Cole did pretty well on the ride down to BART considering he has been flipping out on car rides after the long trip to Fresno two weekends back. We were able to even get him in the stroller. He was excited to see the fish! We had to wait for the train since we missed the one when we got there because some one had to pee (I wonder who that was??? - which by the way is a whole other topic I will get to in a minute...). So we had about 13 minutes to kill while waiting for the train. Cole of course got impatient and had to be removed from the stroller due to his shrill shrieks and the stares of others waiting for the train.
The train finally arrives and we load up, giant jogger stroller and all. Thank goodness for the wheelchair seating. Cole did fairly well at first but then he got bored and his boredom consists of trying to run away, putting his hands down my shirt and head butting Mike. 23 long minutes later we arrived at Embarcadero. Finally we were on the last leg to Pier 39. The easy part, all we had to do was walk about 1 1/2 miles....
We carried Cole out to the street and then loaded him in the stroller. Big mistake on our part. Let the melt down of his life begin. Cole began screaming. And by screaming I mean acting like we were killing him. We buckled him in and started walking doing out best to ignore him figuring he would eventually tire out and be quite. Boy were we wrong. Mike got Cole out of the stroller. He got a pretty good slap in the face right off the bat. I took Cole and tried carrying him but he began doing the wet noodle and sliding down my body. There is no way I could keep a handle on him at that point with out pushing the baby out. So Mike got tantrum duty and was it special.
From Embarcadero to Pier 27 Cole screamed, head butted, laid on the nasty ground, split his lip, and slapped us. He finally got so tired he gave up. Mind you this was after about 1 mile of walking and the 30 minutes it took to walk that mile. I have never had so many people walk past me and give dirty looks. One lady even covered her ears and she walked past. I am glad no one said anything to us because I would have laid in to them. One bum did ask us for money and I gave him the look of "you've got to be kidding me, are you seriously asking us for money right now????"
We were beside ourselves. Never had I imagined that a kid could act this way. I've seen kids throw tantrums but this was unbelievable. Had we been any where other than on a busy street I would have just let him scream it out on the ground but that was not really an option. Cole finally was so exhausted from his performance that he let Mike carry him all the way to the aquarium. He would not let me anywhere near him except for one kiss.
We finally arrived at the aquarium and met up with our friends who had to wait for our slow butts and melt down (thanks guys!). When Cole saw them he was waving, smiling, talking basically making what just happened a distant memory. He pretty much only wanted Lindsey to carry him and basically ignored me unless her hands were full. In fact he really did not want much to do with me all day. I actually got to eat a meal at lunch with out being climbed on, Mike on the other hand did not.... The kids loved all the fish. They were so excited about the first room that we probably could have spent the entire time in there and they would have been happy campers. The Nemo tank was a huge hit for them.
After about an hour of fish watching and starfish and sting ray touching we decided it was time for the adults to get some food. We chose the Hard Rock Cafe - loud and perfect for 3 toddlers to act up in. Lunch pretty much consisted of all the kids being taken for walks to avoid melt downs. Surprisingly only one glass item met it's death today - the sugar holder. After a very quick lunch it was time to leave. Drew had turned in to a piranha or maybe he was just imitating the sharks we saw so they had to leave. The twins were ready for a nap! Cole on the other hand was bright eyed and bushy tailed so we took him around the Pier and over to see the sea lions. They were pretty far away so he really didn't get a good look at them. But he loved looking through the wooden beams at the ocean. He even broke the rules and chucked his bagel to the sea gulls.
Around 1:30 pm we decided it was time to head back home. Cole fell asleep at Pier 29 and slept in his stroller until we got back to Berkeley. I am so surprised his did not wake up from the awful noises on the BART train. To end the day we had a 3 hour car ride home because of traffic. Had we not been able to use the carpool lane it would probably have taken 4 hours. I can not understand how or why people would want to drive that every day.
Cole was a trooper. Minus the meltdown of a life time he actually did well the rest of the day. He had a little nap and stayed awake the rest of the ride home. He got restless and I don't blame him one bit, I was also. Over all I think we are glad that we took him to the aquarium because he really enjoyed it, but for us we really considered turning back. Mike is surprised I did not go in to labor today with all the stress. I don't think we will be taking him any where for awhile. Sorry to any one who wants us to visit. No long car rides for a long time.
Ok so about the toilets. I used some of the most DISGUSTING bathrooms I have ever been in today. Being 8 months pregnant you have to pee all the time so stopping to complain about one is not an option. But I do have to say that the absolute worst one was the mens bathroom at the BART station in Berkeley. Yes I used the men's room. When you gotta go, you gotta go! Ugh, glad to be home to a clean pot.
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