[Yesterday’s post can be found here: Saratoga Toga! Toga! – Part One.]

Saturday

We had a languid morning after Friday night’s festivities. Jen and I were slow to get rolling, and Daphne busied herself by perusing the paper in bed.

We eventually headed down to the hotel restaurant for their breakfast buffet which was surprisingly good. I have no idea if the churlish chef we met the day before is named “Otto” (it would make sense) but if so then Otto has a damn good recipe for scrambled eggs w/ cheese.
All he needs are some Bev Eggs™ and those things would be world renowned.

After breakfast we began packing up our room, during which time Daphne began to get mildly moody. And given the number of accidents she’d had the night before (I think it was four…maybe five?) we were reluctant to keep her in public spaces for any lengthy period of time. At least not without shuttling her back and forth to random bathrooms. So we carried our things to the car, meanwhile completely forgetting to formally check out of our room…

We headed to our next planned stop, Skidmore College, which is Jen’s mom’s alma mater.

And after ducking into the student center for another quick potty break…

we ruminated on whether we thought Daphne also had opening weekend of the Saratoga Race Track in her, or if that would be simply too much stimulus heaped upon her already worsening mood.
In the end we left the decision up to her. “Do you want to go see some horses?” got a slightly more emphatic “yes” sign than “are you ready to go home?” (No talker, remember?) So we crossed our fingers and headed for the race track.

Alas, upon arrival “oh, hell no…” was the chorused response from both of her parents and we quickly thought better of the whole thing.

Now to be fair, I’ve never been much of a crowd guy to begin with. But after living in the NEK for a few years my metric for “this is too people-y” has undergone significant depopulation.
And the racetrack was definitely too people-y.
Reports I read afterward said they’d hit their 50,000 person capacity on Saturday, and that there were 20-minute waits for the restrooms, so we unquestionably made the correct call. We would’ve had to find a parking spot, then parade an already agitated Daphne through throngs of people standing around in muggy 90°+ heat, all for fleeting glimpses of some of the fastest horses on Earth blurring by every 10 minutes or so. This was deemed an equine bridge too far.

And so we began the 3.5 hour trek back home, which was even quieter than the trip to Saratoga Springs, thanks to Daphne having Jen’s phone in the backseat during the whole trip. As such, the Taylor Swifting was kept to a minimum. (“Haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate…“)

Before we knew it, we were back in Vermont…

And soon thereafter, all safely back home.

Sunday

Because Daphne had been such a good girl during our trip, consistent potty accidents notwithstanding, we promised to take her to the Get Air! Trampoline Park on Sunday, since we were already driving to Williston to get her talker fixed.

We dropped both her and Jen off at the park while Grammy and I ran over to Best Buy and handled the whole talker thing. Unfortunately they were unable to fix it on-site and had to send the device off to Apple to get it repaired. So we had to purchase YET ANOTHER iPad (quick thanks here to her grandparents who wired us a significant chunk of that cost the day before), and the one that’s currently having its screen replaced will become her backup.

[**Note: they called while I was typing this post. It’s already done and is ready to be picked up… I, however, am not ready to get back into the car for 4 hours just yet. So methinks they’re going to have to hang on to it for a couple days.]

It’s also worth noting that the whole Get Air! thing didn’t quite go over very well. Daphne jumped for about 45 minutes before becoming lethargic and wanting to lie down in one of the recessed areas of the park. And so we scooped her up and headed back home.

I wouldn’t say her mother and I are all the way up to “Alarmed” yet, but with all the recent behavioral issues, the near total relapse in potty training, and now the refusal to play for very long at one of her favorite places… Well, it’s safe to say we’ve reached “Significantly Concerned” status.

It’s possible that the lack of a regular schedule during the summer is causing her stress or anxiety, which is manifesting in these new behaviors. That would be best case scenario.
Our hope is that it’s not something larger, or more physically serious, at work here. She has her annual check-up this Friday, and these will certainly be a topic of conversation between her mom and the doctor.

Once we were back home, she perked right up and it became Bubble Time outside with Grammy.

Later that evening, when Daphne came back inside from Bubble Time, we sat her down on the couch for a serious talk.

We explained that we were now going to give her a new iPad, in what is apparently a stronger case, but that she MUST be gentle with it.

That meant no biting.
No throwing.
No hitting.

She signed back to us that yes, she understood, and that she also understood we would have to take it away if she broke those rules.

With that, we handed over her new talker.

That said, she’s already gotten upset and thrown it on the ground once. And last night she got angry and bit the handle on it. Both times we’ve taken it away, just as promised.

I honestly couldn’t tell you how long this one is going to last.
But also, I mean, it’s her voice. We can’t just keep taking it away.

The right path here isn’t clear…
But, like all things, it’s a work in progress.

See you tomorrow.

j.s.