Bratty Betsy

Well I am sure that we have all been a witness to that brat of a child in the grocery store line that refuses to behave themselves, and for most parents at one point or another that child has been our very own.  Maddie and I experienced this today, and I took it as a great opportunity to let her observe of what it looks like from a different perspective. 
I am guessing this little girl was around the age of 3, who we will call bratty Betsy for the sake of the story. I noticed her behavior from the minute that we stepped in line and started loading up our groceries.  It just so happened that Maddie was carrying her baby doll in the store and Betsy bravely approached her invading her space and  questioning her about her baby doll. 
In the meantime the mom and the grandma are ranting and raving about the great deals they got (which I can appreciate the excitement of a good deal/coupon, but know where your child is). Little did they know their little Betsy was in the process of making Maddie really uncomfortable with all the questions. Finally the mother took note and very loudly reminded her daughter for the 5th time to remain by her side.  The cashier at this point is just about at her wits end with the obnoxious little girl, all in time for the grandma to realize that she cannot find her card to pay for her stuff. 
Betsy from what I could see never started out with patience, but the missing card was what really sent everyone over the edge. This mother for whatever reason bought Betsy a York peppermint patty (like she was going to magically behave being loaded up on sugar).  The wrapper ended up on the floor along with the drooled on patty as she headed for the books she spotted across the way.  The mom and grandma are still trying to locate the card. The daughter ends up paying for the items and they are on their way.....or so we all thought. 
Betsy throws herself on the hard concrete floor in a full on tantrum because she wants to continue to look at the books.  After several minutes of this joyous show the mom finally just picks her up and starts carrying her. The whole time Maddie is just fixated on Betsy's behavior and is just taking in this whole situation for what it is.  They finally made it out the door and Maddie looked up and said "mommy that little girl was acting very bad in the store and everyone was starring at her." I was a very proud mommy at that point, as any parent would be.  The cashier made sure to tell Maddie how impressive her behavior was.
In the parking lot we passed Betsy and her family and I thought to myself what a struggle it would be to get her in the car after that situation. Although I couldn't really feel sorry for this mother as she didn't seem to discipline her daughters horrible behavior, but instead she praised it by buying her candy. Which the cashier later informed me Betsy only got because she was tearing up the candy that so evilly sits next to all the registers. I believe I was more mortified then Betsy mother, however maybe this was standard behavior that she was just accustomed to.  
On the way home Maddie and I had a lengthy conversation about how unacceptable this little girls behavior was and what it looked like to other people that were in the store.  I reinforced that bad behavior will not get rewarded (at least not in our house).  
We have been working with Maddie on consequences for your actions.  Sometimes she gets surprises for good behavior/actions or gets to go do something special with Ryan or I.  So thank you to bratty Betsy and her family I got to teach Maddie a valuable lesson.

Vegas Vacation

Well I am finally deciding to blog about our trip to Vegas (yes I realize it was almost 3 weeks ago we went)

Back in early November, Ryan and I were driving and I had simply asked what we were going to do for our birthdays this year.  (We are only 1 year and 3 days apart) He then suggested that we go to Vegas.  Neither of us had ever been there and thought it would be a special experience for us to do together.  So we came home that night and got online to book our flight and our hotel. 

We were so excited and got caught up in the moment that we didn't do a whole lot of looking into the hotel aspect of it, but just knew that we wanted to be on the strip so we weren't off the beat and track of everything else.  Little did we know that Circus Circus is in the older part of Vegas and that we would be slightly in the ghetto of the Vegas Strip.  We were starting to figure this out with the more people we talked to and the more reviews we read. However, we were trying to do our trip on a budget and didn't want to have to pay the cancellation fee and book another hotel.  Instead we just kept it and told ourselves its just something that we are spending minimal time in and essentially just needed a bed to sleep in.  Ryan's mom being the kind person she is assured us that we would be fine.  She had stayed there on a previous trip and said it really wasn't that bad. 

Ryan continued to watch videos on you tube and read reviews on things to do while we were there.  Not partaking in this idea of his left me wondering what Vegas would be like.  I wanted it to be a surprise, and have no expectations.  I really didn't know what to expect other then lots of lights, casinos and some odd people on the side.  (Boy was this small town girl in for a surprise.)

The closer it got to our trip the more anxiety I was having about flying.  I hadn't flown since I was a little kid going to Disneyland.  In my mind I had worked myself into this horrible picture about the security in the airport  and me being randomly selected to a strip search. We all made it through security and on the plane with no problem.  However we did all get on the plane not knowing if we would be sitting together or next to complete strangers, as none of us wanted to pay an extra $50.00 to select our own seats.  (This was part of Vegas on a budget)  Clearly I survived the flight, but I was certainly not happy that my wine buzz had worn off by the time I took a seat.  Oh well, you win some and you lose some right?!

It was about 11:00 pm by the time we got off the plane.  We still had to get through the airport and wait for to cab driver (that ended up ripping us off).  Finally we arrived at our hotel  and got checked in.  We walked with our luggage in hand what seemed like forever, all in time to find out that we had somehow taken a wrong turn and were in the complete wrong section of where we needed to be.  Ryan at that point was taking charge of direction and getting us to the correct spot.  FINALLY we see the hotel room number.  I cant wait to get in and throw my luggage down and get a drink!  We walk in the room and its DIRTY!!  It hadn't been cleaned and there is shoe boxes everywhere.  Just my luck.  At that point my sailor mouth kicked in and I was kicking myself for not cancelling our room and getting a new one.  I had a feeling that this was just the beginning, I picked up the phone and called the front desk and told her the situation on hand.  She was very pleasant and simply asked us to come BACK DOWN to the front desk and get a new key for a room.  We very unhappily did this, but when we got there she said they were upgrading us to a suite.  In my mind I was thinking oh good we wont have cockroaches crawling around.  Walking into the suite we both were very impressed and surprised that is was as nice as it was.  It was finally time to hit the city after the disaster.  That night because it was later then we expected we pretty much just stayed in our neck of the woods and hit up the casinos in Circus Circus and the Riviera. 

The following day we got our three day bus pass and started our adventure through Vegas.  There was so much to see and so little time to see it in.  I had gone through a local tourist magazine and circled the top features that I wanted to try to see.  For the most part we accomplished all on the list, which I was pleased about.  A few of the highlights consisted of: Sirens of treasure island, Fremont light experience, volcano at mirage, water show at ballagio, lion exhibit at MGM, and Aria buffet (so yummy) and the Rio buffet. My favorite two features were probably treasure island and the Fremont light experience.  I was however was not impressed with the MGM lion exhibit, it was actually pretty depressing.  The lions looked so unhappy (not that you can blame these wild animals that are now in a cage).  At some point I must have lost my mind because Ryan somehow convinced me to do the roller coaster in the Adventuredome.  I don't do roller coasters and there was nothing except the end when it stopped that I enjoyed. 

All the casinos were so over the top and beautiful, it was amazing to be able to walk through so many of them and see what the different themes were.  New York New York and the Venetian stand out in my mind looking back.  The newer casino Aria was really contemporary and pretty as well. 

Honestly I can say that I have never walked so much in my life.  Morgan gave me the best advice for Vegas, "If it looks like you can walk there, you cant."  I had no idea that the strip was so incredibly long.  You have to almost do it in sections certain days so that you aren't wasting valuable Vegas time.  I didn't understand how these girls were walking the strip in high heel shoes.  Ryan on the other hand didn't understand the fashion in Vegas, the girls that were in high heels also were in these dresses that barely covered their butt cheeks.  There is so many beautiful women there, but by no means was there male eye candy in mass quantity.

(These were the kinds of outfits that Ryan didn't understand)

All in all we had a great trip and I would love to go back at some point.  This time I would certainly go to a show or a concert.  I do want to say thank you to my wonderful family that helped watched my kids to allow us to take this trip.  Viva Las Vegas!!