So, as I mentioned on the tweet feed last night, obviously I didn’t post yesterday because we were busy – we decided to take advantage of the long weekend to make another run up to Sesame Place.

The morning started out ominous.  We’d made the decision (albeit, with me pushing it) to go to the renfaire on Sunday instead of Monday as originally planned, due to the threat of rain.  Let’s be honest – it’s little fun running around the faux-16th Century in the rain, trying to push a stroller through the mud while managing multiple children.  Instead… it ended up pouring while we drove up to Langhorne, to the point that we were dreadfully concerned that it wouldn’t be proper weather for enjoying the park.

Granted, we were primarily going to use the water park, since that’s what the Monster enjoys.  And one would argue that it shouldn’t matter if it was raining, since we’d be wet… but let’s be honest – amusement parks tend to close down somewhat when it’s pouring and/or thundering, and we were getting both while zipping up the coast.

Still, by the time we’d reached the park, it was down to a drizzle.  By the time we were actually ready to hit the water, the sun was peeking out from the clouds.

We used his wristband to short circuit the line and get him onto the lazy river, which was a good way to get him wet, though it did have the bad effect of getting him riled up and wanting to “go swimming” for real.  (As I’ve mentioned previously, he’s started to show some real ability to swim, albeit with a life vest.)   I had managed to get the Monster calm enough to go on the Squirmy’s Chutes, which involved waiting his turn to get up to the top, and then we continued to meander towards other splash areas on our way to the Count’s Splash Castle.

The Monster’s never been particularly interested in either getting doused by the giant bucket on top of the castle – it tips every 2 minutes or so, and dumps a huge load of water on the people below – or going down the water slides… and yet we managed to get him to do both.  And on the former, by the time we made him get out of the water so we could head home without a huge meltdown at the park’s closing, he was running to stand in position beneath it every time he heard the prompt warning that the bucket was about to tip, and jumping up and down as he was getting half-drowned by the water.

Of course, Baltimore is about 2 hours from Sesame Place, so we decided to grab dinner before heading back, on the theory that both kids would be asleep when we got home.  We stopped at Macaroni Grille, across the street almost from the park, for a change of pace from our usual after-park meal (Red Robin, just because it’s a nice, noisy restaurant where folks won’t notice a hyped-up child) and ordered dinner.  Things were going great when the Monster’s food arrived, and he actually, with little encouragement, dipped some of his french-fries into ketchup and ate them.  Our child’s never been much for dipping his food into other things, and here he was being cooperative and exploring new taste sensations…

It actually made the “I’m exhausted and want to leave the restaurant and oh-hell, just end it already” meltdown that came twenty minutes later, necessitating taking him out to the car for his iPad, worth it….