Another milestone, the longest time SS has been apart from both Mama and Baba.

After almost fifteen months, P and I had a night out. What did we choose to do on our first night of freedom? We paid for the privilege of having people dress up as monsters, come out of nowhere, and (try to) scare the living daylights out of us. We first went to the Knott's Berry Farm Halloween Haunt as a family on P's birthday (10/21) in 1996. P had attended once before, and loved it. I did it as a one time thing, a birthday present, and it has become our family yearly thing. We last attended in 2007, and thought it would be our last one for a LONG time. Cedars Fair, the company that owns Knott's Berry Farm recently purchased Great America in Santa Clara, CA. This is the second year that they have the Halloween Haunt. Obviously not as good as Knott's 37th year hosting this gory fest, but good enough when you have a two year old that can't attend, and can't withstand such a long drive (4 vs. 11 hours). To make things better, JJ and T (his roommate) agreed to come with us and babysit SS, while we gallivanted with monsters, and engaged in devil worshiping. How cool is that? SS's grandmothers took advantage of our kind of near proximity (when it comes to their granddaughter) to their Southern California home, and drove 7 hours to meet us.

P complained to JJ and T during the drive about his TV drought. Even better, when I walked into our room, there were two TVs a mere feet away from each other. WTF P? Whatever, TV ban stands, unless you want our daughter to be in a reality show, recounting how our selfish indulgence drove her into a life of whatever. SS immediately picked up the remote and started fiddling. P and I were in the living room, sorting out our Haunt tickets and itinerary, when the TV was suddenly on. No bid deal let her push buttons, let's finish sorting this out. I looked up seconds later and saw this on the screen:


Yep, it did not take SS long to find the adult channel. She was about to press another button (Terms perhaps?), when I took the remote way. We are VERY close to an amusement park and this hotel has park package deals. Why does a guest have to contact the front desk to prevent access to adult titles? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

SS decided to check out her surroundings after her bad parents took the remote away.

You two will do just fine in this pull out sofa. I'll be in the King size bed sleeping away those hours I spent in that carseat.

As we were getting ready to turn over "care, custody and control" of SS to JJ, I had second thoughts. As I was about to sign a document that gave JJ the power to make "any and all decisions" regarding SS's care I blinked. I wanted to tell P I was not feeling OK, and that he and JJ should go. Then I thought about T alone or stuck with me. It was only seconds, but I had a difficult time parting from SS.

I think most mothers always see their children as they did for the first time. JJ will forever be a cone headed, screaming, mucous covered, wrinkled, not fully cooked, alien looking creature. SS will forever be a (thank G0d) fully cooked, deer caught between headlights, tiny little girl. Not many parents of a two year old have the mind blowing experience of leaving that child under the care of their sibling. Talk about a mind bender.

The Haunt was a lot of fun for us. Nowhere near the original, but the very low attendance gave us the opportunity to go through all the mazes and we rode many rides twice, and in the front seat. We had never been on those rides at night, and it really was cool.

The only picture we have, and crappy as heck. Why did JJ take it from across the street we do not know.

We found our sleeping beauty out. We felt bad that she went to be without seeing us, but SS was in the best possible care. The guys took her to the Mall and got her to eat noodles. That was quite a relief for us because SS had not eaten all day. At least she went to bed with a full tummy. We bet they probably got quite a few looks, a Hispanic guy and Caucasian guy and an Asian little girl.

P quickly moved SS to the pull out couch, got comfy and spent quality time with his mistress. Not a bad night. Tomorrow SS meets with her grandmothers and the guys get to get their drink on and go to the Haunt.