A couple months ago Makena saw something on TV about eating on a train in a dining car. She thought the idea was fascinating, and we talked about how you can eat on a train or a boat or even an airplane. (This is a kid who regularly eats snacks in the car, lol.) I looked up train trips to see how much it would cost for a little lunch date, but they don't work like that apparently. You have to travel a pretty significant distance for the dining car to be open. So I looked up brunch cruises and they were so expensive that I quickly shot down that idea. She kept mentioning it for a while, and I brushed it off, and eventually she stopped.
I was recently babysitting and was chatting with their housemate who mentioned she worked at Hornblower Cruises. I told her about Makena's obsession with the idea of eating on a train or boat, and the next thing I knew I was being offered 2 complimentary passes for a dining cruise!! WHAT?! And, she told me that Makena would actually be free since she's under 4 years old, so Pam and I could both go! I was beyond thrilled and so thankful! Those tickets are $69 each! I decided we'd plan a fun special day out and do some special things before our family of 3 turns into a family of 4. I called and booked the cruise for Sunday the 10th.
Another thing I'd been really wanting to do was to take Makena to see Peter Pan. We've been looking forward to taking her to her first real musical theater performance, and the local youth theater group was doing Peter Pan at the community theater downtown. I tried to get the $10 tickets for the weekday afternoon showing, but they were sold out so I picked a Sunday evening. Then we went to the library and borrowed the CD so Makena could be familiar with all the songs and I got the stage version of the DVD so she'd know what to expect. At bedtime she started requesting I sing Tender Shepherd and Never Neverland.
So with tickets in my hand for a brunch cruise followed by an evening at the theater we made a count down chain and anticipated our special family day! We kept talking about what a fun day it would be, and although we've had a few rough days lately with Makena's behavior and some intense tantrums and I was a bit worried she'd be a disaster and have a miserable time, I also thought that maybe all she needed was a day of our full attention and some exciting plans. And it worked beautifully! It really was a fantastic day, my heart was so full!
We got to the pier in San Francisco early, and sat in the car while we waited so we wouldn't have to start paying the meter yet. When it was time to board we had to wait with a big group and slowly made our way through the line and got on the boat. As we got to our assigned table I realized it was even fancier than I expected, and Makena was so excited about the special glass she got to drink her orange juice out of. Since we boarded early, 30 minutes before the departure time, she got a bit antsy. Once the boat started to move she was excited again. We got our food and she was wide-eyed by the dessert table. She's not a fan of chocolate covered strawberries, so strange! The croissants (with powdered sugar) were her favorite part, she said at one point- "I can't wait to come back again some day for more croissants! Maybe after this one I can get a third! We let her indulge in whatever she wanted, since it was free and we so rarely get to do that.
So with tickets in my hand for a brunch cruise followed by an evening at the theater we made a count down chain and anticipated our special family day! We kept talking about what a fun day it would be, and although we've had a few rough days lately with Makena's behavior and some intense tantrums and I was a bit worried she'd be a disaster and have a miserable time, I also thought that maybe all she needed was a day of our full attention and some exciting plans. And it worked beautifully! It really was a fantastic day, my heart was so full!
We got to the pier in San Francisco early, and sat in the car while we waited so we wouldn't have to start paying the meter yet. When it was time to board we had to wait with a big group and slowly made our way through the line and got on the boat. As we got to our assigned table I realized it was even fancier than I expected, and Makena was so excited about the special glass she got to drink her orange juice out of. Since we boarded early, 30 minutes before the departure time, she got a bit antsy. Once the boat started to move she was excited again. We got our food and she was wide-eyed by the dessert table. She's not a fan of chocolate covered strawberries, so strange! The croissants (with powdered sugar) were her favorite part, she said at one point- "I can't wait to come back again some day for more croissants! Maybe after this one I can get a third! We let her indulge in whatever she wanted, since it was free and we so rarely get to do that.
Then she wanted to go outside and we spent some time on the upper deck pointing out the sights of the city she was born in. I grew up in this area and have never been on a cruise around SF bay! It was really fun. Super windy and an insane amount of seagulls following us around, but fun! Makena loved this raised platform and declared it her dance floor. There was an actual dance floor in the dining room, right next to our table, and the piano player started to play Twinkle Twinkle when he saw Makena dancing but she got shy and ran back to our table to hide behind me. We took a bunch of photos, and she asked to take one of us. She stood there forever saying it wasn't working, then when I looked there were 12 of the exact same photo. Lol.
We went under the Golden Gate Bridge and then back inside to eat lunch and visit the restocked dessert table. Makena asked Mama to dance with her.
When the lovely 2 hour cruise was over we headed home but stopped at Stanford Shopping Center to take some maternity photos. I really loved our maternity photo shoot when I was pregnant with Makena, but we couldn't afford to do it this time and so Pam borrowed a nice camera from a friend and she took these!
.JPG)
On our way to the car we passed these flowers and she said she wanted to take another photo with my belly. :) I really wish we had asked someone to take a photo of the 3 of us, I kept meaning to have Pam join us in a photo but didn't remember.
.JPG)
We had a little downtime at home then went to dinner at Amici's for some pizza before walking over to the theater. And we took the first (and only) family photo of the day!
And then it happened, the doors opened and we got to find our seats. 3rd row center orchestra! (The ticket prices were the same no matter where you sit, so when I bought them I wasn't going to settle for crappy seats!) Makena was so excited! Of course there were three adults in a row in front of us, so she mostly sat on Pam's lap so she could see.
The lights finally dimmed and the show started! At intermission she started to cry and we weren't sure what was wrong until she asked me through tears when we could come back. Awww, she thought it was over and we weren't going to watch the whole show! She liked looking at the orchestra and sneaking bites of sour gummy worms while we waited for the second act to begin. During one of the pirate songs she got bored and asked for the next part, lol. And when it was time to clap to bring Tinkerbell back to life she enthusiastically clapped and was beaming. At the end Peter was flying and waved goodbye and she leaned forward and waved. I had a headache from trying not to cry so much! It was just so touching to spend such an awesome day all together. We don't get many chances to splurge like that and it made me feel really emotional that we were given the opportunity. As we walked out of the theater Makena was very sad that Peter Pan didn't fly out over the audience. I tried to explain the limitations of community youth theater!
We got home and I kept thinking about how perfect our family of 3 is, and what a huge change is coming. We're so very excited about the new baby, there's no doubt of that!! But we know the transition will be difficult at times until we find our new rhythm. When we try to think about the logistics of sleep arrangements and driving to work/preschool it seems overwhelming, so we're trying to surrender to the fact that we'll just have to deal with it as it comes. It's really unfortunate that we can't afford for Pam to take off work. Thankfully there are people who are willing to help us and I know I can ask anyone for anything, but I also know I'll want her around as much as she wishes she could be home!!
Last night we went on a final date night for who knows how long. It took us 7 months after Makena was born for us to go on our first night out together. We used the $100 gift certificate to Flemings's Steakhouse that we won for selling the most raffle tickets at Makena's preschool. Makena was excited that my mom was coming over with a surprise movie (The Jungle Book, which she's been trying to get her hands on for a while). We went to dinner and it was a super fancy place and we had fun giggling about how out of place we were while eating overpriced food. We even accidentally ordered water that cost us $7! We got home around 8pm and when we walked in the door Makena jumped up from her blanket on the floor where they had been eating popcorn and watching the movie and came running and crying to us. But nothing was wrong, she was just upset that we were home and they didn't finish the movie. So we said Grandmo could stay a bit longer and we went into the other room.
She's a funny kid!
No comments:
Post a Comment