Hanging with Karlee: Part 2

The morning after Karlee's arrival came fast. Tim and I were up pretty earlier, earlier than Karlee at least, who looked as though she was never going to get up--arms and legs jutting out at odd, improbable angles. We had set up our air mattress and pushed it up against the couch so all of us would be able to sleep in the same room, hopefully, to curb any fears Karlee may have had sleeping in a new place. Unfortunately for the both of us, we soon discovered that Karlee bounces in her sleep, and every movement woke us up.

Needless to say, we awoke that morning a bit tired. It should also be noted that Karlee tried everything, I mean EVERYTHING, to keep from going to sleep the night before. She bounced all over the place and asked a seemingly endless array of questions about the movie we were watching.

After all the acrobatics and chit-chat, you'd think Karlee would be slow to rise in the morning. No. It turns out Karlee is equally energetic at all times of the day. Morning's be damned! I need at least half a pot of coffee in the morning to refuel my tank; Karlee just needs a "big stretch."

That morning started a ritual of sorts: Karlee would take out all of her toys and set up a "pet shop" in our living room while Tim and I made breakfast. After breakfast, one of us would take a shower while the other played "pet shop." Afterwards, we'd switch, starting a tag-team style of shifting responsibility.

I have to say, having a partner in this endeavor was incredibly beneficial, especially since we soon learned that trips to the bathroom alone with a child in the house are a luxury. In the coming days, we also learned that it was better to let Karlee sleep and do the whole shower/bathroom thing before waking her up. Either way, I began to truly appreciate how difficult doing something as simple as going to the bathroom must be for single parents. As a single parent, I can only assume that dignity and privacy are traits best forgotten for the first few years of a child's life.

I bow down to all the single parents out there.

Well, back to our first day with Karlee. The first item on our (and by "our" I mean "Tim's") schedule was Rainforest Cafe, followed by Legoland. Since it took us a bit longer to get ready than we had planned, we had to switch our itinerary up a bit. Lunch moved ahead of Legoland.

Now, Rainforest Cafe is not known for the quality of its food, which is not bad, but it's not great either, definitely not worth the price you pay. However, we knew that Karlee loved going there the last time she was in town, and so we thought she'd like it again. Our trip there inspired this Facebook post:

Atmosphere trumps food quality.

As usual, Rainforest is loud, busy, and utterly fascinating to children; and I ended up being the one to lead Karlee around the entire restaurant, for Tim had spent the first part of our Rainforest experience in the Build-a-Bear section getting her a fox. This very same fox will later become a gender switching miracle, all depending on Karlee's mood: some of the time the fox is Mr. Fox (in girl clothes) and other times the fox is Mrs. Fox. I guess the fox is a combination of husband and wife; she also got a baby fox to go along with the "older" fox.

While making our way through the restaurant, I was having to guide Karlee to all the animals, carefully avoiding the other guests, muttering "Excuse me" all over the place, and trying to explain why she couldn't pet the animals. This was one of my first attempts to keep Karlee from getting bored, which is apparently extremely difficult. A few moments with nothing to do usually produced a "I'm bored."

Back at our table, we learned something interesting about Karlee, something that may not be common among all children: She loves to eat a wide variety of foods... at the same time. I don't think we went through an entire meal where she ate just one type of food. Usually, if one of us had a burger, she wanted half. Since I had a turkey wrap, and probably because she was at that point still too shy to ask, Karlee didn't have anything off of my plate.

After lunch, we headed over to Legoland, and boy was that an experience. Truth be told, I almost wish I had a kid--or could borrow a kid--just to have an excuse to go back. It's a pretty cool place. There were, naturally, Legos everywhere.

But I think the most impressive--from a parent's perspective, maybe--feature of Legoland is the giant playground area, accessible only to kids. It's a huge play area complete with massive Legos, slides, a veritable maze of tunnels, and most importantly the entire thing is covered in protective foam. The kids can bounce of walls and poles without seriously injuring themselves.

Another cool feature of this play area is that the kids are not aloud to leave the are unless they can see a familiar adult. There were a couple of boys, who were obviously friends, that couldn't find their moms. It was distressing to witness them attempt to maintain their composure while clearly freaking out. The longer they couldn't find their moms, the more their composure started to crack, and the moment their moms came back, the tears burst forth. Tim, the moms, and I all started to giggle a bit at the the two boys' unabashed display. Really, it was sweet.

We weren't laughing AT the poor children, that would be mean. No, we were laughing because we were all relieved, and because the scenario ended happily when it could have ended differently. The laughter was of the nervous kind.

Tim and I let Karlee run wild in that play area for about forty minutes. The idea was to let her run herself ragged, to the point of exhaustion and then take her home. Like most kids, I assume, Karlee forces herself to play for as long as the adults will allow--thinking that play time will never come around again, ever. The moment she slowed even the tiniest bit, and noticed that we were watching her, Karlee forced herself to run wild some more. And that little girl can run, fast. After the first ten minutes, I gave up trying to keep up with her.

Once we decided it was time to leave the wondrous Legoland, Karlee stalled some more, and it was at this point that she again made a plea for her Mommy. It was starting to become clear to us that Karlee was only asking for her mother for the following reasons: when the fun was over, when she wasn't getting her way, and/or when she started to feel unsure/afraid/insecure of her surroundings. Not that we placed her in some terrifying situations. What I mean by "fear" is simply the overwhelming anxiety a child feels when he/she realizes just how far away Mommy/Daddy are.

Of course, Karlee fell asleep the moment we drove away from Legoland, and it wasn't until the next day, while at Hurricane Harbor, that we realized that there is no male substitute for Mommy, which gave me the idea for the following post:

When Mommy's away, any mom will do so long as she has the Mommy-gene (or, as a friend of my commented, that Mommy smell).

But I'll save that story for the next post. :) For now, I'll leave you all with the super cute pic below.