went to bed very early because he hadn't had a nap all day. The bad news is that he can very much get out of his pack and play AND he can even open doors now so I would put him in bed, he would climb right back out and walk back to where we were. I ended up having to put him to bed like 30 times before he would stay. I didn't know what else to do. The bridal party hung out that night and watched the big 12 championship and the SEC championship that we had recorded while we were at the rehearsal. We went to bed and aiden woke us up bright and early the next morning like 6am? He did go to bed really early and was off his schedule but again, really hated it that he just climbed out and came to find us. So ben took nate to breakfast the morning of his wedding and I got aiden and myself ready and met them up at the farm as late as I possibly could so HOPEFULLY aiden would be in the best possible mood for wedding time. It didn't really work. He was not cooperative with really anything. He was in a few pictures with just the guys before the ceremony but he was more interested in running around the farm. He pulled his own flower off his suit and then broke ben's flower off his. We were able to fix ben's thank goodness but aiden had to do without a flower since he pretty much ripped it up. A couple of pics before the ceremony...

With the groom...I think he even looks mean here.

Walking around the farm drinking his bottle. Horribe parenting?? Absolutely! So not what I was worried about at the time...

So ceremony time comes and I go down to the wedding site to get a seat close so I can get aiden after he walks down the aisle. Ben puts him on the carriage to ride down there with the bride and her dad and the flower girl and the men line up to walk in. The men walk in, the bridesmaids walk down, we wait on the carriage...it's time for the flower girl and aiden to walk down together. Aiden stands there and tried to take the little girl's hand and she is having none of it! SHE got scared and WOULD NOT walk down the aisle. Her dad came out of the audience and walked her down the aisle and by the time I figure out that it was HER that was the problem and not aiden, it's too late. The coordinator scoops up aiden and moves him so the bride can make her entrance. So he never got to walk down the aisle :( I was so sad. Especially because he was ready and he would have done it if that little girl just would have taken his hand! So anyways I walked to the back and took him from the coordinator and we spent the wedding playing on a golf cart on the farm , playing on the playground, running around, etc. I didn't see any of the wedding from that point on so here are the pictures I have.

I don't know what they're chatting and laughing about up there...

The bridesmaids

The carriage pulling up

The groom getting misty eyed...and then I saw nothing.

They did a lot of pictures of the wedding party after the ceremony was over and aiden was in all of those so maybe several years from now no one will even remember that he didn't actually walk down the aisle or stand up there...I doubt it, but maybe.

Trying to get a better picture of aiden with the groom...but right after this he tried to rip his flower off too

Sorry I'm awful...here's part of your flower back!

Playing on the golf cart that for the rest of the night he kept calling a "truck."

The wedding party

The flower girl and aiden making friends

The happy couple

I'm taking these pictures from behind the photographer so that's why no one is looking at me...the bridesmaids and nate.

Now this one, I'm gonna want from the photographer.

Nate and Ben

The reception was just a whole lot more of the same. Me chasing aiden all night. He wanted to be with ben but even when he was with ben he wasn't happy. Just more awfulness. The reception itself was fabulous. The whole wedding was really beautiful and sweet. Ben gave a really sweet and special toast about his friend nate. I heard most of it from the porch outside where I was chasing aiden but someone took a picture for me. Here are the pictures I have.

The beautiful farm house where the reception was held.

Ben's best man speech

Aiden the only time he was nice, dancing with a high school friend of ben and nate's

Aiden playing with things he shouldn't

Cutting the cake

Aiden screaming at daddy

Aiden hitting the groom

Aiden eating cake

And then all of us and of course aiden being AWFUL!!!! This was when aiden and I left. I couldn't take it anymore and I had apologized for him enough for the day. Now we had planned all along that we were gonna try to "make the most" out of this vacation and since we were already going to be in tampa for this wedding we thought we would spend an extra day and a half and drive up to orlando and take aiden to a theme park or something. Well after how awful he was in tampa we decided we were not gonna waste any money on taking him some place only to have him be awful and us have to leave. So we drove up to orlando on monday and went to downtown disney (it's outside of the theme park and it's just a lot of shopping and characters, theme stores, that kind of thing). We were there for maybe an hour before aiden started being a terror and we had to leave. I did get to go to my favorite bath store though that they only have 1 location in orlando, one in LA, and one in las vegas so I was glad we got to stop there and the only picture I have is aiden smelling the soap cause ben and i kept picking up different soaps and smelling. Then last night we went to eat at a japanese steakhouse where aiden kept throwing bowls, spoons, etc. at people, at the chef and we had to leave. Then at the hotel he wouldn't go to bed, he kicked and screamed when we tried to change him. JUST AWFUL! This is a picture I took last night at around midnight when he was kicking, screaming, crawling up to the top of the bed and trying to not let us change him or put his pajamas on him. This is pure evil people. All of you who love and care about aiden, I really thought this might be his last picture ever. I don't think I have ever seen ben so angry and I was equally as unhappy with aiden. Just completely and totally worn out. So exhausted and tired of apologizing, tired of being embarrassed, tired of having this little terror that we can't control. This morning we had to get up extra early again and we drugged aiden before taking him to the airport. We gave him both night time dimetapp and benadryl. One or the other has never worked for us so we tried both and it worked! We were lucky enough to get an extra seat for him again but this time we carried on the car seat and strapped him in to the seat and he slept the whole 3 hours! Thank you God! We are now home and we are all recovering. Ben and I are both so emotionally drained and so sad that we obviously can't take aiden anywhere. We have some serious behavioral issues to work on. I know what all you grandparents and great grandparents are going to say...he was off his schedule, he was out of his element, he's just a baby, and yes some of that is true but I have made those excuses for him too but no more...I am not going to have a child who hits people, throws things, screams and cries for no reason. Things are about to get tough at our house. I hope everyone else had a more relaxing weekend than we did.