Cruise Part 2

I was supposed to wake up Friday morning (9-23-11) around 5 a.m. so I could work on school and get my participation done for the day. My alarm never went off and I woke up at 6:30 a.m. instead. I panicked a little because we needed to be down in the lobby by 8:30 a.m. to catch our 9:00 shuttle to the ship. In the middle of me getting up looking for directions on how to connect to the hotel wi-fi Maddy woke up. Bless her heart she was so sleepy. I sang happy birthday to her and she just grinned from ear to ear. After school I started to get ready and quickly found out that even if Maddy can see me she does not like me to be in the shower. She cried the entire time. Had I been thinking clearly, I would have gotten her some bite bites and some juice so she could eat while I got ready. 6:30 a.m. was just a bit too early for me to think lol. After I got my hair dried Maddy was desperately wanting something to drink so we called Nana to get her to bring some back with her. Instead, Nana suggested she come get Maddy so I can finish getting ready and they would feed her and get her something to drink. Around 8:15 I am finally ready and am ready to get Maddy ready. By this time I am in rush mode so Nana helped me get Maddy ready and get us packed again. I almost left behind most of my clothes because I had them in the bathroom and didn't go back to check to make sure I had everything...thank goodness something told my mom to go look. In the lobby waiting for the shuttle Maddy is getting restless and wanting to go here there and everywhere. I received an email from Sprout that had a video on it...it was so cute. It was all the cast members of the good morning show singing their happy birthday song. If you're interested in the video I posted the link here. A little before 9 the shuttle was ready for us to get on and get going. Maddy sat with her Nana and Pops and definitely kept them busy as she was for sure getting tired. Here she is on the shuttle:

 This is when we were waiting for the shuttle

 Here she is watching her Happy Birthday video...phones come in real handy sometimes lol

 Sitting like a big girl in the shuttle

Can you tell she is sleepy?
We got to see some of Miami along the way to the port and I thought it looked very neat. I will post a few pics that I haven't posted in my pic post:

I thought once we got to the port it would be smooth sailing from there...boy was I wrong. If you have a toddler and you plan on going on a cruise...expect a lot of waiting. I was not prepared for that at all and I didn't have any toys for Maddy. We had a computer for her but we realized on the shuttle we left it at the hotel so we were down to nothing. It is hard to travel with a lot of toys too because you can only fit so much in a suitcase and there are weight limits and what nots. We waited from about 9:45 a.m. till noon total before we could board the ship. Once we got inside to wait Maddy was a wild indian at some points. If you stopped her from doing what she wanted she would scream and say NOOOO and fall out in the floor. She has also learned to say OW when you are trying to get her to do what you need her to do. I just let her say ow and continue doing what I need to do. I do make sure to say I'm not hurting you because people do tend to listen and I am sure from the outside looking in it doesn't look too pretty lol. She also tries to bite you if she gets mad enough and she will pull her out and just scream as loud as she can and then she will try to run off. Once you catch her she goes right back to the ground and rolls around and kicks and pushes and says no and all that good stuff. Let me reiterate again that I was just wore out! My step dad would take Maddy walking off an on and I think he would bring her back when she started her fits lol. At the very end of our wait I just made her go in her stroller, which brought on another good fit. There was no calming her down and people just stared. I was embarrassed and about ready to say we are going home. They started playing Will Smith's Miami song I think is the name and that got everybody pumped and I was relieved because we would be boarding soon. That relief ended shortly because they announced our rooms wouldn't be ready until 1:30 p.m. Not only do I have a child that is pitching fits right and left but I also have to lug all this stuff around for an hour and a half while I try to keep up with her???? Once we got on the ship they took our picture for our room keys and then we headed off to the Lido deck for some lunch. I was excited for Maddy because she could have all the food she wanted whenever she wanted. After lunch we walked around and explored a little and then went down to our room. I was impressed with the rooms and was ready to set sail. At 3:45 we had a safety talk to listen to and then we left promptly at 4:00 p.m. They were quick to get the party started and started getting people to dance to the Cha Cha song...I don't know the real name of it. After doing some dancing we headed back to our room for a little nap before dinner. Maddy was not ready to wake up from her nap but she didn't pitch any fits, little did I know her fits were waiting for dinner. Once we got to the table she sat down just fine while the waiter got her a high chair. She was wanting to run around the table and didn't understand why she couldn't. Once the high chair got to the table I attempted to put her in it but she was not having it. I lost my strength to keep trying so I just sat her in my lap which she absolutely hated. She started her kicking and screaming and crying and I just tried my best to contain her. She got so mad at me that she took my face and scratched/pinched me as hard as she possibly could and then that wasn't enough for her that she had to go and bite me. By that point tears started to form in my eyes because really it hurt me pretty badly. I was also just wore out and when I get wore out I cry at the drop of a hat. My step dad saw what happened and told me I didn't have to stay the whole time so I quickly gathered all my things as the waiter is watching what is going on and i pick Maddy up who is crying and I get up and walk out just boo hooing. The trip was not going well at all and it had just begun. My mom goes with me to make sure I don't need help with Maddy and I told her I would not go to dinner again that we would just skip dinner and eat in the room. I was dead serious about that. I would forego the captain's dinner and just stay locked in the room. I don't think my mom knew what to say and honestly I would have felt the same way. She just listened. My mom managed to get one picture of Maddy at dinner during the first night...here it is:

So she goes back to dinner and I turn out the lights, give Maddy some food, stick her on the bed, and I laid down myself and turned on the tv for Maddy and I went to bed. I was really hungry and I also could not stop crying. Maddy would look at me every now and then and she decided she wanted to sit on top of me while she watched tv so I let her. She ended up laying down on me and we both fell asleep until my mom called. She offered to walk the ship with me while my step dad kept Maddy. I turned her down originally because I didn't want to face anybody or anything at that moment but she talked me into it and I'm glad she did. We sat outside while she ate some fruit and I ate some cheese. It was so pretty seeing the wide open ocean. Afterwards we took some pics of the ship and then decided to call it a day. I told myself Saturday would be a better day and then me and Maddy went to our rooms and went night night.