A couple of weekend excursions

Chad has been getting out and about lately!Last week the local moms' blog I read advertised a large consignment sale that was taking over some empty stores in a Morrisville mall for one weekend only.  Cheap hand-me-down clothes?  You know that's what we're all about.  This sale was bigger than the Moms of Multiples sales we've been to in the past, had a better selection and was less of a mad house.  It was farther away and the clothes were a little more expensive, but I can live with that.  All three of us went. Chad and I took the 12-18 month aisle, and Andy worked the 18-24 month one.  Andy and I have very similar tastes in clothes for Chad, and we both grabbed lots of little polo shirts and plaid button-downs.  There has never been a preppier little pumpkin.  We narrowed our purchases down to 13 shirts, 5 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 bathing suits (watch out, lady babies of Sanibel!) and some sandals.  Our greatest find was a Red Sox t-shirt that still had the original tags on it and was selling for only $4.  The grand total was about $75, which meant we still had enough cash to buy some Girl Scout cookies.  The Girl Scouts called Chad cute, so we bought two boxes.  They know how to work a sale.
That afternoon was chilly and dreary so we took a field trip to the Raleigh Natural History Museum, so Chad could get out of the house and see some more dinosaurs.  It didn't go so well.
First, Chad refused to give up his coat, and insisted on dragging it everywhere we went like he's been known to do with blankets.

That's not even a real exhibit he's at.  It's just a glass wall that he was staring at.  He also checked out every closed door he could find.

Finally, I snagged the jacket when he dropped it, and we got about 15 minutes of good behavior and exhibit viewing.

NC fishies

Getting a bugs-eye view

But then we made the mistake of taking Chad on the escalator, and he became monomaniacal about riding it.  (If you don't know the definition of monomaniacal, you should look it up.)

Going up

So proud of himself for getting to the top of one...

And then heading up another.

The museum had four floors, and we rode the escalator between every floor about 7 times.  Andy was super glad that we drove all the way to Raleigh to ride the same escalators they have in the mall five minutes away from us.
This weekend I gave into Andy's pleads and agreed we could go mattress shopping.  Have you ever mattress shopped with a 16-month-old?  Ha.  I was prepared for it to be a disaster, but we got lucky and it actually worked out. We were the only ones in the mattress store, and the nice saleslady gave Chad a soccer ball to kick and a plush dust mite to hold.  He also found something that looked like a nut chopper that was supposed to demonstrate why Sealy mattresses have superior springs and played with that for a bit.  Then we found the mattress with a remote control that made the bed vibrate, and that was all we needed to keep him happy until Andy decided which mattress he wanted.  (It was Andy's decision because 1) this was a birthday gift, 2) he's the picky selective one and 3) I don't sleep anyway.)
To reward Chad's good behavior at the mattress store we went over to the Duke Gardens to see the ducks and geese.

We threw them some crackers, but that was BEFORE we saw the sign forbidding this.  And there were other people doing it anyway.

You can sort of see the big blue heron-like thing on the rock by the other people.

Running around the grass

Taking a break to hydrate

All this activity has worn Chad out!

How many blankets does one kid need in his crib???

He'd better rest up, because his Grammy and Gramps are coming tonight!