Best day of Vacation!

I built up our vacation pretty high for weeks before we left.  We were going to the ocean.  We were going to the beach.  But we went in hurricane season.  So the weather wasn't great.  Cloudy and rainy.  All I wanted to do was show my little girl the beach and the ocean.  By golly, that is what I was going to do.  We arrived in Delaware Tuesday afternoon.  Wednesday, there were tantrums all day.  It was a long day.  Then there was playing with cousins.  This was an important part of the vacation.  Wednesday night, I took Laci with her cousins and my brother and sister in law to DQ and then to walk the beach.  I could tell that Laci is not used to beaches and oceans.  She started playing with the sand in the parking lot at DQ.  Finally, we had our ice cream and walked to a bench on the beach.  We made it!  We were at the beach!  It was cloudy and dusk but it was a beautiful night and I was at the beach with my little girl.  That was my best moment of vacation.  She set her shake down and ran to the birds that are always in mass at beaches.  We ran to the water.  We played in the sand.  We spelled our names with sticks in the sand.  My sister in law buried the kids in the sand.  All Laci wanted was to be buried in the sand.  She was in heaven.  The ice cream was long forgotten.  I saw the joy in Laci's face to the ocean and the sand.  Okay, it was really the bay but in our midwestern minds, it was the ocean!  

We went to the beach again for a little while Thursday.  There was a break in the rain long enough for us to go.  The winds and waves were huge due to tropical storms and hurricanes so it was fun to be splashed.  The weather turned out perfect.  The beach was almost empty.  The kids had a great time.  Calvin didn't know what to think.  We stood him in the water and he had the most serious look on his face and then cried.  It was enough for him.  We set him in the sand and he just kept looking at it.  What is this stuff?  We were only at the beach for about an hour.  But it was enough.  Enough for me to be washing sand out of our clothes, van and hair for days.  :)

Worst day of Vacation

This post will be about the worst day of recent our vacation.  And it really wasn't that bad.  This is the day we started for home.  We left Delaware at 11:00 and planned to drive as far as we could.  It turns out that it wasn't that far.  We may be the only people who do not have a GPS system.  We used the old fashioned Mapquest printed directions and an atlas.  First, we missed a few turns in Delaware.  It's a good thing we had that atlas.  After awhile, we finally got back to our original route.  Then it was getting close to lunch time.  Rural Maryland does not seem to have any McDonalds.  We could not find anywhere to eat.  We were hoping to eat before getting to the Bay Bridge.  Finally, right before the bridge, we found a Chick Fil A.  Everyone needed a break and Laci needed some time to play.  This is where the rain started.  We made it across the bridge.  As we were approaching Frederick, MD we saw a sign for an accident.  The backup was 5 miles before the accident.  Charlie made the decision to drive through Frederick and try to avoid the accident.  We drove through Frederick, took a pit stop and got back on the highway and still sat for 10 minutes.  By now it is raining pretty hard, we are in the mountains and for the next hour, we had to stop/slow down 4 times for accidents.  We do not enjoy driving through the mountains and the accidents and rain did not help the situation.  Neither did the fact that this is the particular hour that Laci decided to throw a tantrum.  So now I have Charlie next to me freaking out because of the traffic and Laci's tantrum and Laci is refusing to do what I ask (be quiet) and is kicking the back of his seat. There was nothing I could do to help the situation.  I wanted to cry.  I just saw images of crashing.  Finally, the rain stopped and the sun came out!  Everyone behaved.  We stopped at a Welcome Center and breathed a sigh of relief.  We decided to stay overnight in Morgantown, WV.  I looked online and saw that they had a home football game that weekend.  Did we really need anything else going on?  I called ahead and reserved a room.  

As we were getting on the exit to stop, we heard Laci crying in the back saying that she forgot the rule.  What rule was she referring to?  As we thought hard and saw her cry, we realized she forgot the rule to not stick anything up her nose.  She stuck a rock up her nose the day before we left on vacation too.  This time it was the foam piece that goes over an ear bud.  Charlie and I started panicking.  Visions of looking for an ER in WV ran through our heads and I started looking at the exit for a pharmacy to buy tweezers.  And to think I almost packed tweezers for this exact situation!  We stopped at a gas station and fortunately, Charlie was able to get it out with his fingers.  What are we going to do with this girl!  

We settled in for the night and walked to Bob Evans for dinner.  Charlie put Calvin to bed while I took Laci shopping to kill time and then we played in the lobby of the hotel.  Finally at 10, we went to the room and the boys were asleep.  By 10:30 I heard the sweetest sound I had heard all day - my 3 loves snoring.  

Adventures in Clothes - The Changing Seasons

I had a small panic of worry last week while we were on vacation. While it wasn't warm and sunny, it was still shorts weather. I saw that back home, it was chilly - pants weather. I have not looked into my kids closet to see if I have pants for them. Both of them still need a new wardrobe each season because they still outgrow their clothes too fast. I am looking forward to the day that I can actually pull out clothes from last season for them to wear. I looked ahead to the forecast and realized by the end of the week, the kids will need to be wearing pants and sweatshirts again here.

So yesterday, I spent some time going through their closets with an emergency plan to run to Children's Place on a clothes run. I do not like shopping so I was not looking forward to this. Calvin is fortunate to have two boy cousins close in age and my sister in law has been giving me boxes of clothes for him. I pulled out the 12 m boy clothes and had plenty of pants and a handful of long sleeved shirts. Enough to get him by for a few weeks. One down, one to go. I moved over to Laci's clothes. Between hand me downs from her cousins, things I got at garage sales and things that appear in her closet from "the clothes fairy" aka Grandma, she should be good to go for a few weeks too. They both definitely need more clothes for winter but the emergency run to the mall was cancelled.

I found a pair of Princess flannel pajamas that I had gotten out a garage sale this summer. Laci saw that and immediately wanted to put them on. Of course, who doesn't wear flannel pajamas during the day when it is 75 degrees outside! We played outside in the jammies and took a walk in them. I finally told her she had to change before we went to church Sunday night. I sent her upstairs to get dressed by herself. The clothes she started the day with were still on the floor in her room so I assumed she would just put those back on. Why do I assume anything? She came down with pants, a pink shirt (close to matching too!), underwear and two pairs of socks, her Valentines socks and her Christmas socks. She explained that she needed to bring extra socks to church "just in case". Getting dressed was another adventure. After dancing around the house naked for awhile, she finally got dressed as we were loading up the car. I should add that during this time, we realized we should get Calvin dressed too - he was in a t-shirt, diaper and one sock. Apparently, clothes are optional in our house.

Ten years later - 9/11

I am not going to post a lot about 9/11. There is so much out there right now. We all have our own personal stories. But I have often thought about what I will tell my children about that time when they are old enough to ask. I have wanted to write and journal about my personal story but ten years later, I am still not able to. There are a few things that stand out to me that I will tell them about.

There was no laughter, no TV and no music. I have often heard people comment about the quiet due to the lack of airplanes in the air was noteworthy. I always remember the quiet. I remember thinking what it would have been like to have young children that didn't understand what was going on. Life had to go on for them. That would have been difficult. I remember how strange it was for all the "normal" to come back. I remember the first time a regular song was played on the radio days later. It would take weeks before late night TV would come back.

The images. We all have images that stand in our mind. The strong leaders. The crowds running. The smoke. The firetrucks. The image that stands out for me was the doctors waiting at the hospital for the ambulances that never came. There weren't injuries. People either made it out or they did not.

As I look back now at all of the coverage from the time, I can't help but wonder how did they get it all cleaned up? The buildings and the steel alone was a challenge. How did they move on? That they did is what makes America great.

A friend of ours daughter was born that day. He has said how strange it was to be holding his brand new baby while this tradegy was going on. I can not imagine the range of emotions they must have been feeling.

We will never forget. That became the tagline. So much is said in those 4 words. And it is as important today as ever. I was not directly affected and living where I do, I know my memories and how it changed me is so different than so many others. I am proud to be an American and I will never forget.

My family - in ten years...

We spent a few days this week with my brother and his family. It was a wonderful trip. I love spending time with them. My brother has three kids - they are now 10, 10 and 12. I was fortunate to live near them when they were young and spent a lot of time with them. I miss them very much and really enjoyed getting to spend this time with them. I love seeing the people they are becoming. They are great kids. I love watching them with my kids now and being the "big cousins."
It's fun to watch them because their family is in the "next stage". They are beyond the preschool and toddler years and are now in the "tween" years and quickly approaching the teen years. My sister in law has always been a mentor to me in many ways. I have learned a lot from her. We joked that kids problems may change as they get older but it's always something with kids and parenting.
I love watching them as a family unit. The "family unit" is so important to me. Every family is so uniquely different and special. They each have their own traditions and special moments. It's fun to learn about their family traditions - ranging from Christmas morning, going out to dinner, getting ice cream or going on vacation. The kids are old enough to know these traditions and these moments are important to them. My brother and sister in law have been married for 18 years now and have more history as their own family just the two of them and now the five of them then their own individual families. I have learned that so much of being our own "family unit" is taking a little bit of both of our individual families growing up and making our own.
I love my kids in the chaotic preschool / toddler stage we are in now and am appreciating every moment. I know that it won't last forever. After spending time with my nieces and nephew this week, I am reminded that it always just keeps getting better.

long night

Anybody have any good ideas to get kids to sleep and to sleep all night in a hotel room. I don't think any of us slept last night! I am sure the nurses conference and wedding party here loved us screaming at 6 am.

Laci's Families

Laci is really into families.  She is into the world of make believe.  She loves play sets and doll houses.  Anything she plays with is a family and anything (like a crayon) can be a person in a family.  The one that makes me chuckle the most is her toothbrushes.  She can play with toothbrushes for hours.  She will specifically ask to not take a bath with Calvin so she can play with her toothbrushes without him bothering them.  The "family" that is most precious to her is the Bear Family.  The Bear Family has been with us for over a year now.  The parents are a Bride and Groom white (now gray) stuffed animals that I got before our wedding.  They are the Mom and Dad because they are the biggest.  Beanie Babies make up the rest of the family.  My favorite member of the Bear Family is the Monkey.  I don't know why but the Monkey Beanie Baby has always been a member of the Bear family.  There is a brother bear, sister bear, little brother bear and little sister bear (they are twins) and a few other members of the family.  I have trouble keeping track of them all.  There are about 8 in all in the Bear family.  She sleeps with them every night.  There are about a total of 20 or so stuffed animals (dogs, beanie babies, Santa) on her bed at any given time.  I don't know how she fits on the bed.  Last night I accidently moved the bears to make room for her and I got in trouble for stacking them because I was going to give them bruises.  I also get in trouble when she asks me for a certain Bear and I bring the wrong one to her.  Each bear has a personality and she knows them all well.  It's her own little world.  I remember those little worlds when I was little.  I miss those worlds.  

Last night, her "family" of choice were spoons.  She kept running into the kitchen for more spoons.  I looked around the family room and saw tons of toys and then I looked over at Laci, sitting at her little table playing with a pile of spoons as if they are people.  Calvin was playing with a bowl and a wooden stick.  Why do we bother with any toys at all!