Uncontrolled Experiment

Monster Trucks and Pop Tarts

2012-01-31T20:45:00.011-05:00

On a whim last week, we decided to buy tickets for M. and Finn to go to a Monster Jam show this past weekend at the Verizon Center. M. saw a commercial on TV, we checked out ticket prices, and boom! Purchase and plans were made. We kept it a secret from Finn until the day of the show (event?), because he is a Monster Truck fanatic (he remembers practically nothing from our trip to the Outer Banks a year and a half ago, EXCEPT that we passed by Grave Digger's house twice; he owns a metric ton of toy Monster Trucks; etc), and we wanted to be able to rise at a decent hour on Saturday morning. Anticipation + kid = 5 am wake up time typically, which was NOT part of the plan. So we waited patiently to spring this surprise on Finn until he woke us up at the (not unreasonable) hour of 7:35 Saturday morning. The event (we'll go with event, sounds more manly) was set for 2 pm that afternoon, and since Metro is "doing repairs" (whatevs), M. and Finn braved a drive in to the city and parked at M.'s work. Finn got a chance to see the White House ("Obama's House," as he likes to call it), eat lunch in M.'s office, and use facilities far nicer than those at the Verizon Center (I assume). A quick walk to the stadium, and it was show time!

Ready, set...

Go! (Batmobile!)

Crushing cars!!

Grave Digger

Monster Mutt

A very happy boy - see how the trucks look pretty small/toy-like in the pictures above, but you can tell from this picture (and the way they really fill the floor of the Verizon Center) that they are actually HUGE. And loud. Earplugs were worn.

Finn and his precious souvenir, a Grave Digger novelty cup full of blue Snow Cone goodness.

Lucy and I whiled away the time swimming at the local pool and watching a Tinker Bell movie - fun, indeed, but much quieter, I'm sure.

Sunday marked another foray into the realm of baked goods for me, when I tried my hand at homemade pop tarts. I used this recipe from Confessions of a Foodie Bride. Here is the recipe as written on that website, along with the blog author's notes on how she altered/executed the recipe:

Homemade Pop Tarts

Ingredients
2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (cold)
4 Tbsp ice water
12-14 Tbsp good quality peach preserves/jam (or other favorite fruit)
2 cups chopped peaches
1 egg + 1 Tbsp water

Instructions
1. Mix the flour, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Add butter and mix with fingers until it resembles coarse meal.
3. Add ice water and mix lightly and form into a ball.
4. Or, shred the cold sticks of butter with your food processor. Remove the grater attachment and place the bowl in the freezer for 10 minutes. Add the the dry ingredients to the bowl fitted with the dough blade and pulse a few times to mix. While running, add ice-cold water by the Tablespoon just until the dough mostly forms a ball. (You might need a little more water.)
5. Divide in half; shape each half into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
6. Roll 1 disk at a time on a floured surface to about 13x11 inches. Trim to 12x10 and cut into 5x3-inch rectangles.
7. Place 4 rectangles on each baking sheet. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of preserves onto the center and top with chopped peaches.
8. Cover with second dough rectangle and gently press the edges to seal.
9. Crimp edges with a floured fork and poke a few holes on top.
10. Cover tarts and freeze for 2 hours or up to 1 week (I froze overnight and then baked the next morning).
11. Whisk egg and water and brush over tarts right before baking.
12. Bake frozen tarts at 375 for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.
13. Sift powdered sugar over tarts or frost with powdered sugar icing.
I bake the entire batch at once. I supposed you could bake them fresh every morning but it's hot. I keep the oven use to a minimum. Plus, they keep really well in a covered cake plate on the counter for 4 days. 2 people + 8 pop tarts = 4 days.

Just to be clear, the "I" in the recipe is not me, it is the author of Confessions of a Foodie Bride, and the italicized notes are her own. Now that you have the recipe, here are my notes. And I must be honest, there were many, many points at which I was positive the outcome was going to be at best inedible, and at worst disastrous.

First, you should know that while I have a food processor, I rarely use it. It is kept in one of the cabinets in our kitchen that is so high up, I need to stand on my tip toes on the highest stool we have just to reach it. Plus, I don't really know how to use any of the attachments except the basic blade/"completely pulverize" thingy. So instead of taking the blog author's suggestion of using the food processor to make the dough, I cut my cold butter up into small pieces and used my fingers to crumble it up in the flour. It took a long time, and I started worrying that the butter was getting too warm, so I stopped crumbling and started adding water. It's possible that my butter/flour mixture did NOT resemble course meal at this point, but since I'm not so sure what "course meal" should look like... eh. I rounded the dough up as best I could into two balls, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and stuck them in the fridge for a few hours (because I had things to do, of course - who can sit around for an hour and wait for dough to chill?).

When I got back to the recipe, I took the first ball of dough out of the fridge, plopped it down on the floured counter top, gently pressed on it with my rolling pin, and... watched it completely fall apart. And stick to my nonstick, floured rolling pin. And basically do everything except look like a nice, thin, cohesive sheet of pastry.

How to rescue, how to rescue... Well, I ended up just adding more water, using my hands to "doughify" things, and kept on moving. Yeah, the end results weren't pretty. Yeah, things stuck to the countertop A LOT. Yeah, I had to reroll the scraps of dough several times because I couldn't get my dough to make a nice rectangular shape.

But in the end, I had an even number of somewhat matching, rectangularish pieces of pastry. I spread half of them with some strawberry preserves and diced fresh strawberries, covered them with the other half of the pastry pieces, and crimped everything together with a fork. And then I prayed.

Just kidding, I don't pray. Then I stuck them in the freezer for the recommended minimum of two hours.

Finally, when I had grown old and gray, I put the pop tarts from the freezer, directly in to the oven, and cooked them for about 25 minutes. I would have cooked them a bit longer, but finally had to take them out when my pans looked like this:

Not so much like the picture on the original blog, right?

Things started to look better once I got the tarts off the pans and out of the lagoon of melted fruit:

And then I frosted them, which helped even more (confectioner's sugar thinned with milk):

And once you get up close, they actually start to look appetizing:

The Verdict:

Smiling faces and empty plates.

Monday morning I was able to get both of the kids to eat another one (well, Lucy had half, but finished the other half today) before school, which is already miles ahead of my last attempt to bake a healthy (ish? Healthier?) breakfast snack. However, since then, Finn has informed me that he likes the boxed pop tarts better, and he probably won't be eating any more of the ones his poor mother slaved over.

Lucy said she will keep eating them. She is my favorite.

Birthday Boy

2012-01-25T21:28:00.005-05:00

Today was the birthday of this blog's rarely seen but much loved second author (at least according to the account information). M. turned the ripe old age of 36, and despite his birthday's close proximity to Christmas (shopping fatigue) and my busy schedule, I must say I was (for once) on top of my game.

Gift from me: An Acer Aspire Netbook, ordered over the weekend and on the door step yesterday (free shipping, too!). This will give M. his very own laptop for accessing his vast music collection, and free up the house laptop (OK, let's be honest, my laptop) for wonderful pursuits like blogging and Pinning.

Gift from kids: New ear buds, to fit his oddly-shaped ears, purchased with the kids (who would have preferred to buy him a "football picture" of sorts, which sadly [sarcasm] Target was all out of) over the weekend. Wrapped in a page from a Care Bears coloring book colored by Lucy.

Cards: Two; one from me, one from the kids. Kids card had appropriate kid scribbles and signatures, done by Finn.

Dinner: Per M.'s request, I made a recipe I stumbled across recently on one of the food blogs I frequent, Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwiches from Smells Like Home. I followed the recipe exactly, down to finding what I think are the exact same pickled jalapenos (took me some time to find ones that were not already sliced), and I'm so glad I did. Behold the awesomeness:

I couldn't stop at just one photo, these sandwiches were that good. Served with a side of brussels sprouts, sliced and sauteed with some olive oil, S&P. Kids ate plain grilled cheese and blackberries, because they are boring.

Cake: Boy, did we have cake. Let's just say that this was not exactly an "on plan" day, Weight Watcher's-wise, for me. Finn specified that we had to make M. a chocolate cake, with vanilla frosting and a big red Wisconsin "W". And I delivered:

I used this recipe for the chocolate cake itself, and store bought frosting. It had all the convenience of a cake made from a mix, but tasted far better. In fact, it's too good, and now I need to find some way to keep myself away from the leftovers.

And with that, I'll stop patting myself on the back (and dreading the precedent I've set for myself) so I can go keep the sexiest 36-year-old I know company as he watches his fascinating and not nerdy at all [again with the sarcasm] TV show about sea life in the Antarctic.

I Never Use All the Space in the Bed, Anyway

2012-01-23T21:26:00.002-05:00

The last couple of weeks have involved lots of work travel and all-day meetings/conferences. It has been exhausting, and I am missing the “normal routine” badly. I’m not spending ZERO time with M. and the kids, but it has been abbreviated, and the feeling of upcoming work obligations always makes that time seem even more rushed/less relaxing.

Of course, not every aspect of work travel is unpleasant. I commuted into Washington, D.C. two days last week, and it was kind of fun to get swept up with the rest of the masses riding the Metro, pounding the sidewalks, and in general moving with purpose. No one walks slowly in D.C.! My new Kindle (and the engrossing book State of Wonder) definitely helped pass the time during the lengthy Metro ride. Food I don’t cook myself, conversations with new and familiar-but-rarely-seen faces, (for last night and tonight) a big hotel bed all to myself... there are some bonuses to work travel. But I never sleep as well – I imagine that, even though M. told me that Lucy woke up 3 or 4 times last night, I probably would have had a more restful night of sleep had I been in my less-than-crisp, crowded bed at home. And I miss my family.

A few observations from the last few days -

1) There is nothing like an alarm malfunction to allow for speed records to be set in the sport of “getting ready.” Last Thursday I was supposed to wake up at 5 am and leave my house by 5:30 to begin the long trek into D.C. (for a meeting that was beginning at 7 am). My alarm did go off at 5, but without any volume at all. It was apparently caught between radio stations, or some such nonsense. Fortunately, an act of God made M. look at the clock at 5:34 am, and he woke me up. I was out the door 15 minutes later, and only 5 minutes late to my meeting. Why is this kind of speed not possible on a normal day?

Panic + no kids + showering the night before + advance outfit planning = 15 minutes

On a typical day, that equation looks more like:

No early morning meeting + snooze button X 2 + shower + clothing deliberation + rousing the kids X 12 (because this step is really hard) + making kids use potty + dressing kids + forcing kids to brush teeth + brushing Lucy's hair X 46 (really, really hard) + shoes, coats, hats, mittens for all / the inverse of all the bags that need to get carried out to the car = 5 thousand years

Addended to add that I at least matched my "getting ready" record this evening - I arranged to meet work friends for dinner at 6:30 tonight, and decided to work out on one of the hotel treadmills beforehand. And by beforehand, I mean 5:40-ish. Foolish? Perhaps. But I was determined to get in a workout. I made it back to my room at 6:21, showered, dressed, and even put on some make up, and was out the door to meet them by 6:34. So apparently the appeal of dining kid-free with friends and the promise of wine is also quite motivating for me.

2) Surgeons start meetings WAY too early. A 7 am meeting in D.C.? Cah-razy!

3) I am currently attending a two-and-a-half day meeting where many different scientific and medical professional come together in an expert capacity. Representing their fields, their institutions, etc. Last night was the formal "kick off" dinner, though formal can mean many different things within the science crowd. I accept this, I know this, I understand that I will see more than one pair of jeans. And yet. I was more than a little surprised to see a woman wearing slippers.

Time to get back to my clearly-not-High-Def viewing of House Hunters, and the glass of chardonnay keeping me company. One more day to go, and then I'm back to all the wonderful comforts and discomforts of home!

Blood Orange Gin Sparkler

2012-01-15T22:10:00.004-05:00

In an effort to broaden my culinary/mixology horizons, and to follow through with actually doing some of the ideas I get from the Internet, I may occasionally post a recipe that I've made here. I would say "recipe or project," but since I'm not the crafty type, I doubt I'll be getting any "project" ideas from sites like Pinterest. Common sources of recipe ideas for me are many of the blogs listed to the right (both the "regular reads" list and the "food porn" list), Cooking Light magazine (I've been a faithful subscriber since 2003), and Pinterest. I happened to find this recipe via Pinterest, and it's of the "adult beverage" type.

There are a couple of things about this recipe that caught my eye. First, it's a gin-based drink, which is one of my favorite (i.e. most tolerable - I'm not a big hard liquor drinker) hard liquors. There is nothing quite like an icy, limey gin and tonic on a hot summer night. As you may have noticed, though, it's not exactly hot and summery right now. This recipe puts a nice twist on the classic gin and tonic by including rosemary and blood oranges, two decidedly wintry flavors. M. and I made round one last night, and liked it so much that we are currently sipping on round two as I type.

Adapted rom 101cookbooks.com:

Blood Orange Gin Sparkler

Simple syrup:
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons (~2 sprigs-worth) fresh rosemary leaves
1 bay leaf (optional)

Drink:
blood oranges
gin
ice cubes
tonic water (or sparkling water) - I used diet tonic water

To make the simple syrup, combine the water, sugar, rosemary, and bay leaf (I left this out) in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat until sugar dissolves and liquid comes to a simmer, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and let infuse for 10 minutes. Strain into a jar to cool completely. Simple syrup should be kept in the refrigerator, and will keep for a couple of weeks. Even so, I found that this makes quite a lot of simple syrup, with only a small amount needed for the cocktail. You could probably halve the simple syrup recipe and still have more than enough.

While syrup is steeping, juice and strain your oranges. The recipe recommends 3 tablespoons / 1.5 ounces of juice for each drink. To give you an idea of how many oranges you will need, the first night, we juiced three blood oranges and got 6 tablespoons of juice, just enough for two drinks. Tonight I again juiced three oranges and got 8 tablespoons of juice, so I just increased the amounts of the other ingredients to make a slightly larger drink. So plan on juicing at least three blood oranges, as they are on the small side, or more if you want a larger drink/more than one drink. We used a simple lemon squeezer to juice the oranges. Note that this would probably be very nice with grapefruit or regular oranges, too.

For each drink, combine equal parts gin, juice, and tonic water with a bit of syrup and ice. So, its 3 tablespoons / 1.5 oz gin, 3 tablespoons / 1.5 oz freshly squeezed blood orange juice, and 1-2 teaspoons of the rosemary syrup in each glass. Stir to combine, fill each glass 2/3 full with ice and top off with 3 tablespoons / 1.5 oz tonic water.

This doesn't make a huge drink, as you can see from the picture below that I took the first night we made this (we used a woefully innapropriately sized glass the first night), but it makes a damn good drink. I have a feeling I'm going to be buying a lot of blood oranges over the next few weeks!

Minutiae

2012-01-13T17:51:00.006-05:00

Yesterday I left for work early - I had an all-day meeting and needed to make sure I wasn't late. M. dropped the kids off, and since I was up early, he and the kids were up and ready early, too. He dropped them off right around 7 am. My meeting, which was supposed to end by 4:30, was still going strong when I snuck out the door at 5:20 in order to make it to school by its 6:00 p.m. closing time. I barely made it. This meant the kids were at daycare for just about 11 hours yesterday.

In an effort to distract the kids from our abbreviated evening, I got them Burger King for dinner. Kind of like bribery, but they didn't know why I was bribing them.

Today I picked the kids up on the early side, to make up for the extra long day at daycare yesterday. I offered to play with the kids before starting dinner, since it was still pretty early - spend some unrushed, quality time together that we don't usually get. They decided to watch TV instead.

__________________________

It drives me nuts that as soon as I get home each night with the kids, I am bombarded with demands. Help me get my coat/shoes off (Lucy, who is actually perfectly capable of doing those tasks herself), turn on the TV (both kids), put on a different show (usually Finn), get me a snack (both kids), feed me (cat, accompanied by annoying ankle-rubbing and other trip-causing behavior), cook dinner STAT (me/the "schedule"), make something healthy (also me), make soemthing kid-friendly (kids again), get me another snack (kids, accompanied by the inevitable whining when I say no), start emptying the dishwasher so M. doesn't have to do it later (M.), clean as I go (just nice to do, and I don't always do it, as I'm not very nice). All this happens in the roughly 45 minutes I have before M. gets home from work.

I wish that I could be left alone to cook [food I like] in peace.

Also, I need more "pleases" in my life.

____________________________

My Weight Watchers weigh-in for the week is tomorrow morning. I ate tacos for dinner tonight. Even though I did use the 40% less sodium seasoning, this was probably not a smart dinner choice.
____________________________

There are 5 loads of laundry sitting in a mountain on the floor of my basement, waiting to be folded.

____________________________

Last Sunday I baked all afternoon with Finn. First we made Buttermilk Oatmeal muffins, mostly so I could use up the rest of the container of buttermilk I had in my fridge. To finish off the milk, I had to make a double batch - 36 muffins. I figured this was OK, as I could give them to the kids each morning as a pre-school snack, and also freeze some. Finn and Lucy ate one bite each, and declared they don't like them.

*I* like them, and M. likes them. However, I hadn't planned on eating 34 of them.

We also made zucchini cookies, as Finn was curious how you could make a cookie with a vegetable. It took us an ungodly amount of time to shred up the zucchini with the brand new food mill my mom gave me for Christmas. Should have gone low-tech and used a shredder, I guess, but at least it was a good upper body workout.

The kids *kind of* like the cookies, but still prefer other dessert foods.

There are far too many delicious baked goods in this house for my liking (and my diet's existence), and too few people to eat them.

I wish I could eat anything I wanted to, and still be healthy.

________________________________

I have been good about getting back on track with exercise, jogging three times this week. I have not been so good about not eating all the things.

This is directly related to the plethora of baked goods in my house. And also the container of Two-Bite Brownies that sustained me throughout my all-day meeting yesterday. Two-Bite Brownies are a weakness of mine. There's just something about the slightly crispy outer layer, and gooey soft inner layer, that makes my soul happy. But not my scale, of course.

_________________________________

Lucy is completely potty trained, even at night. This family? Is done with diapers. In Memoriam: October 2006 - January 2012. They lived a short (yet too long), filled (if not exactly fulfilling) life. May they rest in peace.

_________________________________

Lucy sometimes hisses at us. She loves chapstick, princesses, Tinker Bell, Hello Kitty, Luke Skywalker, Annakin Skywalker, and Darth Vader. She does not like Emperor Palpatine. She has been getting in trouble for hitting at school lately. She wears 3T, will be 3 years old in just a few months. She looks adorable in a pony tail, and despises having her hair brushed. Her favorite song right now is "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens. She won't wear a hat or mittens most days, and is a pretty picky eater. Her favorite food at the moment is macaroni and cheese, or so she claims - she occasionally goes rogue and turns her nose up at it. Her favorite TV show is Super Why. She still sleeps in a crib. She likes to tell her father that he's handsome, but she still asks for me to be the one to put her to bed most nights (and brush her teeth, and get her out of bed, and take her to the bathroom...).
_________________________________

Finn has also been getting in trouble at school for hitting lately. We really know how to raise them, eh? He has now watched all 6 of the Star Wars movies, and is officially obsessed. He is capable of asking 3,472 questions about Star Wars on any given day. He plays with Star Wars toys, reads Star Wars books, and likely dreams about Star Wars. He is starting to get the hang of reading simple words, and whips through his math homework with little to no help. He is sweet and sensitive, always trying to make sure that the people he loves don't feel bad. He wants to win at games, but doesn't want us to lose, at least not too badly. He is taking swim lessons right now. His favorite food is still pizza, and his favorite TV show is The Wild Kratts. He whines A LOT (seriously, when does that end??). He is stubborn and frustrating and funny and loving. He still gives us spontaneous hugs and kisses. One of his latest tics involves a droning, constant humming while he's zoned out, which is about as annoying as it sounds. He now sleeps until at least 7 am on the weekends, and is damn hard to get out of bed on the weekdays.

____________________________________

That's life, lately. Just wanted to get something down, to get back to writing something, ANYTHING, here. To keep a record of life, for the days to come when we look back and try to remember how it all was.

It's better than it sounds, though. Writing out the details, it can seem miserable. On a day-to-day basis, life can BE miserable. But over all, we are fortunate and happy and decidedly NOT miserable. These kids, they are work. They are frustration in a short package. But they bring so much to our lives, and I know it's all worth it. These two little beings, that turn their noses up at my cooking and beat the crap out of each other, they are awesome. I recognize it every day, and make mental note of it. I'm just not that good at capturing it here, to share with all of you (and my future, memory-addled self). I need to get better at that, at putting down here all the good details. I hope I do.

Food "Pin"spiration

2012-01-06T19:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it – I surrendered myself (finally? Seems like everyone else is already doing it) to yet another internet movement/fad/obsession. I crossed over to the dark side and requested a Pinterest account (still holding out on Twitter, though...). Mainly because I’ve become a bit addicted to browsing through food blogs. Seriously, I can’t stop looking at all these delicious, beautiful looking pictures of food, and dreaming of making them. How’s that for diet inspiration – not so good, eh? Anyway, I would like to actually COOK some of these delightful recipes (the healthy ones, of course... and maybe one or two not-so-healthy-but-oh-so-yummy-looking ones), instead of just drooling over them. But I don’t want to end up with a stack of messy, crumply, tree-killing, bound-to-be-lost-and/or-stained sheets of 8.5 X 11 paper. So I’m joining Pinterest (well, I’m on the “wait list”, so I *may* be joining Pinterest, if they extend me an invitation), which I plan to use to “pin” these recipes all in one place, a place I can then reference for inspiration when I’m menu planning and what not. We’ll see if my usage extends beyond that – I’ve heard that once you start browsing and pinning, it’s hard to stop.

How about you? Do you have a Pinterest account? If you do, what do you use it for?

Also note that, to better feed my food blog obsession, I’ve started a new blogroll to the right to make it easier for me to frequent some of my favorite "food porn" sites. I’m sure I will be adding to this list. I encourage you to browse, too – you’d have to be the most heartless, dedicated, food-hater to not come away with a rumbly tummy and an intense desire to cook something absolutely fabulous!

Yet Another New Year's Resolution Post

2012-01-05T20:58:00.006-05:00

I'm trying to work back to some kind of momentum, not just for blogging (which I have clearly been lacking), but in many aspects of my life. The winter holiday season is something I look forward to every year, yet something that also keeps me in perpetual wonderment of whether I'll be able to keep my head above water with all the rushing, rushing, rushing to create a magical, or even just OK, experience for my family. Christmas is so much more stressful once you have kids!

Christmas this year was great, fun, different, and exhausting. We traveled to Wisconsin, as we do every other year. New this year was that our time in Wisconsin was spent at an indoor water park in the Wisconsin Dells. SO. FUN. The kids had a blast, we had a blast. But oh my god, was it exhausting! Take all the planning and shopping for Christmas, figure out how to transport it to another (far away) state, and then add in countless hours of running around in a bathing suit, whipping down slides, and making sure no one drowns.

Once we got back in to town, we dealt with some of the typical traveling/winter illnesses that are inevitable (Lucy! Puked on the plane! This was a first for us! But we survived! She left the plane without any pants on!), particularly when one spends a great deal of time with hundreds of other people in a very warm, water-filled, indoor area. By the time New Year's was over, it had been nearly two weeks since I'd last been in the office. Needless to say, getting back into the swing of our everyday routine has been tough.

Also tough? Getting back in to the swing of: Exercising. Blogging (obviously). Being a responsible adult. General career motivation. Eating healthy.

Regarding that last one - I realize it's pretty common to derail one's eating habits for a time over the holidays. I certainly don't want to deprive myself of these goodies that only come around once a year or so. So I gave myself leeway. But now? I can't stop. I am eating ALL THE FOOD. Things that I never would have let myself eat a mere three weeks ago, even. Bundt cake on the common table at work? MUST EAT. And there is a fresh new bundt cake every Monday morning. Mini chocolates on the common table at work? Again, MUST EAT. And some evil person fills that damn candy basket, every damn day.

I have no will power.

But I am approximately two weeks away from my one-year anniversary with Weight Watchers. And still 10 (OK, after Xmas, 13) pounds away from my "goal weight." I need to get this shit under control.

So, a few goals. Not resolutions, per se, but goals. I set some last year, and did a so-so job of meeting them. I found some new recipes to add in to our family meal rotation, I ran one long-ish race and one 5K, and we did a few new things in the area with the kids to get out of our shopping all weekend routine. But I didn't really broaden my work horizons (for example, I thought I might try my hand at writing some freelance stuff, even if unpaid), I didn't read my camera manual to try to take better pictures, and we (clearly) didn't move up to New England to be closer to family. Though to be fair, the last goal was really to "start working toward" moving up to New England, which I did do - I applied for a few jobs, and even had a few phone interviews. But nothing that was a great fit, so it's back to square one there.

New year, new (ish) goals:

1) Reach my G-D Weight Watchers goal weight already. Work the plan (it really does work when you properly "work it"), drop the last 13 pounds, and become a lifetime member. I just need to DO THIS already.

2) Run a couple of short races. Find a 10 mile race to enter. Make ample use of my new cold weather running apparel (don't be a wimp!). Only allow myself to watch season 2 episodes of Downton Abbey if I'm on the treadmill (shouldn't be too hard, as M. refuses to watch with me, and the treadmill is the only solo TV watching time I allow myself).

3) Estate planning - make a will, etc. Can't believe we haven't done this yet, and am very ashamed to admit that we haven't. It is utterly ridiculous, of course, and we need to stop putting it off. Anyone have recommendations of a good lawyer in the Montgomery County area who could help with this?

4) Meet with a financial advisor. More boring responsible adult-type stuff that we should already be doing.

5) Read at least 15 books this year. M. got me a Kindle for Christmas, so I'm hoping I'll be motivated to stay on top of my reading. I really LIKE books, I just (ever since Finn was born) tend to zonk out after only 5 minutes of reading each night. Makes it hard to finish anything in less than an eon, by which point I've usually lost enthusiasm for or forgotten the plot.

6) Learn to use my NEW camera. Yes, I was not successful in reading the user manual and learning how to use my camera to its fullest potential last year. But I WAS successful in obtaining a newer, better camera - a Nikon DSLR - an extremely generous Christmas gift from my parents. It is insanely nice and expensive, and I have no idea how to use it. But I've at least bought myself a new camera bag and a book on exposure, and am starting to work my way through the user manual. I have no great desire to take professional grade photographs, but I don't want to look like a bumbling idiot with this fancy thing around my neck, and I'd like some decent pictures of my family and our experiences. This must happen.

7) Continue to work toward moving up to New England. This includes figuring out what the hell I'd like to do with my career (because what I do now is just not easily transferrable to any region of the country), applying for many, many jobs, and getting our house in shape for either selling or renting. The home improvement projects will hopefully include getting hardwood floors on the main level, new countertops in the kitchen, and maybe a few new windows. With any luck and no major unexpected/emergency household expenses.

8) Post here more. I'm happier when I do. It makes me feel more fulfilled than the slug that sits on the couch watching TV at night that I otherwise become.

The last two goals are the most important:

9) Be a more patient, respectful, present parent to Finn and Lucy. I want to lead by example. I know that I already do (we all do), I'm just not happy with the example I'm setting. I yell, so they yell. Because of me, they are learning to treat each other and their parents disrespectfully. I want to be more mindful of my actions, and how they rub off on the kids. I expect this to be hard.

10) Put M. first more. He is a great parent, and a wonderful husband. He, out of guilt and a desire to be selfless, I'm sure, doesn't take any time for himself. But he always encourages me to do so - he wants me to buy things that make me happy, he is very encouraging of my time spent running or at Weight Watchers meetings. He is always willing to let me hang out with a friend or two, sans kids. He lets me put myself first, but yet never puts himself first. I want to spend more time encouraging him, and allowing him to be more selfish.

That's a lot of goals, I know. What can I say? Maybe I'm finally feeling motivated for a fresh start, only 5 days later than everyone else. Wish me luck!

And Happy New Year, from our family to yours!

Hello Again

2011-12-18T20:58:00.009-05:00

Nearly forgot my login, it's been so long. Sorry, wasn't planning a blogcation, but got a bit swept up in work and Christmas preparations. To ease back in, I give you an entirely photo-based post. And by "post," I mean "no substance whatsoever beyond the actual photographs." Yeah, it's late, I'm tired, so no captions. I will say that the photos draw from the following events/activities: Thanksgiving with my parents, celebrating my dad's 60th birthday, child labor, "Captain Christmas," decorating the house for Christmas, baking and frosting 7 dozen cookies, and other random photos. Enjoy! Will try to be back soon with something a bit more substantial!

The Menu

2011-11-23T13:00:00.000-05:00

We are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for my parents this year, a tradition that has been interrupted every now and then, but has been fairly steady for the last 8 years or so. This is our big "entertaining" holiday, since we travel for just about every one of the other ones. This weekend we had our big "Thanksgiving Dinner" shopping trip, which (unfortunately, because we've both been so busy) also coincided to the day with our "Thanksgiving Menu Planning" efforts. Sunday morning I spent a couple of hours scouring websites and recipes, and by 11:30 that day we were shopping at Wegmans. It was a rush job, and we forgot a few things, but I think (I hope) we are all set and ready for tomorrow. Here's the rundown of what we're eating:

APPETIZERS

Crabbies (similar to - but not exactly the same as - this recipe)

A dip made out of radish, plain Greek yogurt, walnuts, mint, cumin seeds, and some other stuff (M. is in charge of this one - it's a recipe from a co-worker of his and he has been raving about it since he tried it, sorry, I don't have the recipe in electronic format)

Figs stuffed with blue cheese and almonds and drizzled with honey (some will be wrapped in bacon - no real recipe here, either)

MAIN MEAL

Oven Roasted Turkey Breast (M. is in charge of the bird and is "winging it" - ha ha - sans recipe)

Sweet Potatoe Casserole (recipe from Epicurious.com)

Garlic Mashed Potatoes (from Alton Brown)

Green Bean Casserole with Madeira Mushrooms (from Cooking Light)

Roasted Baby Vegetables (no recipe on this one, just plan to toss with EVOO, S&P, and parsely and cook in the oven)

Rye rolls and cheese bread (not homemade, from Whole Foods and Wegmans, respectively)

Homemade cranberry sauce (no recipe here, either, just winged it based on the instructions my mom gave me over the phone. Cook 2 bags of cranberries in boiling water, drain and mush up/strain through a fine sieve - or use food mill, which would be easier, but I didn't have one - put back in saucepan and add 2 cups of sugar, cook until sugar is dissolved, pour in to glass containers and chill. I added orange zest and a little orange juice, too.)

DESSERT

Chocolate Pudding Pie (from Wegmans)

Homemade Pumpkin Pie (I married the filling from this recipe with the streusel top from this recipe, and cheated by cooking it in a store bought graham cracker crust. I made it last night, and it looks and smells heavenly!)

I am excited to see my parents, and eat yummy food until my sides split. And then try to motivate myself to exercise it all away later this weekend.

I can personally attest to the sweet potatoe recipe and the crabbies recipe, as I've made both before and they are excellent. I'll have to report back on the rest after this weekend. How about you - any awesome, time-tested Thanksgiving recipes to share?

Holiday Gift Ideas For Guys

2011-11-18T10:30:00.002-05:00

Does anyone else find it practically impossible to shop for the men in your lives? I struggle with this every year. What to get M., what to get my dad, what to get M.’s dad, what to get the various other adult males on our shopping list. It’s difficult for me to come up with ideas that I like, and that I also think they will like. Likely because, well, I’m a girl, and I just have different interests/tastes than they do. So shopping for guys is definitely a step outside of my comfort zone.

Below I’m going to try to brainstorm a little, for my benefit, and hopefully for yours, too. For the most part, I’m going to ignore the electronics and gadgets that guys universally seem to love. Because those are some of the more obvious gifts that will ALWAYS please a man, depending on your budget and current electronics stash at your house. I’m talking about things like iPads, iPhones, flat screen TVs, gaming systems, games for gaming systems, etc. I’m also not going to attempt to list out, for example, specific golf clubs your golf-nut dad or boyfriend might like. In cases where a guy has a hobby or two that makes shopping easy, run with it! But this list is not a hobby-specific list, it’s for those of us who have nowhere to start and are already starting to panic a bit about the prospect of RUNNING OUT OF TIME due to lack of inspiration and/or indecision.

1) Alright, first up: Vintage Sports Posters. Now, M. and I both roll our eyes and snicker at the many, many House Hunters episodes that feature a couple focused on finding the perfect house with the perfect “Man Cave”, “Men’s Den”, “Guy Room”, etc. Why a room that is really just a playroom for a grown-up (and by "playroom," I mean place to watch TV and fart with abandon, or whatnot) needs to be front and center in the house selection considerations is beyond me, but apparently it is A THING TO HAVE. A guy space of some sort. This guy space needs to be furnished and decorated, like any other house space, no? And if left up to their own devices, a guy would probably decorate with... well, nothing. Or something, more likely, that the average woman in his life will find slightly off-putting. So if YOU know a guy with a "Man Cave" or other such "space of his own," consider giving the gift of taste by choosing something decorative. Something you and he BOTH like.

Here are a few wall choices from Allposters.com. I like the tin and wood signs they offer because no frame is needed, but a poster in a non-plastic (read: step up from the college décor days) is nice, too. For the football lover, you could get something like this vintage football player poster ($14.99):

They even have some choices from specific schools and teams - fun if you can find the right one for the sports nut in your life. Like this one, featuring a rivalry between Boston College and University of Texas (wood sign, $29.99):

There are posters and signs from all kinds of sports and hobbies to choose from - I especially like some of the cycling posters/signs, don't you? (wood sign, $29.99):

Allposters has many categories to sift through, and I’m sure other sites have some great options, too.

2) Another site that I just discovered is called 20X200 – it’s a website for artists to sell their art to everyday consumers like you and me, at affordable prices. This site would be great for anyone one your gift list, but I noticed they have some great pieces that fit in with today’s “guy” theme. And it’s REAL ART, by current artists, so you can feel all grown up and stuff.

Like this Las Vegas print by Corinne Vionnet:

Or this print of vintage cameras by Christine Berrie:

I could post a lot more of those, but I do want to move beyond “stuff for the walls,” as I realize that not everyone necessarily shares my view that art can make for a great (and likely unexpected) holiday gift. But I will point out that 20X200 has a nifty “Gift” section on their website to help you find the perfect match for your giftee, so if you’re interested, check it out.

On to a random assortment of other suggestions...

3) Whiskey stones - An innovative way to chill liquor drinks without diluting the flavor the way melted ice can. Could also be used by those wine drinkers that love a really cold glass of white wine (ahem, Mimi). Pair with a bottle of nice whiskey or bourbon and/or a set of glasses:

4) A little on the "gadgety" and "frat guy" side, but how about this iPhone Bottle Opener? ($19.99 when not on sale):

5) For those that already own an iPad or iPad2, the X Stand from Brookstone would make a great gift. It's a stand that allows you to use your iPad like a desktop computer, while giving you the ability to rotate it in any position you need. If I had an iPad, I would totally buy this ($49.99):

6) In terms of casual clothes, my favorite go-to outfit for men is to pair a waffle weave/thermal shirt with a nice pair of jeans or cargo pants. For the thermal shirt, make sure to get one that's not too loose/baggy - as with women's clothes, some things are meant to hug the form a little, even if you think your form isn't the sveltest one out there. Going large and shapeless is just going to make you look... large and shapeless. So I recommend, for this type of shirt, to select one that is a little stretchy, like the Urban Pipeline Thermal Tee from Kohls ($17.99 or 2 for $30). Sorry, no picture to share here, as I can't figure out how to save it to my desktop. But check out the link - these are great, comfortable shirts.

Pair the shirt with cargo pants, like these ones from Land's End ($44.95):

and, if you're feeling ambitious, some casual, stylish shoes, like these Skechers NORCO sneakers in brown ($49.98):

7) All of the guys on my shopping list are pretty active outdoors, and those outdoor locations they live in include lots of woods. Woods + Summer = Bugs, right? I'm intrigued by a line of Bug Shield clothing offered by Columbia. It reportedly keeps bugs away, is anti-microbial, and offers SPF 50 protection from the sun. I could see M. or his dad wearing this while they mow the lawn, or my dad wearing it as he moves rocks around up at his Maine lake house.

Columbia Bug Shield Long Sleeve Shirt ($49.99):

And the button-down version ($67.95):

8) A nice quality sweater is always a good gift - here are a few styles that appear to be all the rage lately (and look warm, too!). These are all from Land's End, and a little on the pricey side, but Land's End e-mails out coupon deals every day if you're on their mailing list, which might help some of these fit in your holiday budget a bit better. Other stores have similar styles to offer, too, so look around for the best deal:

Men's Donegal Button Mock Sweater - I'm oddly into the elbow patches on this one - very professorial ($99.50):

Men's Regular Knit Donegal Button Mock Sweater, featuring a hint of what I believe is called a "shawl collar," something Esquire magazine assured me is very much "in" right now ($79.50):

Men's Zip-front Drifter Cardigan - an update on the classic cardigan, a sweater my grandpa was never without during each winter, for as long as I can remember. This one looks great, for any age and dress situation. Comes in lots of colors, too ($49.50):

9) For a music lover, consider a box set. It's a bit old school in this age of iTunes and MP3 players, but my husband swears he likes having all the liner notes and discs from his collections, and I'm sure he's not alone. Like this upcoming release from Rush, Sector 1 ($46.89), and/or it's companion sets, Sector 2 and Sector 3:

A quick look through Amazon.com shows other great options in this category, like the Beach Boys, U2, Pink Floyd (several to choose from), The Smiths, and a whole lot more.

10) A product I can personally recommend is the Audiovox Acoustic Research Wireless Speaker - we actually have two of them. You plug your computer or other music-playing device (iPhone, iPod, etc) into the transmitter, which will transmit wirelessly to the speaker. It's an indoor/outdoor speaker, and very portable - we carry it around the house or outside so the music can follow us wherever we go. The sound is great, and the speaker runs on batteries, or you can plug it in if you're running low on size AA's. We ended up buying a second one so that we can play the same music upstairs and downstairs (one transmitter can transmit to multiple speakers). If you're looking for a cheap way to simulate a "wired" house, this is it! (on sale right now for $63.00):

11) A great book or collection of books is always a safe bet for a pleasing Christmas gift. Most of the guys I know like biographies and other types of nonfiction, historical fiction, and thrillers. A few current suggestions are:

The new Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson (of course) ($14.99 on Kindle, $17.88 hardcover sale price)

11/22/63: A Novel by Steven King ($16.99 on Kindle, $19.25 harcover)

Einstein: His Life and Universe, also by Walter Isaacson ($14.99 on Kindle, $15.98 paperback, which seems oddly high)

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand ($12.99 on Kindle, $14.00 hardcover)

12) M. and I both come from places with hard winters and variable weather, so we're engrained with the idea of weather as an inevitable topic of conversation at any gathering. Plus, it's always nice to know what kind of weather you're facing for the day when you get up in the morning, without having to flip on the TV. There are many, many weather stations out there to choose from, with price tags from as little as $19.99, all the way up to multiple-hundred dollars. Most don't give you a forecast, per se - you won't see the anticipated high and low for the day, but they do give you the current temperature outside, and in some cases, a bunch of other information (like wind chill, humidity, pressure, etc). You can stick it in your bathroom or bedroom, and figure out how to dress for the day. This relatively inexpensive one from National Geographic will actually keep track of all recorded temperatures over the last 5 years, and provide you with the recorded highs a lows so that you can seem knowledgeable with all your coworkers about that trending global warming :-):

The National Geographic Wireless Almanac Thermometer ($29.99)

13) Encourage progress on that DIY home improvement project you’ve been craving by gifting this demolition tool – what could be more exciting than destroying something, right? He’ll be itching to find a way to use this (on sale for $22.65):

14) Magwear Magnetic Wristband -The plastic caddy is fitted with a strong magnet, a great place to keep all the nails and screws needed for a job without worry of dropping or losing them ($19.50):

15) Autel MaxiScan MS300 CAN OBD-11 Scan Tool – Ever had the Check Engine light come on in your car, with no idea why, but plenty of paranoia about whether to pull-over-right-now-OMFG-we-are-all-going-to-die? Just to find out the next day, and $150 later, that it was just a malfunction in (insert random car-talky language here) something that was not really a problem at all? This handy little tool can help you out, AND make it seem like maybe you actually know a little bit about cars after all. You can plug it in to your car, get a code read out, and look up the codes to see a) what’s wrong with your car; and b) sometimes, how to fix it yourself (on sale right now for $29.95).

16) And finally, here's where I would recommend some kind of power tool, like a reciprocating saw or whatnot (I think that's one of those tools that the typical handy guy really likes?). But I don't know much about that, so you're basically on your own there. Good luck.

Considering how much time it has taken me to write the above list (hours and hours, no joke), you'd think I'd have more than 16 suggestions to show for it. Which should give you an indication of just how challenging I find it to shop for guys! But rather than hunting down more items (and really, I could have put many more on, but copying and pasting all these links and photos is the biggest time suck ever), I'm just going to stop here. For now. And hope that this list helps you as much as it has helped me.

Feel free to add your own great guy gift ideas in the comments, I'd love to hear them!

Dabbling in Decorating

2011-11-12T21:30:00.002-05:00

OK, OK, so I haven't been great about following up on my series of "Holiday Gift Ideas" posts (the first, and only to date, post can be found here). I've been collecting ideas on my toughest Christmas shopping challenge - gifts for guys - and I hope to share that soon. But in the meantime, I thought I'd update you on a few home improvement projects we've recently done, and in the process, share at least one gift idea.

The pictures I'm about to show you fall under the "making the house look prettier" category. I'm not going to bore you with pictures of our new furnace and air conditioner, the new basement carpet, or the new windows in the kids' bedrooms. Even though *I* think they do wonders for the house (and better make some kind of difference when we sell this thing, whenever that may be), I realize they don't make for the most interesting blog material. Instead, I'll show you what we've done in our dining room area since we moved the kids' toys down to the basement (pictures of the new playroom are here and here).

First, I'll try to give you an idea of what the "Before" looked like - difficult, because this whole effort has taken place very gradually over the last 3 months. Also difficult because I never actually thought to take any official "Before" photos. I dug through my photo archives find pictures that sort of displayed the area, but they are definitely not perfect.

Our living room and dining room are actually one big room. A set of built-ins abutting a bump out/post-thing demarcates the end of the living room and the start of the dining room. The ceiling in the dining room is your typical 12-foot ceiling, but in the living room, the ceiling is lofted and rises probably 20 feet high. Because of this, we haven't attempted to do any painting - it's way too high/too much space to paint the whole thing, and because of the open floor plan, there wasn't a way to paint just one part of the space (we would then be faced with the "where do we stop" dilemma). Thus the whole area is a sea of off-white blandness.

Here are the built-ins in the living room "Before" (although this is after our yard sale, so I had already cleared a lot of the trinkets that used to sit on these shelves out - trust me, they were much, much more cluttered at one time).

The picture with the black picture frame is hanging on the bump-out/post thing, and to the left of that is the dining room (out of view).

This is the dining room without any furniture in it, the way it looked after we sold our dining room set at our yard sale and cleared all the kids' stuff out:

The doorway and cut out lead to the kitchen, and the stairs in the bottom picture lead down to the basement.

This is what our dining room table looked like, the one we sold:

We sold it because it wasn't meeting our needs anymore - too small, too rickety, etc. This is how crowded it looked when we had only two dinner guests - and THAT was when Lucy was still sitting in a high chair (Hi Jen! Hi Daniel! Sorry for the crappy quality of this photo!):

OK, here's what everything looks like now. We painted one wall in the dining room and the inside of the built-ins a bold color to break up all the overwhelming off-whiteness. My inspiration for painting the built-ins came from a project over on Young House Love. Ours doesn't look quite as stylish (and it's also not 100% finished, as you can see from the empty upper shelves and a few spots that need to be filled in a bit). But I'm pretty happy with it! Much credit goes to my mom, who helped me shop for and display some of the accessories that are on the shelves.

Here is the space after painting, but before accessorizing:

And here are the built-ins now:

I especially like my new owl picture (from Target) and the off-white wooden @ sign (TJ Maxx).

We have a new server to house our wedding china, which my parents were kind enough to haul around on their latest vacation so they could deliver it to us, 8 years after we received it. I love the server, I think it looks great, but the top of it already seems to be slated as the newest "miscellaneous crap goes here" spot. I'll have to try to do something about that, I suppose.

Up-close view

Wide angle

We actually ordered the table that matches the server from Target. Unfortunately, it arrived at our house broken, and it was such a pain in the ass to return it (mail return only, super heavy, unhelpful customer service, etc) that we decided not to try again/re-order it. We instead decided to use the extra dining room table we've always had. It's a drop leaf table, so it's been tucked away in our kitchen with the leaves down, mainly used as a place to hold my stand mixer and a couple other awkward kitchen items. The table is old, scratched, watermarked, and rickety, but with a few placemats and/or a table cloth, none of that is noticeable. Also, it seats 6 people, so it gives us more table space to work with. We purchased some simple, cheap chairs from Target (in person, at the store) to go around the table, and it has been working out pretty well. It's not a long term solution, as the table is less stable than we'd like it to be, but it's fine for now.

I hung up two ceramic bird pictures painted by my great-grandmother by the window, our prime bird watching spot in the house since it overlooks the woods. I love having them there, as it makes me think both of my great grandmother, who I remember, as well as my wonderful Papa (and Mimi) who gave them to me.

And the final touch, just completed this past week:

A sunburst mirror, framed on either side by wonderful canvas-printed photos of each of our kids. These canvases are the "holiday gift idea" I wanted to mention. They are GREAT! We got them from Canvas on Demand - I found a Groupon deal for something like 65% off. Each canvas was only $45, shipping included. They are 16" X 20", so definitely large enough to make a statement. The Groupon deal is not uncommon, I've seen it a few times, and there are typically other deals you can find, too, even if the Groupon isn't being offered. Of course, the canvases are only as good as the photo you send in, and for that I have to send out a huge thank you to Julie Blum for the wonderful, wonderful photos she took of us. We were so lucky to spend a morning with her and get those photos!

If you do decide to get a canvas done for a loved one's holiday gift, just note that Canvas on Demand is EXTREMELY popular right now - it will probably take about 3 weeks to get them printed and shipped out. I know other places offer a similar service (including Costco, apparently), but I can't speak to their quality. I can safely and highly recommend Canvas on Demand, though.

There are a couple of other details (moved the rug from our former office up and stuck it under the dining table, bought two extra fabric dining chairs), but basically, that's it - our big "Take Back Our Dining Room From the Kids" remodel, completed!

And finally, just another quick little decorating update to show you, this one in Lucy's bedroom. Lucy still sleeps in her crib, for now. We'll probably change that in the Spring when she turns 3, because she is starting to look ridiculously large lying in that crib. But we did get rid of her changing table, since it hadn't been used in over a year. To fill the space and provide a place for non-closet-appropriate clothing like socks and underwear, I found this adorable little table at TJ Maxx that Grammy immediately insisted she buy for me (erm, Lucy). I am not normally into shabby chic that much, but I must admit that I have a bit of a crush on this table. Its aqua color (the color in the picture doesn't do it justice - it's more aqua than it looks below) perfectly complements Lucy's hot pink curtains, and it's just so fun and girly!

In addition, my mom insisted on buying some decals for Lucy's walls that we found at Kohls. Since they have perfectly coordinating colors and have plenty of owls and birds, I heartily approved. Aren't these adorable?

Lucy, per usual, was not a willing participant in these photos, but she does love the new "big girl" touches in her bedroom, all appearances aside:

That's it for now. New gift post... soon-ish? Tomorrow?

Arming Our Children

2011-11-11T09:43:00.004-05:00

So. Penn State. Pretty freaking awful, right? My mind and heart are having so much trouble with this. The idea that someone could victimize and abuse so many children, for so long... well, even one child is far, far too many, and yet people KNEW. There were signs, suspicions, ACTUAL EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS. These children were let down, by so many people. There is no excuse for that.

I know my outrage and sadness is amplified because I have children of my own. I feel this more acutely than I perhaps would have a mere 6 years ago. The last two nights I've been having disturbing dreams, about children dying. One was Finn. I actually woke myself up by shouting out in my sleep, trying to get someone to help him. In the dream, I let him out of my sight, let him go with another adult, and the next time I saw him, he was dead, floating in water near other people who were doing nothing to help him. In another, I dreamt another blogger's child, a person I don't even know, died. I don't remember why, those details are thankfully hazy. I do know that in my dream, I read her blog entry, many times, in disbelief that this beautiful little boy was gone.

I wonder if these dreams aren't related to this glaring evidence that it's just so, so hard to protect our children. I want to pull Finn and Lucy in close, never let them go, never let them out into the world. So many bad things can happen.

But I can't do that, not if I want to give them a good, fulfilling life. As parents, we need to teach our children to think for themselves, to identify and avoid potential dangers, to give them the tools to find help when they need it, to look for ways to know they are putting their trust in the right people. To find a balance between shutting people out and letting people in.

Those are not easy things to teach.

I do know that starting now, I will talk to Finn, and eventually Lucy when she's a little older, about sexual abuse, in terms they can understand. This was actually spurred, not by the Sandusky allegations, but by our pediatrician during Finn's latest check up. Near the end of her physical exam of Finn, she let him know that she would need to look at his private parts. And before and during that quick exam, she quizzed him on who was allowed to look at or touch those private parts. A subject I had never thought to bring up to him. Yes, I've told him that HE can't touch OTHER people's private parts, mostly because preschoolers love all things butt-related, and I wanted to make sure he wasn't running around touching people's butts (given his propensity to touch mine). But I've never talked to him in a way that let him know that no one should be touching him inappropriately.

The doctor's message to Finn was clear: The only people that can touch/look at Finn's "private parts" (we weren't too specific with actually anatomical names yet, but that will come) are Finn himself, Mommy/Daddy, and the doctor. No one else. I'm going to reinforce that message, of course - repetition is the most effective way to get a child to learn something. But these abuse allegations have made me realize that I need to do more. I need to tell Finn that he doesn't need to do ANYTHING that makes him feel uncomfortable. He should not touch anyone else's private parts, even if (especially if) they ask him to. And most of all, if someone does touch him, or get him to touch them, IT'S NOT HIS FAULT. He doesn't need to hide it. He can tell M. and I anything, anything at all, and we will always do everything we can to help him.

Because that's the thing, right? You need to know about abuse before you can stop it. How can I make sure that, god forbid something did happen to Finn or Lucy, they tell me about it? So many victims of abuse are afraid to come forward, in part because they are embarrassed that they did something wrong. I know there are other reasons, too - they might be protecting the abuser, particularly if the abuser is a family member. They might fear retribution. But I think many times (speaking from the point of view of someone who has had no formal education on this whatsoever), abuse victims are made to feel complicit in their abuse, and that's a large part of why they don't seek help. I want to do what I can to combat that notion, preventatively, with my children. I don't really know the best way to go about that, yet, but I'll start with words. Simple conversations. Telling them over and over again, as I always do, always have done, that I will never, ever stop loving them. That they can tell me anything at all, and I will always love them.

I hate that I have to think about these things. But I do. We all do.

Are you addressing this subject with your kids at all? If yes, how are you approaching it? If no, when do you think you will?

Vacationing in Old Stomping Grounds

2011-11-06T20:53:00.011-05:00

M., the kids, and I are back from a quick getaway down to Williamsburg, VA. Back in the spring, I bought a Groupon for a 2-night stay, with ideas of showing the kids the campus where I went to college, foraying in to the realm of educational vacations(what with all the people-in-colonial-garb), and finally visiting Busch Gardens, a place I never managed to get to in my four years of residence there. Well, a spring vacation turned in to a fall vacation - that's just how things go, I guess, when life gets away from you. But I think we ended up with a better vacation for it. Busch Gardens was closed for the weekend, so that attraction is just going to have to stay on my "Things To Do" list. And really, did I want to schlep the kids around an amusement park? No, I didn't. So that actually worked out well. Instead, we had plenty of time to meander through the campus of the College of William and Mary, and show the kids the charms of Colonial Williamsburg. They did pretty well, all things considered. Building tours were tough - Lucy had trouble sitting through the little spoken vignettes in each room. Also, there was so much walking that they eventually fought over who got to sit in the umbrella stroller we had with us. Other than that, though, the trip was a much better fit for their age group than I expected. Soldiers with guns, fifes, drums, on horseback; blacksmiths wielding hammers on fiery red metal; horse drawn carriages; impressive looking buildings; an old "gaol"; a garden maze - we all really enjoyed it. The weather was cold but beautiful, and the crowds were much, much less than what you would see in the spring or summer. I highly recommend a visit if you can swing it.

A few photos from our trip follow. And by "a few photos," I really mean "more pictures than you'd ever care to look at."

Finn running toward the Wren building, our first stop on campus.

He was quickly distracted by a nearby cannon.

Meanwhile, Lucy made a new friend.

Then she had to try her hand (butt?) at climbing the cannon, too.

Which actually gave me an opportunity to get a somewhat decent (and very rare) photo of the two kids together.

A sub-par photo of the Crim Dell, the most scenic spot on campus. Which is saying a lot, as W&M has quite a few scenic spots!

Back at the Wren building; it looks like I have two soldiers defending me here.

An attempt (mostly failed) to corral the kids into posing for a picture.

See that smile? That's me eating a cheese sandwich from the Cheese Shop. It is the stuff of legends. Oh how I have missed those sandwiches!

Waiting for lunch at Chowning's Tavern

The Governor's Palace

In the gardens behind the Governor's Palace

A beautiful arched tree walkway in the Governor's gardens

The kids were enthralled with the maze in the garden

Finn exiting from one last spin through the maze

The day ended with a review of the soldiers - marching, fife-playing and drumming, a rousing speech from a horse-mounted Lafayette, and lots of gun shots and cannon-fires. The kids loved it.

Lucy kept calling the soldiers in red "pirates." She is still asking me where they went. I finally gave up and told her they went back to their ship. She's going to need some remedial history lessons some day.

The kids got another treat - their very own fruit flies to keep as pets/do experiments on. A friend of mine from my grad school days is now faculty at W&M, continuing his research on fruit fly development (my poison of choice for my Ph.D. in Biology). He took the kids on a tour of his lab, showed them some fruit flies under a microscope, and then gave them some to take home. I can't wait to give some classes on the life cycle of the fruit fly as soon as the larvae start digging through their food. I may need to go buy a microscope... :-).

We only have a couple of extra vials of food, so we'll need to get creative if we're going to propagate beyond the next couple of weeks. Or we'll just have to go wild - break out the empty wine bottles and start catching flies the old fashioned way!

So, that was our (long) weekend. How was yours?

Holiday Gift Ideas: Spotlight on Paper Source

2011-11-02T16:30:00.006-04:00

So, I owe the grandparents and great grandparents some photos of the kids in their Halloween costumes, but this is not that post. That post will come later-ish.

Instead, this post is an attempt to start a mini-blogging series on (as the title suggests) "Holiday Gift Ideas." I'm going to do my darnedest to gather the gift ideas I find while trolling the Internet, and share them here on a somewhat regular basis throughout the month of November. I have ulterior motives, of course. The main one being that I can never, EVER remember all of the ideas I think of for the people in my life when it's actually time to shop. I get to the mall, or open up Amazon.com, and draw a complete blank. This way I'll have a reservoir of ideas to draw from, and can skip that panicky blank-drawing feeling. And hopefully, it will help you, too. Now, family/friends, please keep in mind that while you may indeed received a gift that I highlight here, you may also get something entirely different. I reserve the right to either surprise you OR get you something that you see on one of these posts that wins raves from you.

Now, I'm not planning to have any kind of format for these posts. I may focus on a specific age group or familial relationship one day, a gift "category" another day (Scarves! Hostess gifts! White elephant gifts for the office party! Food gifts!), just throw up one idea, give you more links than you'd ever want to click on, etc. At this point, it's a mystery to even me what and when I'm going to post. We'll just have to see how this goes.

For the inaugural post, I'm choosing to focus on a particular store: Paper Source (www.paper-source.com). For no real reason other than I saw a few gift ideas on the 2011 Style Lush Holiday Gift Guide: 100 Gifts for $25 or Less from the store that I thought were adorable. In fact, a couple of the items I'm about to point out are shamelessly lifted from that guide, and you should all go check the Style Lush guide out because it has lots of other great ideas. Also, I feel like I need to state that I was not paid or compensated by Paper Source in any way, shape, or form for this post. I just like the stuff, and wanted to share it.

I browsed through Paper Source's inventory, and can tell you a couple of general things first. There are some store locations scattered throughout the country, but they are not ubiquitous (5 in Massachusetts, 2 in Maryland, etc). Your best bet is probably online shopping. I have no idea what their shipping rates are like, as I have never personally ordered anything from the company.

General pros of the store are: There are lots of creative, humorous, and retro gifts. Think Darth Vader lunch boxes and watches, band-aids that look like bacon, cocktail napkins with witty sayings, lovely stationary and paper, whimsical throw pillows, etc. There is something appropriate for nearly everyone on your list, especially if your list is heavy on females and kids. Also, I ascribe to the point of view that you should give people gifts that they'd never buy for themselves. Don't give them something they're just planning to get already. Make it fun! Make it something they think is great, but would hesitate to spend their own hard-earned money on. Spend your own, instead! This store is great for that kind of gift.

General cons are: There are no product reviews, which can make it hard to judge customer satisfaction (I personally pore over product reviews, though I try to take them all with a grain of salt). The items for kids don't always provide information on the age appropriateness of the toy/game/thing. And, finally, there's not much here for the over 13 male crowd, from what I can tell.

Without further ado, here is a selection of things that caught my eye (with many more that I'm not including - so hard to choose!):

Calendars, for me, fall under the “nice to have, but reluctant to spend $$ on, guess I’ll settle for using the free one from the zoo again this year” category. I prefer the grid type (need those little boxes so I can scribble in birthday and anniversary dates), so the one I chose, the Art Grid Calendar ($24.95), follows that style, but this site has many other types and styles to choose from. Isn't the gnome for December's picture adorable? Reminds me of the huge book about Gnomes I used to have when I was a little girl (click on pictures to enlarge):

I'm kind of patting myself on the back for this next idea - a selection of gift wrap. Give 5-6 patterns of gift wrap (prices range from $3.50 to $7.50 per item, depending on sheet vs. roll) so your gift recipient will always have gift wrap on hand for any occasion AND (bonus) much of it is pretty enough to frame! Here's a few of the many, many that caught my eye:

Birds

Robots

Butterflies

More birds. I have a bird problem.

Alphabet

Cherry Blossoms

OK, though I could go on forever posting links to the wrapping paper, I'll move on. This Mod Multi Shoulder Tote looks like it could hold ANYTHING, and it's cute to boot ($18.95):

How's about some owls? I'm totally ON the owl bandwagon.- I love me some owls!! Here's a little sampling of the cute owl things Paper Source has:

An adorable cloth Owl Rattle ($9.95):

Owl Soap-On-A-Rope, for the soap-on-a-rope enthusiast in your family (there's always at least one, am I right? And for clarification, I don't mean anything dirty by that - some people just really like soap on a rope!) ($16.95):

An Owl Cutting Board. We store our cutting boards propped up on the kitchen counter because a) they're too big/bulky for the cabinets, and b) we use them every day. But they don't exactly add spice to our kitchen. This adorable thing combines decor with function ($24.95):

A Hummingbird Wristlet Wallet, for those days when carrying a big ol' purse/diaper bag isn't going to fly (hello, girls' weekend! Date night!) ($11.95):

Remember that cute gnome from the calendar above? How about a couple of Gnome Mugs? ($6.95 per mug):

I have more glasses than any sane person actually needs, but these Retro Bike Glasses would be fun for both the hipsters and non-hipsters alike in your life ($16.95):

And finally, a few ideas for the kids...

I don't know if this is a universal kid thing or not, but both of my kids are obsessed with chapstick and regularly insist on using and mutilating my tubes. How about their very own tube, from Santa? This Rudolph's Rockin Raspberry Lip Balm would make a great stocking stuffer ($2.50):

Animal Crayons, for the art- and animal-lover child ($8.95):

Finn loves all things airplane - paper airplanes, toy airplanes, spotting every. single. goddamn. airplane that flies over head, etc. According to the description, this Flying Model Airplane kit is great for kids of all ages, so it might be the perfect gift for his stocking ($12.95):

Finn is a perfectionist when it comes to homework and artwork, and he likes to have an eraser nearby for any potential mistakes. He INSISTS on erasing his mistakes, instead of crossing them out, even though his homework is usually done in crayon. These Dessert Erasers (other food types also available) would make his day, I'm sure ($8.95):

Phew! That's it. I'm out of links, for the moment. Feel free to provide suggestions on specific types of gifts you might want me to focus on in the comments. Until next time...

I'm Not Bragging, I'm Seeking An Intervention

2011-10-29T21:44:00.007-04:00

M. was gone most of last week, and I was like a Martha-Stewart-in-training while he was gone. I somehow get it into my head, every time he goes away (lately), that I can be this superwoman who does everything I normally do, AND everything he normally does, and then a little bit more. It's a bit of a sickness, really. I try to work out most days, keep the house picked up, do laundry... when really, I should just work on sleeping and keeping everyone on time. Maybe some day I'll actually prioritize those two things (I hope!).

M. left very early Monday morning. I got the kids up, dressed, and delivered to school. I went to work, worked a full day, ran errands in the middle of the day (gas in car, baked goods purchased for office party). Picked up the kids, cooked dinner (fish, pan fried, with vegetables, didn't slack), did all the dishes and set up lunch/coffee maker for next day, gave kids a bath, put them to bed, picked up house for the next day's visit from the cleaning woman (this is no easy feat), and ran on the treadmill. I showered, Facebook'd, and fell into bed.

On Tuesday, I again got the kids (and myself) up, dressed, and delivered to school/work. I worked a full day, went to the gym at lunch time, picked the kids up, stopped at Burger King for a dinner that was consumed in the car (a bit of a cheat, but it was the last week of soccer, so I deemed that occasion treat-worthy), and brought both kids to Finn's soccer class. I cheered Finn on and wrangled Lucy, nearly losing my shit trying to get both kids, two soccer balls, and BK leftovers to the car once it was over, but holding it together (barely). I shuffled the kids into bed (there was yelling, I'm afraid), and ate my dinner while making these delightful ghost meringues for the kids' Halloween party on Friday. Mine didn't come out quite as well as the ones I was trying to emulate, but they're not half bad:

I did a load of laundry, took out the recycling, showered, caught up on the Internet, and collapsed into bed at around 11 pm.

On Wednesday it was more of the same - kids up and out, full day of work, dinner, (I made quesadillas), kitchen-cleaning and next day prep (coffee and lunch), Finn's homework help, bathtime (oops, no, didn't do bathtime, I got too mad at the kids for various infractions and refused to bathe them), bedtime, scooping out the cat's litter box, taking out the trash, and an attempt a treadmill jog. I say attempt because I had to stop twice to comfort a crying Lucy, who was supposed to be sleeping. I finally gave up after only 32 minutes, showered, hung some newly arrived decor on the playroom walls, and headed to bed. But also somehow squeezed in a load of laundry to wash the clothes from Lucy's potty accident (a direct result of me declaring her potty trained, I'm sure). Began long night of several Lucy wake-ups. Turns out she had a double ear infection and would shortly (Thursday morning) also develop pink eye.

That pretty much ends the over-achieving aspect of my time as a single parent.The rest was just survival until M. came home. Thursday morning I already had a doctor's appointment scheduled for Finn (5-year well visit), so we all slept a little late. I called just before heading in, and begged for a sick visit for Lucy, even though she was not (yet) running a fever. About 10 minutes before I made that phone call, I noticed her right eye was pink and crusty. Before that moment, I was going to just bring her with me to Finn's appointment (to get her a flu shot) and, while we were with the doctor, try to swing a quick ear check JUST in case. But my guilt took over once I realized she really, probably, definitely, was sick - I figured we'd need a longer appointment and that we should really pay the sick visit co-pay (don't have one for the well visits). After that visit, my fate for the day was sealed. I would not be going to work, Lucy would not be going to daycare. We dropped Finn off at daycare, picked up Lucy's antibiotics, and headed home for a day of "entertaining the toddler while trying to get some work done." All while fighting the exhaustion from the multiple middle-of-the-night wake-ups the night before. We gave up around 4:45, picked up Finn, cooked dinner (vegetarian BLTs), and welcomed our much-missed M. home. Thank God.

I would like to note that I had not one single glass of wine while M. was gone. Frankly, there just wasn't any time.

I had 3 glasses on Thursday night, though.

In conclusion, I'm probably crazy. I'm definitely exhausted. Also, here are some pictures of what the playroom looks like now that we've kid-ified it even more:

Robot decals on the walls (source)

A place to display the kids' artwork

How it looks together

A little geography fun (U.S map and World map)

New rug, perfect for driving cars (Source)

Declarations, Questions, and Observations

2011-10-23T21:12:00.002-04:00

1. We are declaring Lucy to be officially daytime potty trained. Now that I have said that, I'm sure we're in for some kind of regression, but there it is. She is completely out of diapers, even for long outings, and only wears a pull-up at night. We are not totally out of the woods yet, as said pull-up is completely soaked by morning. However, she is doing great otherwise, and can even make it through nap time without any accidents.

2. We went to the zoo yesterday, something that's become a bit of a tradition each time one of the kids has a birthday. The National Zoo is just such a NICE zoo! The exhibits are so well designed and cared for, and we are really lucky to have such a great resource so close to where we live. Yesterday was our best visit yet. The zoo was decked out in all kinds of Halloween decorations, and all the animals we saw were really alert. The young panda was out playing with a toy, the baby gorilla was dragging a white sheet around and gnawing on pumpkin bits like an adorable hungry ghost, the cheetahs were up and stalking around, the emu was trying to chew through the fence, the lions were all playing with/chewing these odd looking blanket/animal skin-type things, Finn and Lucy got face-to-face with an orangutan, and one of the elephants walked right up near us and trumpeted. It was all pretty awesome.

3. Why is it that, while sitting in a booth at a restaurant, kids must either: 1) turn around and hang over the back of the seat, staring at the people eating right behind us; or 2) constantly slide off the booth under the table and pop up on the other side, and expect you to be happy to see them suddenly on the other side of the table. Happy that you can't stay in your seat during dinner and that you smeared shoe dirt and food scraps all over your body? Um, not exactly. I liked sitting in booths until I had kids. I no longer like sitting in booths.

4. What is the general consensus on clothing in the junior section? I must admit that as I pass by the section in various department stores, I do find some of the items cute. Only some, mind you. What is the protocol here? Are women in their mid-30's allowed to buy anything from the junior section, for ourselves? Do we look ridiculous if we bring an armload of juniors' clothes into the dressing room (I'm guessing that answer is yes)? Should I ignore the section completely until 2020, or whatever year I deem Lucy old enough to shop in it, and then only look for HER? Do any of you ever buy anything from the juniors' section? Am I just completely kidding myself?

Note: I have not actually bought anything from the juniors' section. I have, inadvertently, tried a couple of things on, because some of these stores (Target) tend to look a bit like a tornado hit, and it can be tough to tell where one section ends and the other begins. None of the things I tried on actually looked good, which is probably my answer right there. I don't have the body of a 15 year old, why would I buy clothing meant for one?

5. A few weeks ago, I saw a pick up truck that had a spoiler on the back of the bed. It has bothered me ever since. Pretty sure a pick up truck is never, ever going to be aerodynamic.

Last Day

2011-10-19T21:29:00.003-04:00

as a 4-year-old, for the record:

Tomorrow it's on to FIVE!

The Upswing

2011-10-17T21:32:00.004-04:00

YOU GUYS.

Things have been good. Very good. Is this a taste of what FIVE is like? Because Finn? Is being a rock star at school lately. And an adorable, can't-hug-him-enough, hysterical cutie pie at home.

OK, so it's not perfect. He doesn't listen ALL the time, he still cries and has emotional little fits every now and then, and he still takes FOREVER to get into his pajamas at night.

But it has been so, so much better. So much better. This summer, M. and I were really at our wits end with Finn. He was causing trouble at school, making us feel like miserable parents, and basically sucking most of the joy out of all aspects of life. Not to be dramatic or anything. I was worried we were doing him a huge disservice by having him in daycare, by parenting him (if what we were doing could be called parenting), by in general, frankly, failing him.

In the last few weeks, though, things have magically turned around. Finn is listening well at school, he's getting those coveted "green cards" (all five days last week!), and he's been much more engaging at home. And the thing is, we're not doing ANYTHING differently.

Which really just hits home that the crappiness that is age 3 and 4 has absolutely NOTHING to do with whether you are a good parent or a bad parent, and EVERYTHING to do with the natural course of development. My take home message is that when kids are 3-4 years old, parents should just focus on providing basic necessities (food, clothes, a place to sleep, a routine) and trying (TRYING) not to lose their shit every day. Anything more is apparently not going to matter anyway, so don't beat yourself up if/when the "more" just doesn't happen.

Now that I've written this, I'm going to go hide somewhere and take cover for the shit storm of parenting woes that will now, karmalike, befall me. But I felt like I had to put this out there, karma be damned, because I have written about the negative, and I want to document the positive, too.

I think a big part of Finn's improved behavior recently has been the return of the "school" curriculum to daycare. This past summer, his main teacher (the one that does the lesson planning) was out of the country helping family. There was no homework, a parade of teachers, and very little structure. Lots of playtime, but not much learning and routine. An unstructured environment for the summer is GREAT if you're 10, but I think not so awesome for a 4-year-old. Finn's teacher is now back, though, and lessons are in full swing. Last week was dinosaur week, something Finn knows a LOT about - he was completely in his element telling his classmates everything he knew, and it made for a really great week, likely because he was very interested in all the lessons.

I just hope that interest continues. My biggest concern with Finn was that, as an October baby, he'd be bored out of his mind spending another year in the same classroom, going through the same themes, and learning the same lessons from last year. So far, though, his teachers have been pushing him - he's learning lots of sight words, working on addition, and practicing writing short sentences. They've been great about working two curricula - one for the kids who recently started in the classroom (reviewing their upper and lower case letters), and a more advanced one for kids like Finn that are on their second time through. He's even napping most days, which might be the best indication of how challenged he is - it's exhausting him.

Now I can switch my worry to whether Finn will be bored once he gets to Kindergarten, instead. During our parent-teacher conference last week, the school director made some comments to us about how she couldn't believe that we didn't try to get Finn into Kindergarten this year. It's not the first time she has said this to me. She thinks he would have had no problem testing into Kindergarten despite the fact the he missed the cutoff date by almost 2 months - in terms of academic ability/knowledge, she feels that he was ready to go. It's a little hard to take, because, a) it makes me feel like we slacked on our job of doing our best for our kids, since we didn't even CONSIDER sending Finn to Kindergarten early. Maybe it would have been better to send him this year! And now it's too late; and b) my entire life I've heard that boys mature slower than girls. EVERYONE has always said that boys benefit from a little more time before starting school. And the way Finn was behaving over the last several months, I saw no reason to disagree with that. My son, spend 6 hours in a classroom doing schoolwork every day? No way. But now it kind of feels like he could have handled it, and I've read a little bit of research that shows that putting kids in school early can actually benefit them. Not a lot of research, but still a bit of a sucker punch to the gut, since it's all new information to me.

I think it probably would suck to put Finn in a situation where he is destined to always be the youngest kid in his class, and I don't really regret not trying to send him to Kindergarten. I guess I'm just pissed that this is one more way where parents can be made to feel like failures. Is it REALLY so awful that we just simply followed the rules, the rules that said that if your kid isn't 5 by September 1st, he can't go to Kindergarten? Isn't it a rule for a REASON?

OK, vent over, this post is about WONDERFUL FINN. Who is celebrating a birthday this very week. And I love him VERY, ACHINGLY, MUCH. He is charming.

Here are a couple of videos of the kids having a dance party. Lucy has made up her own strange dance that involves swinging her arms one at a time over her head. We all imitate it, it is adorable and fun. But you don't get videos of M. and I imitating it, just the kids. Enjoy!

Lucy's funny dance (and Finn's seizure-like take on it):

Coming to a discoteque near you:

Some inappropriate butt-drumming:

Bonus video - Finn cracking himself up with some rogue Humpty Dumpty lyrics:

I Don't Even Know Where to Begin to Create a Title for This

2011-10-03T21:34:00.007-04:00

I have many thoughts that all seem like they could be blossomed into real, actual blog posts. I half-compose them in my head, usually in the car or while I'm running. But I am lazy. And I forget that perfect wording that is only perfect when I have no way of writing it down. But mostly I'm lazy. So instead of several distinct blog posts, you get the following instead:

Things I like, lately - not things I was paid to write about. Because lord knows nobody pays me to write on this blog:

1. Bota Box Wines. Dude, yes, boxed wine. I can't believe I'm even writing it. And I know what you're thinking. I, like many of you I imagine, had a few shameful experiences in college and grad school with Franzia (or as my mom liked to call it, "pink shit"). Perhaps even, gasp, Almaden. I try not to talk about it unless I'm in the safe company of my fellow girlfriends who, as I did, likely also drank their fair share of Boone's Fine Wine, Woodchuck, Zima, and other oh-my-god-they're-so-sweet-how-were-we-able-to-drink-enough-to-get-drunk fluffy alcholic beverages. I've matured since those days, I think. I've been to Napa and Sonoma and lots of other regional wineries, I've sniffed and swirled and developed my own personal preferences for wine.

And yet here I am, drinking boxed wine. As I type, in fact.

Listen, M. and I are trying to save money, you know? As I've documented a bit (here's where I would link to some posts a few weeks ago, but I'm too lazy), we are replacing/have recently replaced HVAC systems and windows and woodwork and carpeting and dining room furniture. And only half of those expenses were planned for. Have I mentioned how much I love being a homeowner lately? Oh, right, that's because it's been sucking my will to live. Anyway, so we're looking to cut back on expenses. Wine, shopping (the kind where you just kind of buy stuff blindly without budgeting/paying attention), and eating out are the major areas we've targeted for reduction. But we're not giving them up completely. I need my wine. Yes I do.

Enter boxed wine. But not just ANY boxed wine. Red wine only (apparently white boxed wine hasn't come as far as red boxed wine). And trust me, it's GOOD. Several of the varietals have 90+ points, which I think means something good. They've won awards. Their boxes say so. Granted, I have no idea what those awards mean, but come on, it means Something, right?

So try it. It's good. And feel free to share your favorite budget beverages in the comments.

2. St. Ives Naturally Clear Green Tea Scrub. This is the perfect facial cleanser. PERFECT. It exfoliates. And not like the apricot scrub, where it feels like you're rubbing two or three microbeads over your entire face and maybe flaking off five cells of dead skin. This is like fine grains of sand throughout the entire product that gets rid of all the yucky stuff (gently, of course). It has 1% salicylic acid, for those like me who sometimes have to battle both wrinkles and acne (and I thought life wasn't fair when I was a teenager, amiright?). And, AND, it will also remove my eye makeup. Other scrubs have me looking like a raccoon when I leave the shower. Game, set, and match.

OK, that's it for things I like lately. There may be more, but I can't remember them right now. Onto to other matters.

3. (I'm going to keep numbering here just so you can see exactly where I completely change my train of thought. This is no longer in any way a list of any sort.) Potty training snippet: I call this "You win some, you lose some."

Lucy stayed dry all day Saturday, even during naptime. Win.

She then peed on the kitchen floor Sunday at around 9 am. She was pretty happy about it. Loss.

Later that night, at around 12:30 a.m., Lucy woke up crying and calling out that she needed to go pee. Which she subsequently did once M. carried her to the bathroom. Her pull-up was dry, but it was 12:30 a.m. Win?

4. I mentioned long ago that I joined Weight Watchers (eh, look through the January archives, says lazy blogwriter), and I haven't really written much about how it's been going. Frankly, I haven't really wanted to write what might be considered to be bragging, or fishing for compliments. Because for a while, it was really, really working. But lately, it's been harder, and I've been contemplating writing a little bit about the struggles I've been having with weight loss (namely, that it hasn't been happening). Lots of boring navel-gazing about why I can no longer commit to working the Weight Watchers system the way I was a few months ago, how to get reinvigorated, what to do to kick start my exercise which has been getting a little boring... But instead I'm going to tell you that yesterday I went shopping for some new work clothes. And, bragging be damned, I bought a size 8 dress. SIZE 8. Yes, it was stretch material. Yes, it was from Target, which is not known for having sizes that run small. Yes, I know that I am NOT a size 8, not really. But I look GOOD in that dress. I am going to wear the shit out of that dress, if only because I don't think I have ever, ever worn a size 8 ANYTHING. And that, right there, is motivation enough to get back on this god-damned weightloss wagon. I will make my weight loss goal, come hell or high water.

OK, I'm going to end now. I've also been percolating a post on religion, and how I'm totally unprepared to answer Finn's questions on God and Jesus, which have been coming fast and furious around here lately (SOMEONE at school - ahem, Casey? - seems to know a LOT, and REALLY wants to share all of her 4-year-old wisdom). But that's likely too weighty a topic to handle flippantly/quickly, so I'll leave it off this "non-list" and continue contemplating an actual post on it. Or not. We'll see. For now, I leave you with a link to the best song being played on the radio right now, the one that had me singing like Jessica Simpson (have you seen the facial expressions she makes while she sings? Have you? I had M. do a quick search to find a picture for me to use to demonstrate this, but he couldn't find one that did it justice quickly. He did, however, find a Facebook group called "Jessica Simpson looks really ugly when she sings." I'm not going to say ugly, but man, it's intense) in the car this afternoon, with grandiose, emo hand motions and everything. My right hand? Was clenched in front of my chest. Purposefully. I was PERFORMING for I-270, let me tell you. Needless to say, this song rocks. I want to be Adele. It's my secret talent-I-always-wished-I-had (singing awesomely, not being Adele specifically). And officially number 5 on my non-list.

5.

Decisions Are the Worst*

2011-09-27T22:32:00.006-04:00

Hi all. I seek your advice.

This morning, driving in my car on my way to work, I lamented the stupid humid weather that has been messing with my hair and sweat glands and wardrobe choices to my sister on the phone (hands-free bluetooth, por supuesto). I mentioned that I was trying to encourage crisp fall weather by wearing a sweater/skirt/boots combo for the first time this season. I thought it was a harmless comment.

My sister paused, and squeezed out the response, "Well, I kind of think 34 is to old to be pulling off the skirt/boots look."

Gasp!

Am I too old to wear high-ish boots with skirts to work?

For reference, I work in an office on an Army post in a rural-ish area, where many people wear Army uniforms (as befitting their status as Army personnel), and the rest of us are instructed to wear "business casual" dress. And our handbook (yes, we have one) has lots of helpful hints on what defines business casual, such as "does not include blue jeans, but colored rinse jeans such as black jeans, or denim skirts, are allowed." That's not a verbatim quote, but it's very, very close. I have seen much in the way of "business casual" in my office that indicates to me that our definition of "business casual" likely differs from the definition other organizations might use. With our group falling on the more "casual" end of the "business casual" spectrum, clearly.

But the setting doesn't really matter, does it? It doesn't get at the heart of my question, which is "Am I too old to wear boots and a skirt to work?" Should a 34-year-old professional (can I call myself a professional?) with two children retire this look? My sister seems to think so.

For reference, this is the outfit I wore today:

I'm too lazy to figure out how to create some sort of poll, so please, answer me in the comments section. My fall/winter wardrobe is depending on it.

I am not too lazy to post a bonus video for you, where M. and I try to get our cat to take a little jog on our treadmill. Enjoy. Spoiler: It didn't work.

*Can my sisters and childhood friends name the movie referenced in this blog title? You'd better be able to...

Look! Pictures! So Many Pictures!

2011-09-18T20:56:00.014-04:00

I have been remiss, not just in blogging (I've noticed over the years that I struggle to blog in September for some reason), but in posting photos of the kids. It's been all home improvement, all the time, the last few posts I've managed to eke out.

That's allll gonna be rectified right here. You've been warned. Let's just jump right in, shall we?

On Tuesday, Lucy was sent home sick late in the day from daycare. It was "picture day." She did not take good pictures (so I've been told). I'm sure the illness didn't help (fever, sore throat). But she was wearing this:

A plaid skirt/jumper (there are attachable suspender-type straps I had to take off because they kept falling down) that was mine when I was little. And an Aerosmith shirt.

This is what she does when we ask her to pose for the camera. I think we are in trouble.

This is what Finn does. Less trouble expected there.

Blue eyes

Sick, but still happy.

I pulled the "stay home from work with sick child" straw for Wednesday, and spent some quality time with Lucy. This is my attempt to turn the TV off and try something enriching - painting. A budding artist at work. I tried not to get upset at her total disregard of my instructions to wash her brush in between each color. Big of me, no? I painted, too. I made a rainbow-striped whale. It was headed toward "legendary" status as far as construction paper paintings go. Lucy insisted on painting in the tail for me, and, well... not exactly the stuff of legends anymore. I'm not upset about that or anything.

This is our self portrait. I'm happier than she is, as you can see. Also healthier.

Now we move in to the weekend, with a brief stop on Friday. A day where M. was invited to go see President Obama give a speech. Here is the proof:

I swear on the Bible that the blurry figure at the podium is Obama, and that M. took this photo. I swear that if I was the one taking the photo, it would have been in focus.

Saturday was a busy, fun day. We started the morning with a photo shoot with a friend of ours, Julie Blum. She is setting up shop as a photographer, and was kind enough to "practice" on us (if you ask me, Julie clearly needs no more practice!). We all traipsed around a county park, Brookside Gardens, saw lots of beautiful flowers and ponds and bridges and wildlife, and Julie effortlessly took some excellent photos. She has a blog post on her website up about it, and I'm sharing a few of my favorites below:

Just awesome, right? I'm still pinching myself that we had such opportunity. Thanks, Julie! And beware, family, if you are looking at these photos, you are probably looking at your Christmas presents.

The middle part of the day was filled with house stuff (more attempts to whip the dining room to shape, an effort I'll blog about more fully later), struggles to get Lucy to take a nap, and some outside play time with scooters and bikes:

Done with scooting, time for a lift inside.

A bonus video of Finn on his bike:

And one of Lucy on her scooter - she's scooting like a pro, now!:

Saturday was finished with a wonderful fly-by visit from my friend Jen, her mom Cathy, and Jen's adorable baby girl, Carmen. Carmen is just 8 weeks old, and one of the cutest babies I have ever seen. See for yourself (next two photos courtesy of Jen):

All the hair! The bright eyes! She is perfect!

I realize it looks like I am quite possessive of Carmen here. In truth, I thought about staging some sort of coup to keep her forever. But I'm done with all that, remember? The baby stuff? Plus, and most importantly, Jen is just GLOWING with all this motherhood business. I love how happy it seems to be making her - she deserves it.

By the end of the visit, it was way past bedtime, and the kids were acting like total goofballs in an attempt to show off:

Bedtime may have been a bit of a struggle, but the busy day was worth it, both in photos and memories. And early Christmas shopping :-).

Ta Da! Like Magic, But Sweatier.

2011-09-07T21:57:00.006-04:00

Just popping on to share some pictures of the playroom makeover I mentioned in my last post before I run out to fill some sandbags or something (oh my god will it ever stop raining?!). M. and I crave validation and credit for the hard work we did to create this playroom, a playroom that M. is convinced will never actually be used by the kids.

So, to set the stage, we have been living in our house for over 4 years. We moved here when Finn was a mere 7 months old, possessing of a jumperoo, an exersaucer, and a few odds and ends to entertain the bambino. Because we spent all our time on the main level of the house (kitchen and combo living room/dining room) with a child who could not be left unsupervised for any length of time, we opted to keep his meager toys scattered about in various places of the living room. No big deal, because, as I mentioned, he only had a few toys.

Then the first birthday happened. The large baby toys (exersaucer and jumperoo) disappeared, but the small- to mid-sized toys grew exponentially. We eventually purchased a shelving unit of sorts with storage bins to contain the toys, and placed it near the dining room. This worked well, and yay, forsooth, our living room/dining room still felt somewhat adult-like. But then came Christmas. And a second birthday. And another Christmas. And then another BABY, necessitating the reappearance of all those large baby items once again. By now our storage system had grown to include a toy box as well as several other large bins scattered throughout the house. AND YET THE TOYS COULD NOT BE CONTAINED.

Enter Lucy's birthdays and Christmas for two children, and it became VERY apparent that our living room/dining room? Was no longer an adult space. In fact, it quite resembled a daycare. But what could we do? We spent all our time with the kids on the main level of the house. This was where we ate with them, this was where we watched TV and movies with them. This was where they ignored their toys and complained that they were bored and irritated the crap out of us every weekend.

We have a basement. And in this basement is a family room, with our (only) fireplace, a comfy red sleeper sofa, a treadmill, and our largest TV. The basement is where M. and I retreat after kid bedtime has been achieved and all nightly chores are done.

Also in the basement is an office. This office was unfinished when we bought the house - concrete floors and framing and nothing else. We thought we needed an office. Before Lucy was born, we had this unfinished space finished so that we could create an office (and full bath) and move our second floor office downstairs, thus freeing up a bedroom for Lucy AND maintaining the existence of said office.

We never use the office.

Really, never.

I pile things in it that I need to file (but don't file). We have a printer in there that doesn't work, that we occasionally try to MAKE work. And when it doesn't, we go in there and curse at the printer. So that is how we use our office. We pile "to be filed, but never actually GETS filed" crap in it, and we curse at the printer. And sometimes we have guests sleep on the futon that resides in it.

So, the kids are a bit older now. Not very old, of course. Lucy's not even 2.5 yet. And I will admit that not even two years ago, when I saw that our neighbors had a basement playroom for their children, who were perhaps 2 and 4 at the time, I was MAYBE a little critical and incredulous. I could not fathom how they thought it was appropriate to let their young children out of their sight to play together - not just in another room, but on a whole different floor of the house. I was maybe a bit judgy. I had my newborn baby, and my two-year-old-who-has-never-been-out-of-my-sight-at-home-for-more-than-2-minutes-unless-he's-sleeping, and I was judgy.

But now, I totally get it. I get why some people would be OK with having their young children play in a room that is on a whole different level of the house.

Sometimes, I want to let my kids kill each other when they are a flight of stairs away from me, rather than 6 feet from me. They're going to do it anyway, I can't stop them or save them. That much has become clear to me.

Sometimes, I want the mess to be NOT IN MY LINE OF VISION.

Sometimes I want nice things. And I want those nice things to not get messed with.

I am a more relaxed parent than I was at one time. The old me would probably judge the now me.

But the old me does linger a bit. Not the judgy one (OK, maybe the judgy one a little), but the safety conscious one. We are considering moving a baby monitor down to the playroom so we can at least keep an ear on the noise and mayhem. You know, if it gets used. We also bought a large hook and eye latch to keep the door to M.'s workroom (also in the basement) closed enough to keep the kids out, but open enough to let the cat get to her litter box.

Wow, that was a far longer "setting the stage" intro than I meant to write. Good god, let me just get to these pictures already, the ones that were supposed to be posted and live 45 minutes ago...

But first, another note - we do not have "before" pictures of the office. Just know that there was a futon, and a desk with some random little objects on it, and two filing cabinets. And an end table and a couple lamps and a console table (that we did not move) and piles and piles of crap.

Also note that the room has no windows so, yeah. Lighting is not great. Sorry.

These are pictures of our living room on Monday morning. After our yard sale emptied out our dining room of furniture. I had already started sorting the kids' toys into various piles and bins for eventual transport downstairs, an improvement from what we started with on Monday morning, but nothing had actually been brought downstairs yet. This includes the bins of toys that had previously been scattered about the house (one in each kid's bedroom, one in our bathroom, two in the attic/storage-y area), so a few more toys than we typically had on a daily basis on the main level.

(Carseat not normally stored in the living room, just cleaning up a bit of a potty accident from the weekend...)

This is actually much less organized than it appears, as there is stuff hiding behind those chairs.

And here are the "after" photos of the new playroom:

View from the door looking in (play kitchen used to be in our kitchen)

The shelving/bins used to be in the dining room, and the futon used to be on the wall where the play kitchen is now.

Looking from the wall where the play kitchen is toward the door/console table. The pictures on the wall are left over from the "office decor" and will eventually be replaced with something more fun and kid friendly. We are thinking maybe fun, large decals and/or maps.

View from the futon toward the closet.

View of inside the closet. So. much. more. room. for. stuff. We will eventually (once we finished sorting through all the crap that has been displaced into our bedroom and the family room) put some of our own random crap up in the top shelves of the closet, since the kids can't reach them anyway.

View from the closet out into the room.

And here are some pictures of what our living room/dining room look like now.

Spacious. Empty. Mostly because we need to get that dining room furniture I ordered. In the back by the window is a TV stand that is not normally located there. We are trying to sell it. Want it?

Here is the living room part of the room. We are still hiding stuff behind those chairs. It is not as clean as it looks.

And this is what the kids want to do all the time. Wrestle in the big, empty room.

Time spent wrestling? Much.

Time spent in new playroom? Eh. A little. But it's still early.

He Makes An Excellent Salesman, Too

2011-09-05T21:02:00.004-04:00

This was perhaps the busiest, most expensive weekend of my life. Except for maybe my wedding, but I wasn't footing the bill for that one. I am leaving this holiday weekend desperately in need of another weekend.

These things happened on Friday:
1) Full day of work (from home) with urgent project due by end of day. Lots of e-mailing and usage of various Microsoft Office programs.
2) Windows were replaced in the kids' bedrooms.
3) Discovered the new windows don't allow for re-installation of Lucy's room darkening blinds, so undetook last minute trip to Target to purchase new curtains.
4) Contractor came and replaced $1300 worth of rotting wood on the front of the house.
5) Entire HVAC system of house was replaced.

Four workers from 3 different home improvement businesses in our house at the same time. With the A/C off. Not distracting at all.

And, after all that money spending, we opted for carry out for dinner despite our severe need to go on a money diet because....

Saturday was our yard sale. And we needed time to finish prepping for it on Friday night, not time to cook or clean the kitchen. We priced and piled and sorted a shit-ton of crap (or "treasure", if you will), and I slaved over four signs for carefully plotted road posting.

Saturday morning we woke up at 6 a.m. to get started. M. went out to place the signs, while I finished bringing a few things up to the living room, our staging area, and cleaned off a few of the egregiously dirty items (see: children's tricycle with handle that has lived outside for the last year). The kids were up nice and early, of course, as is the way every time we want them to sleep a little late. Finn insisted on helping us schlep things outside for a little while, while Lucy just crabbed and cried about the whole process. Girlfriend was not sure about this whole "selling our stuff" thing.

We scrambled for a solid hour or more to get everything outside and displayed in a way that made it relatively easy for people to see what we had to offer. We suffered from a lack of tables, despite the fact that we had a folding table, our dining room table, a console table, and a TV stand to display things on. We ended up having to drag out our super heavy back up dining room table so we'd have somewhere to spread out the kids' clothes. We also had to spread out from our yard and take over a couple of common area spaces just across from our house:

Not our yard
Not our yard
Our yard

The yard sale officially started at 8:30, though there were a couple of early birds that came by. From around 8:50 until 10:00 or so, the sale was hopping. We had several customers - a few bought only one or two items, but a couple of people really cleaned up. Some of the big movers were picture frames, books, super dusty luggage (!), and random kid items, among others. We even managed to sell Lucy's changing table and our high chair. We thought we were on our way to a total sell out.

And then by 10:00 a.m., it was pouring out. Thunder, lightening, the works. A neighbor was kind enough to let us borrow a huge tarp, and so for a solid 2+ hours, our stuff looked like this:

A few other items were dashed inside, and the rest were just left there to collect rainwater. They looked sad:

I don't want to belittle the damage others suffered from last week's hurricane, but it's possible this weekend actually dumped more rain on us than Irene did. It really, freakin' poured. Kind of hard to sell stuff when it's all wet and/or covered up, as you might imagine. We eventually sent our babysitter home (oops, forgot to mention we had a sitter come at around 8 to entertain the kids and keep them out of our hair) because we were all trapped inside - we didn't actually need anyone to watch the kids because we were stuck in the same room with them.

We sold a bit more in the late afternoon once the rain finally left. Including a last ditch sale of our dining room set to a neighbor, who surprised us by coming out for it as we were packing up all our unsold stuff at the end of the sale.

Which means now we have no dining room furniture. We knew this was a possibility when we put the set outside for the yard sale. We have been planning to replace our dining room furniture, and took the "well, let's just see what happens approach" by including it in the yard sale despite the fact that we hadn't actually bought new replacement furniture yet. I think M. and I both thought it wouldn't sell, maybe? I don't know, I certainly WANTED it to sell. And I am glad, despite our current problem of where to eat meals, that it did sell.

The plan is now to eat as many meals as possible out on the deck until the new furniture (which I promptly ordered Saturday evening) arrives. But have I mentioned the rain? The rain was not restricted to just the day of the yard sale. It has rained every single day this weekend. Poured, really. We have been making use of the kids' Pottery Barn craft table, because we don't have enough regular-sized chairs to sit at our spare dining room table. It looks something like this:

After we declared the yard sale over, we took two car loads of unsold stuff to Goodwill and a box of books to a separate charity. M. made a trip to the dump with the stuff we deemed not worthy of charity on Sunday morning, the one day of the weekend that was somewhat "relaxing." I only say that because I had slightly too much red wine on Saturday to celebrate the completion of the sale (and all the work leading up to it!) and didn't feel up to dealing with the mess that was our entire house. But I was exhausted the whole day, so it didn't actually feel relaxing. And we still went grocery shopping, took a trip to Home Depot, watched Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone with Finn, cleaned up a pee accident in the living room, cleaned up one of the car seats from Saturday's pee accident (remind me to vent a little about this whole potty training adventure sometime soon), and gave the kids a bath. I skipped the wine on Sunday night in preparation of the busiest day of all - today!

The day where we completely re-organized our living room, dining room, and office to create a playroom for the kids. It took all day, and there are still a few things we need to do (like install outlet covers and door stoppers) and buy for the playroom to be finished. But it looks great, and I promise I'll tell you all about it. Just not tonight. Tonight, I need to go to sleep.

But not before leaving you with a little insight into the male mind. There were, as you can imagine, many, many things we needed to do to get ready for this yard sale and for moving the kids' toys into the office. While I sorted through closets and drawers, placed ads online, made spreadsheets, and priced items, M. revamped our music collection. He spent countless hours burning every single CD we own onto an external hard drive, creating a new super library of music. Admittedly, there was some reasoning behind this. The CDs have been stored up in a closet in our bedroom - the closet where we are moving the filing cabinets that used to reside in the office, filing cabinets we needed to move in order to create a playroom. So I did ask M. to do something with our CD collection. His solution, which I agreed to, was to burn all the CDs to the drive, put the discs and liner notes in 3-ring binder storage pages, and ditch all the plastic cases. A large job? Certainly.

I just didn't imagine that that would be ALL he'd do in the days leading up to the yard sale. He really, really got in to it. Like, really. I can't tell you how many obscure or random musical artists I've listened to over the last two weeks. And he keeps trying to have conversations with me about "routers" and "spare computers (hah!)" and the like to perfect our access to this library.

I shouldn't say that transferring our music collection was ALL M. did before the sale, though. He did create a "Yard Sale Boogie" play list.

You Are Where You Eat

2011-08-25T10:47:00.006-04:00

I have been trolling Craigslist to keep an eye out for dining room furniture, and I’ve come to the conclusion that many, many people have bad taste. Or maybe I do, that’s entirely possible. But it’s clear, at the very least, that my taste and the taste of those that post furniture for sale on Craigslist do not match in any way. I’d grab some pictures to show you, but that probably infringes on some kind of copyright law. Anyway, go to your local Craigslist site. Search for “dining room.” Behold lots of crazy-ornate or oh-so-French-Country or lots-of-high-grain-oak dining room sets. The curves and finials and wrought iron and glass tops and brassy hardware. I’m pretty sure I won’t find what I am looking for there. And I apologize immensely if your dining room set is ornate or French Country or oaky-grainy. I don’t mean YOUR set, of course. I love your set.

So where to buy a new set, then? Since the kids are still pretty young and thus messy and destructive, and we don’t have an eat-in kitchen so our dining room sees lots of whole-family usage, we are clearly not in the market for high end furniture. Just something a leetle bit nicer than the rickety (and oaky, curved/country-ish) IKEA set of table and chairs that we currently have. Pottery Barn is out, as it’s too expensive. Crate and Barrel is out, because it’s too expensive and a little bit more modern than the rest of our furniture. I’d like to stick to something online, as I absolutely hate going to actual furniture stores, where I don’t like 96% of what I see and feel like I’m being oversold/cheated even if I’m not.

And here is where I confess that I am actually thinking about buying new dining room furniture from Target. Is this crazy? Does anyone do that? I mean, SOME people do, I guess, as the products I’ve been eyeing have a few customer reviews (all positive, I might add). But still. Target? For furniture? Am I nuts? For reference, the furniture we are considering (like how I just threw the "we" in there, like this is actually something M. is thinking about and not just my own plans and obsessions and machinations?) is this:

The Espresso Dining Table and Peat Chairs (has a leaf that expands the table to seat six, and we would probably pick up a couple of non-fabric chairs to round out the chair set and force the kids to sit on those):

And the coordinating Espresso Server:

The furniture is a little more expensive than I'd like - with shipping, it will run almost $1300, and that's without considering two extra chairs if we decide to buy them. But that's the equivalent of just a table at Pottery Barn, so definitely an improvement. I'm not pulling the trigger yet (since I'm cautious and cheap and whatnot), so I'm keeping my eye out for a sale. Wish me luck!

Also, I have to mention that Target apparently just revamped it's website, and suddenly it is slow, slow, slow. Not that it was fast before, but oh. my. god. If I do decide to buy this furniture, I may grow old waiting to place the order!

Buying and Selling

2011-08-22T10:17:00.003-04:00

Quick update on Friday's post - looks like M. and I will be replacing our HVAC system. Doing nothing is an option - we won't all die in our beds one night. But it's an option that will probably leave us without heat or A/C at some point in the next several months, and then we'd be looking at an emergency replacement job. Fixing the bad part(s) isn't a good solution, because it would still be fairly expensive and wouldn't necessarily buy us any more time before other parts of the system start going bad. So now we just need to decide which company/quote to go with.

I am (mostly) resigned to giving up on hardwood floors for now. But still moving forward with my plans to reclaim the living and dining room from the kids. M. and I have already started cleaning out closets and reorganizing, and we are amassing a pretty considerable "do not keep" pile. Some of it is clearly headed to the dump, but for the rest we are thinking about holding a yard sale. A prospect that makes me nervous, exhausted, and excited all at the same time. Excited because we might earn a little bit of cash that will help finance our new dining room furniture. Exhausted and nervous because I think it will be a lot of work, and it's entirely possible we won't sell much of anything. But the thought of donating everything for a tiny tax write off doesn't sit well, and the mere idea of posting all the minute details on Craig's list and setting up bagillions of appointments for people to come by and look at one or two things just makes my head hurt and my eyes want to cross.

So, yard sale. I've never held one before, and frankly, I hardly ever even GO to them. We have a tiny front yard and lots of neighbors. Does not make for an ideal situation. I plan to let the neighbors know about the sale ahead of time out of courtesy, and maybe some of them will want to join in with us. But I hate talking to people I don't know very well, so those conversations are dreaded and will surely be awkward. Maybe I can make M. have them.

What are your tips? Have any of you held a yard sale without actually having a substantial yard? Any creative tips on displaying merchandise? We were thinking of having the sale on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend - is this a bad idea? What things have you had good luck selling, and what things never move/should just go straight to Goodwill? How did you entertain your kids during the sale (pretend your kids are 2 and almost 5)? Did they participate in any way (have their own table of toys and/or food/lemonade they were in charge of selling, for example)? How did you advertise your sale? I'm inquiring with the county to see if we need any permits to stick up little signs on the road or to hold the sale. I'm hoping we do not, as that would cut in to any profits we might make.

And one more set of questions, unrelated to the yard sale as it pertains to items I don't think we'd be able to sell. What have you done with old textbooks? More specifically, science textbooks, several of which are probably fairly out of date now (a problem with studying a field that is constantly advancing/changing). Can they be donated somewhere? Is there anyone who might actually need them? Or is recycling our best bet? I need to rally my solutions and arguments, because my hoarding husband is reluctant to let these textbooks go even though we NEVER look at them, and have never looked at them since midway through grad school. And by the time Finn and Lucy get to high school biology they no longer be somewhat out of date, they will be REALLY out of date. Help me battle these pack rat tendencies, please!

It Appears That I Am, Actually, Full of Woe

2011-08-19T21:11:00.005-04:00

Oh, I had such PLANS for this fall. Strip out stained carpeting in the living room and dining room. Install hardwood floors. Clean out and dismantle the office. Move all of kids' crap from the living room and dining room down to the office. Buy new dining room furniture - a table, chairs, a BUFFET. For the wedding china that has been living up in New England rent-free in my parents' house for the last 8 years. Nothing terribly extravagant, but a little nicer than the rickety four-person IKEA set we have now. Make curtains (OK, have my mom make curtains). Clean out my oh-so-crowded built-ins and paint the back wall of them some kind of fun color to pick up on the curtains. RECLAIM SPACE FOR GROWN-UPS.

And I also wanted to attempt some minor-ish bathroom remodeling, if replacing ugly wall light fixtures, cabinets, and vanities as well as some demolition of ugly wall tiles can be called minor-ish.

Earlier this week we were contacted about setting up our yearly check-up on the house's HVAC system. An appointment was set for today, a mere 24 hours before the contractor was due to arrive to give us an estimate on the hardwood floors. And... perhaps you can see where I am headed with this?

The whole thing needs to be replaced.

Furnace, air conditioner, coil-thingy, etc. Everythihng.

Well, that's what they're saying, anyway. I say... define "need"? Everything SEEMS to be working perfectly fine, for now. Is this a "need" like, the whole family will burn in a large fire ball while we sleep? Expire from sweat and crabbiness because the A/C is moments away from crashing? Or is this a "you'll need to do this eventually, might as well do it now" need?

We are getting a second opinion tomorrow morning. But if it matches the first - and I'm guessing, based solely on the fact that the HVAC system is original to the house and 20 years old, that it will - it looks like I'll be foregoing my beautiful hardwood floors. The ones that have been sustaining me in thought at each cat puke and smooshed kid food stain I've scrubbed with Woolite over the last several months.

Oh I hate cat puke.

And my kids' totally inability to understand the purpose of bowls and plates. Even when they actually use them (I give them one EVERY TIME, and yet they'd prefer to keep the food in their sweaty little hands), they somehow manage to overturn it and sprinkle any crumbs that have actually managed to be appropriately captured all. over. the. fucking. carpet.

Hardwood floors + things to make the office playroom friendly + new dining room furniture + bathroom stuff + new HVAC system + windows (oops, did I forget to mention the windows? Yup, we're replacing a few of them, because they are also original to the house and totally, disgustingly drafty and inefficient, and that's already in motion and also the opposite of cheap) - well anyway, we are not exactly sitting on a heap of money here. Something has to give.

It will have to be the floors.

May not get to the new furniture or bathroom projects either, but I'm hanging on to hope that some of it will be possible.

And the kids? Are still getting kicked down to the office. New dining room furniture or not. Those creatures take over everything. It stops now. Or whenever I can motivate myself to start cleaning out closets and bins.

Maine! Vacation!

2011-08-17T21:41:00.014-04:00

Lucy has cried every day since we've returned to our house. Well, of course she has cried, she is two. But what I mean is that she has cried to go to "Bumpa's Lake House" every day. And then we all say "Me, too" (after Finn reminds her that it's Grammy's lake house, too). Vacation was beautiful and wonderful and fun and why, oh why can't we still be on it?

The last time I visited my parents lake house in Maine I looked like this:

I was 8 months pregnant with Finn, and it was September 2006. FIVE years ago.

At the time, the house looked like this:

Now it looks like this:

Like me, who has managed to birth two children, among other things, the house has changed a lot. Like me, it's seen a lot of chaos and confusion during the past few years. And (like me?), the house has definitely improved with age (not to mention care and work and money). While I am ecstatic that my parents have this wonderful retreat now, I'm also sad that we live too far away to enjoy it very often (hence the 5 years between visits). So, we tried to cram in as much as we could in our week-long stay to make up for it.

Photo by Natalie
Lakeside fires and cocktails. Accompanied by lots of nerve-wracking child wrangling on the large, sheer drop off rocks. Probably resulted in more than one gulped cocktail to handle the stress, stress that I'm sure will go away as the kids get a bit older.

And late afternoon cocktail cruises on the water :-)

We have a lot of pictures like the ones that follow - happy, relaxing people on the boat. I think my favorite thing to do the whole vacation was to sit in that boat, no matter where we were going:

Lucy was our little peppy cruise director, waving "hi" to every person and animal we met with.

There was "fishing," an activity that Finn adored, though he didn't actually catch anything. Kind of hard to do when you are casting with a plastic Transformers medallion :-)

Can you believe this is the same kid that was in my belly in the first picture of this post? Because I'm having trouble.

On their way to a father-son fishing excursion

There were visits with cousins:

From left, Finn, Ned, Lucy and Penny

Finn and Ned getting a tube ride (pulled by hand, not boat - not ready for that much speed, yet)

Somehow things ended up a bit gender segregated, with the boys on one float and the girls on the other.

Me and the lovely, energetic, demanding Josephine

There was a too-brief visit with my grandmother, Mimi, and my awesome cousin Katie (not pictured):

There was even a blogger meet up, as I finally met Drew and her cute little boys (she's toward the back of the photo, holding the adorable James):

There was jet skiing (not me, but Finn, courtesy of his Uncle Andrew), beach-going, swimming in the lake, moose-sightings (admittedly as a nature reserve and not "in the wild"), a date night for me and M., sleeping (we slept!), stupid family joke telling, a "we'll be talking about this for years to come" crane crash, lobster-eating, and a little bit of shopping. Someone even managed to score a moose t-shirt from her Grammy...

And as for the 5K I ran with Natalie and my brother Andrew, well, it was a success all around. Natalie finished her first 5K with flying colors, I made my goal by running the race in 32 minutes, 9 seconds, and Andrew kicked both of our butts by finishing in around 27 minutes. It was fun, and we celebrated with an indulgent diner breakfast, hot-tubbing, napping, and cocktails. The Portland Raccoon Race 5K may have to become an annual tradition...

What do you think, do we look like siblings?

Me and Nat stretching before the race.

A post-race soak with Finn

Enjoying some relaxation and wine after a post-race nap (well, at least for Nat. I didn't take mine until the next day)

And a couple of bonus pics to end with, before my eyes cross from all this blogging (there must be a faster way to create a blog post with 3 million captioned pictures?):

Picture by Natalie

And that? Is all she wrote.

Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe

2011-08-15T22:39:00.007-04:00

I have lots to say, obvs. About vacation, and the kids, and the 5K I ran with Natalie.

And my plan was to sit down last night, after an inaugural "I'm back to attempting to be healthy" run, with a glass of wine, and create a photo-licious post for you all about our vacation.

But then, during my run, this happened:

Side view

Front view

View earlier today as I developed a lovely black eye

In trying to swerve around a large dog barking at me from the middle of the sidewalk, I managed to trip, scrape up a good portion of my body, and give myself a nice whack on the head with the concrete. Good times. I immediately developed a huge goose egg, and spent my painful walk home and a good portion of the rest of the evening alternating between crying and feeling sorry for myself. Nothing like a good injury to make me cry about EVERYTHING. By the time M. heard me come in to the house and came to tend to my many wounds (with appropriate amounts of concern, though I am well aware that much of that concern stems from not wanting to be left all alone with the children), I was combining my bad luck/inability to read the signs that I shouldn't go for a run (dark already. difficult bedtime with kids. many other things that should probably be prioritized) with tears over whether we were parenting Finn completely, absolutely, wrongly. Ah, the release of a good cry... once you start, you just can't stop.

Anyway, we checked with a neighbor who is a nurse, and determined that provided we were vigilant about detecting any signs of mental deterioration, I could put off going to the ER for the time being and wait for the swelling to go down. M. has given me about 20 pop quizzes to check my mental faculties, and I have passed with flying colors. He probably expected me to be able to name where we got married and the town we currently live in, but I surprised him by even being able to name his brother's middle name. A fact I'm not even sure HE remembers. I came to the conclusion that it was possible he had sustained a concussion at some point last night, when, before attending to a crying, nightmare-having Finn, he actually asked me which room was Finn's. Because he didn't know. He was apparently a wee bit sleep-addled and confused.

I worked from home today (and slept in) to recover, and am now left with a slight headache, some garish eye markings that might call for a purchase of purple and pink eye shadows, and plenty of muscle soreness that reminds me of just how unsuited my muscles are to taking the full weight of my body on as it skids across a hard surface. How do kids fall so often, and recover so quickly? This would not have phased Finn or Lucy for more than half an hour, but I was putting myself on driving arrest, limping around the house, and worrying about stray blood clots. Maybe because they are closer to the ground?

Tonight, I am enjoying that belated glass of wine (or two). Hopefully tomorrow I'll get around to those vacation pictures... ;-).

Re: title. I was born on a Wednesday. But I don't think I'm atypically full of woe?

My Super 5K Running Mix

2011-08-03T21:11:00.003-04:00

Natalie and I are running a 5K this coming Sunday in Portland, ME - the Raccoon Run 5K. Signing up for this race was my way of making sure I didn't slack too much on running during the hottest weeks of the summer, and it will keep me "good" the first 36 hours of so of my vacation. No promises on the other 6 and a half days, though...

Anyway, Natalie and I each have specific goals for this 5K. For Natalie, it's her first road race, so I imagine that her goals are to a) finish, and b) not hate it so much that she never does another one. And I hope she achieves both, especially b, since I'm the one that talked her in to this. For me, I'd like to improve my 5K speed. On the treadmill, I've been able to crack 33 minutes a few times, but that's on a machine with no hills, no distractions, and a moving belt to make sure I keep my legs going at a good pace. I would love, LOVE to run the race in 31 minutes, which would be a 10 minute mile pace. But I don't think I'm there yet, and I also have absolutely no idea what the course will be like. I know it's in downtown Portland, and weather there is at least 10 degrees cooler than here (yay!). But no idea about hills, traffic, etc. So I'm setting a realistic goal (I hope) of running the race in under 33 minutes. That will put me somewhere in the 10 and a half minute mile range, something that would make me happy.

To encourage speed on this race, I've put together a new running mix - much shorter than my usual workout mix that has lots of great songs, but also several "meh/good" songs that I LIKE, but occasionally just want to skip right past. In a relatively short race like this one, every song counts. I need only the most motivating, awesome, favorite songs ever. Or, if not ever, at least RIGHT NOW. Because as you will see, my preferences run to whatever songs are popular at the moment, and not necessarily the high energy classics. My number one criteria is that I have to really, really like the song - that comes before a good beat and poppy/rockin' lyrics.

Ideally the playlist would last only 33 minutes, so I could easily judge my pace and see how close I am to reaching my pace goal. However, I found it really hard to cut the playlist to only 8 songs, so I included a few more with the excuse that I may not be able to time the start of the music exactly with the start of the race.

Without further ado, here is the list:
Paris (Ooh La La) by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
Rolling In the Deep by Adele
The Cave by Mumford & Sons
Just Dance by Lady GaGa & Colby O'Donis
Mercy by Duffy
Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons
Africa by Toto
Dog Days Are Over by Florence + The Machine
All the Right Moves by OneRepublic
Love the Way You Lie (feat. Rihanna) by Eminem
Teenage Dream by Katy Perry
Runnin' Down A Dream by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

My first pass had 17 songs, not the 12 listed above. It was very hard to pick some to cut out, and I'm still a bit indecisive about it. At least one of the Mumford and Sons songs is a bit slow to start, but I just like them so much that I couldn't leave them out.

What are your favorite songs to run to? And not just any old song to provide background rhythm while you work out - what songs inspire you to move your legs faster? We don't leave the house (and thus the laptop with our iTunes library on it) until Thursday, so I am open to suggestions for change... :-)

Events of the Weekend

2011-08-02T21:48:00.006-04:00

I paid Lucy a penny to let me brush her hair tonight. It totally worked. I think I'm on to something here. A year of crying-free hair brushing is DEFINITELY worth $3.65.

In other Lucy hair news, baby girl just had her first salon haircut on Sunday, as I suggested I might do in my last post. The following pictures are not the greatest because they were taken with M.'s phone, and I was the person TAKING the pictures, and I don't actually really know HOW to take pictures with M.'s phone. So... yeah.

Unlike Finn, who just gets a sprayed with a bottle of water to wet down his hair before any scissor cutting begins, Lucy got the real deal - shampoo and conditioner in the salon sink. She was a little weirded out by it, but actually tolerated it better than her bathtime shampoos (which she does not tolerate at all).

I think she looks kind of creepy-dead here. And since that didn't really seem plausible, she had me convinced that she had fallen asleep for a moment.

Good haircut juju was all used up by the end of the shampoo, and Lucy freaked out about sitting in the big chair to get her hair cut. Perhaps she was convinced that the haircutting was already over? To get around it, she ended up sitting on M.'s lap. Doesn't he look lovely in leopard print?

It wasn't exactly smooth sailing once Lucy was on M.'s lap. She kept hiding her head in his chest, effectively preventing the stylist from getting to her hair. It was a four-man effort to get Lucy to straighten up and keep her head still - the stylist, M., me, and the nice woman who shampooed Lucy's hair. The shampoo woman crouched down for at least 10 minutes, attempting to distract Lucy. I tipped heavily, because I'm afraid she may now need knee replacement surgery.

Not pictured: The blow dry (yes, she even got her first real blow out!) and the final result. Because the entire 25 minute process was about 20 minutes too long for a toddler, and by then we were all exhausted.

In other news this weekend, M. and I went on a date!! For hours. More than 7 luxurious hours without the children!

We schlepped into D.C. on the Metro, a process that took longer than forever because of track repair goings-on that have the Red Line down to a single track. I stayed zen, though, and didn't let my typical transportation fury take over.

Part one of the date involved a couple of stops of a bar crawl that a friend of mine had organized. We first went to Granville Moore's, a place M. and I have been wanting to go to every since I read Amalah's blog post about the Throwdown with Bobby Flay episode that was taped there. An episode I subsequently watched, which then very much made me want to eat Moules Frites. Moules and frites were consumed, and were as good as I had hoped they would be. Also consumed - some kind of belgian beer, very tasty. We then moved on to nearby Biergarten Haus, where I had a very yummy Hefeweizen and M. had some kind of Hofbrau lager. Not pictured: Any photos from this portion of the date.

Part two of the date was dinner for just the two of us at Oyamel, a great "tapas" style restaurant with mexican-themed dishes.
Here I am waiting for my drink and the first of the food to start coming out. This would also be where I would show you a picture of M. dressed in his date finery, if I hadn't somehow NOT taken the picture I thought I was taking with M.'s phone. See again: I don't know how to work the damn thing.

This is my drink - a margarita with SALT FOAM. No simple salted rim here. Foam. It was awesome.

The food was awesome, too, especially the guacamole made fresh and tableside. We ate so much of it that this was the only dessert we had room for - Mexican coffee. Also very, very good.

Once I realized that I hadn't actually taken a picture of M. out on our date, I snapped this one on the Metro ride home. The very long Metro ride home (preceded by the very long wait to actually get on the Metro train).

Luckily we had left D.C. early enough that we weren't terribly late (all in the name of not paying the babysitter the equivalent of a mortgage payment in one night). So we capped off the evening with a glass of red wine at home:

It was, shamefully, our first real date night since last Labor Day weekend. But it was worth the wait - the right mix of socializing with friends, time to connect with each other, and trying/eating/doing new things.

Here's hoping it won't take us another 11 months to have another one!

Yet More Random Things

2011-07-30T07:37:00.004-04:00

#1: I am occasionally a little astounded by how much of their lives some people live on their front stoops. I'm all for unwinding with a beer or a glass of wine, or hanging out to watch the kids play in the street (ideally one's own kids, though I have seen plenty of unsupervised, younger-than-I-would-be-comfortable-with, kids running around, so a few extra adults is never a bad thing). And a single family home with a nice big porch is a different story. Not attached to one or more other houses? Some acreage of your own to afford some privacy? Go crazy. Practice yoga in the nude on your front porch.

But in a townhouse neighborhood, the living is already a bit too close for comfort. Cigarettes smoked a mere inches from someone else's open window. Arguments between couples that don't want to fight in front of their kids. Extremely loud international phone conversations in other languages (is it something about the connection? Because our neighbors with relatives in other countries always talk to them VERY LOUDLY. On their front stoops. Probably to be considerate to those inside the house, I'm guessing).

Yesterday I was out jogging, and saw a man sitting on his front stoop, cutting his toenails. I could hear the sharp sound of the clippers cutting through keratin over the music coming through my earphones. And then I died from the grossness of it.

#2: Ever since I blogged about Lucy's success with potty training, she has had at least one accident a day. Of course.

#3: I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that immediately brought to mind all the myriad reasons why putting bumper stickers of any form on your car is a bad idea. And then I promptly forgot what the bumper sticker said. But can we all just agree that bumper stickers should be treated like tattoos - you've got to be REALLY certain you're behind the message, and that it's a message that will stand the test of time, before you slap it on your car? I think the situation is best avoided by just refusing to put ANYTHING on my car. Including those stick figure family stickers that advertise all the various members of your family, from perky, pony-tailed daughter to soccer-ball-kicking son to Fido with a bone in his mouth. I'm just trying to drive somewhere, I don't care who's in your family.

#4: In the very first blog post I ever wrote for this blog, I lamented about my difficulties in finding a hair salon in our area to get my hair cut. I relayed an awkward experience I had at a nearby salon, not sure if I would go back. Well, since then, I have: 1) tried a different salon a few times, with two different stylists. One gave me a pretty good haircut, while the other one left my hair looking pretty much exactly the same as it looked before I sat in her chair. Both of them charged me more than I really wanted to pay for a haircut. And now I receive e-mails from their salon EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. 2) I went to the Haircuttery twice, the same place M. and Finn go to because they offer very cheap haircuts. And because they were right next door to a Panera, so we could all get a fun breakfast afterward. My haircuts were OK but not great - the "layers" I asked for were not really executed with skill or noticeable effect. I was charged more because I have "long hair" (honestly I think this is lame, because short hair is usually more complicated to cut than long hair, but whatever, the total price is still relatively cheap). I don't really like going to salons where a blow dry is not assumed and costs extra (isn't the styling in the end every woman's favorite part about getting her haircut? Except for maybe the hair wash at the beginning?) And the Panera has now closed (though a Corner Bakery will be opening eventually in it's place), so I don't have the lure of yummy baked goods anymore. And, 3) I did go back once more to the salon I originally wrote about in my blog post. The awkward experience one. It was just as awkward the second time. And empty. The salon is now closed, and I am not surprised.

So this time? I bit the bullet, and went to my neighbor's salon. The neighbor that lives right next door to me, that we share a wall with, and wave at when we are both out on our decks. And stoops. I have been hesitating for over 4 years because, well, what if I didn't like the haircut? What if I didn't want to go back?

And? She gave me a really great haircut. It was clear that, unlike the Haircuttery staff and some of the others I've been to, she really, really knows what she's doing with those scissors. I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't go earlier. I will be going back. And I'm considering bringing Lucy there (maybe this weekend) because frankly, I am tired of brushing her hair to the tunes of screams and wails and attempts to run away. I could cut her hair again myself, but at this point, I think I'd rather have someone else do it. And my neighbor is just so quick with those scissors, she'd probably have Lucy all fixed up before she even had time to get the first squawk out.

#5: Have a great weekend. That is all.

Updates: The Good, The Bad, and The Meh

2011-07-27T20:54:00.006-04:00

Look at that, my husband ends his vagabond ways and comes home, and I can't eek out a blog post in over a week. I think it's pretty clear what's holding me back from being a wildly popular blogger with ad revenue and freelance jobs up the wazoo.

Time to update on a few issues.

The Good: I mentioned that we are attempting to potty train Lucy. This is (knock on copious amounts of wood) going very, very well. Last week we stuck her in pull ups all week, and she did a decent job keeping them dry for much of the day. Over the weekend we tried her in underwear each morning as we hung around the house. This girl is CRAZY for her Hello Kitty and Tinker Bell underwear, let me tell you. Absolutely LOVES it. And as a result, she insisted on wearing her underwear on Monday morning. In an effort to keep moving forward rather than forcing her to stay reliant on diapers/pull-ups, I agreed. And brought in 4 extra outfits to daycare.

Surprisingly, she managed to stay dry all day at school until a pee accident at around 3:30, where she apparently got a bit too engrossed in playing and realized too late that she had to use the potty - she basically peed down her leg as she informed her teacher that she needed to go potty. She wore a diaper at nap time, but kept it dry.

Since then, she has kept her underwear dry all day long (still wearing a diaper at nap, but keeping it dry). She is waking up wet in the morning, but I know that night-training can happen a lot later, and frankly, I am so incredibly astounded with how well she has taken to potty training. I am blown away! And now grappling with how to handle her new-but-still-tenuous skill when we travel up to Maine next week for vacation. I have a feeling that a 27-month-old in underwear is not exactly an awesome idea for an airplane ride, but I don't want to give her the wrong idea about what's appropriate or inadvertently discourage her. Maybe I'll just subtly stick a waterproof pad under her butt to protect her airplane seat?

The Bad: With two children, it's a miracle that they don't both drive us crazy more often. I am sure that will come, but for now, they seem to be alternating with each other in phases of easy and hard. And if Lucy is being pretty pleasant (for a two-year-old) and easy with this whole potty-training thing, well, that leaves Finn to take up the "hard" torch. Which he is doing with gusto!

You may recall a blog post or two (or fourteen) talking about Finn's, um, lack of listening skills. And some sheer bratitude thrown in. Well, for a time, he was showing some improvements. In the daycare behavior scale of green-yellow-red, he was earning a fair number of green circles for his good behavior. But that lasted about 3 weeks, and then his teachers were switched up, and then switched back again, and the system wasn't used consistently during the confusion. Now that it's back, he's basically scoring reds all around. And for those that don't know, red = BAD. Not bad as in "my child is beating all the other children up," but bad as in "my child refuses to control his impulses and listen to a damn thing his teachers tell him to do." It is so, so frustrating. So I've devised a new reward chart, with a brand new reward system, to try to get Finn to STRIVE. EARNESTLY. For good behavior (green circles). We'll see how it works. Finn is now officially the oldest kid in his classroom, and I think that is a bit of a disadvantage in terms of behavior. He is leaps ahead of some of the younger kids in terms of academic ability, so he gets a little bored during circle/class time. And he rules the roost, so to speak - he is finally turning into a bit of a leader instead of a follower, but he isn't necessarily using his influence for GOOD.

Though he's pretty good at making mischief all by himself, too.

He has also been more emotional lately, more prone to resorting to whining, shouting, and crying immediately, rather than trying to first ASK NICELY for something that he wants. I think he needs some intense positive attention from M. and me, and I just hope we can do that for him without losing our shit on a regular basis. Oh, FIVE! May you have better things in store for us than FOUR has had! Which was, admittedly, better than THREE (I think? It's possible I blocked the worst memories out). Let's try to roll with this "each year gets better" thing, eh?

The Meh: So, I received the bathing suits I ordered from Lands End, and it actually turned out very well. The one piece suit requires a LOT of shimmying to get into, but once it's on, it makes my torso look like a curvy, jiggle-free body part. Which it decidedly is not (curvy - yes; jiggle-free - no). So that's great. Unfortunately, it doesn't do the same for my thighs, which lie directly below the edge of the bathing suit. The contrast is bothersome for me, but hopefully only me, as we ladies are all our own worst critics. The two-piece is mostly flattering, but still has the dreaded waistline of the panty portion, which (unless you have some ungodly low percentage of body fat, which I do not) creates a love-handle effect unless you Urkel the panties in a fashion that would cause death by mortification if anyone found out. But it will be my mission to make sure no one actually finds out (with the exception of the 8 of you that read this blog, of course). So, I am keeping both suits, and am pretty pleased with the purchases. Especially given that they were on sale. I only really included them as "Meh" in this blog post because I made Smore's Brownies on Sunday, and have systematically been working my way through the pan with M. in a decidedly non-Weight Watchers' friendly fashion. So it's very possible that by this weekend, the suits will no longer fit.

Time to go run a few extra miles?? :-)

Some Thoughts, Mostly About Shopping

2011-07-19T21:08:00.005-04:00

#1: M. is away right now, out of the country in fact. He's in Vienna, Austria - he's been gone since Sunday afternoon and won't return until late Thursday evening. I've been dealing with the typical "solo parenting" challenges that always seem to pop up when one of us is traveling. Finn was home sick today from daycare, Lucy has woken up at night the last two nights, etc. I was a little panicky yesterday afternoon when Finn was sobbing in the car that his arm and head hurt (while he was clearly feverish) and it was a mere 30 minutes before the pediatrician's office closed. I was a bit worried that he would turn out to have some sort of acute, needs-medical-attention-STAT disease, and my only option would be to truck him down to the emergency room with Lucy in tow. But sanity prevailed, I opted not to call the pediatrician and dosed him with Ibuprofen instead, and we've been mustering along OK ever since. In fact, with M. out of the country, I've still managed to take the kids to the library and neighborhood pool by myself, do the dinner/bathtime/bedtime thing three times, fold three loads of laundry, pick up the entire house in preparation for the cleaning lady, run a 5K on the treadmill last night, be (mostly) faithful to my weightwatchers' diet, and blog twice.

And you should know that I am not writing these boastful things for YOUR benefit. It is actually to make sure M. brings me some REALLY nice chocolate from Vienna.

#2: I am not a big scented candle fan, but I have come around to the utility of keeping one in the kitchen for those nights when the post-cooking dinner smells are a bit too pungent (I blame our wall-to-wall carpeting for those lingering odors, but then again, I hate our wall-to-wall carpeting, and try to blame it for just about everything). I discovered the Village Candle scent "Lemon Pound Cake" at my local grocery store, and instantly named it my favorite scented candle of all. It runs circles around Yankee Candle scents. And if I could diverge for a moment here, what is UP with Yankee Candle? Some of their scents? I just don't GET. What the heck is a "Hometown Days" candle supposed to smell like? Or "Over the River"? Come on, they are really reaching on some of these. Also, I wonder what their employee retention rates are. Personally, I need to switch to the other side of the mall whenever I near one if I want to avoid passing out from the smell. It always mystifies me that people can actually spend a full work shift in one of their stores.

But clearly, I digress. Back to the Lemon Pound Cake candle of delight. It is, sadly, gone. I burned the last of it while M.'s parents were here. But I did manage to stumble upon the free, forgotten car freshener that came with the candle back when I purchased it. And promptly installed it in my car. Now whenever I open my car door in this insane summer heat, I am enveloped in the warm, strong scent of lemon pound cake (it seriously smells EXACTLY like lemon pound cake). It is both quite pleasant and frustrating, because I wind up craving lemon cake several times a day. I may need to start keeping snacks in the car.

#3: I was sucked in by a coupon from Kohl's the other day, and went shopping (actually twice in one weekend, but I'm not sure I should cop to that much of a shopping addiction). Among other things, I purchased a new dress for Lucy. I couldn't resist, as it seemed like the perfect summery/nautical/lakeside dress. And we WILL be lakeside, shortly. We are traveling up to Maine to stay at my parents' lakeside house in early August. So really, justifiable purchase, no? Anyway, I really wanted to take a picture of Lucy in the dress to show you all how adorable she looks in it. Unfortunately, girlfriend just

would

not

stay

still

What, you gotta problem wit' that?

#4: Also while at Kohl's, I perused the "lady underthings" section (I believe the technical term might be "intimates"). I am making an effort to eradicate all traces of "maternity" underwear (and by maternity, I just mean REALLY BIG, because I never bought any ACTUAL maternity underwear), even the crappy stuff I've kept around for (whispered) that time of the month. Not only because of my progress over the last few months with Weightwatchers', but also because (the obvious) I haven't been pregnant in over two years. There is no reason for my rear end to be sporty saggy, stretched out Hanes briefs anymore.

I'm not sure why I felt the need to tell you WHY I was looking at the Kohl's lady underthings section, but now you know. And you should also know that I did not buy anything, because the only underwear I found remotely cute was in the Junior's section. Either my tastes are not all that mature, or Kohl's idea of stylish "Misses" underwear is more matronly than stylish. What is up with all the stretchy satin yuckiness that they pass of as underwear? I mean, I'm all for decent butt coverage, but there is a limit. And Kohl's has crossed it.

[I had much better luck at Target, where I absolutely LOVE their Gilligan and O'Malley line. Even though it never fails to make me think of the Professor, the Howells, the Skipper, et all.]

#5: Finally, in other shopping news, I went bathing suit shopping online for the first time ever. I was more than distressed by the bathing suit sections at both Target and Kohl's (And before you ask, yes, I occasionally shop elsewhere, but no, not frequently). Why is it that one-piece suits are nowhere to be found? Because I? Prefer one-piece suits. I don't care what size you are, a two-piece suit has a waistband, and that waistband WILL find any little lump that you have, and highlight it. But apparently we are no longer allowed to wear one-piece swim suits, according to the fashion industry, unless we are 50, cougar-ish, and heavily into animal prints.

Which left me with two-piece suits, fine, whatever, I'll give them a shot if I must. But these two-piece suits are not sold as an actually set, OH NO. You need to hunt down a top that looks remotely flattering/appropriately sized/decently patterned/not patterned, etc. And then you need to pray that you find some kind of bottom that, if it doesn't exactly match, is at least somewhat coordinating (and also flattering/appropriately sized/decently patterned/not patterned, etc). And what I am telling you is that THIS? Cannot actually be done. Perhaps it's the lateness of the season, but it's all bottoms and no tops, or vice versa, and never a pair can be matched.

So I gave up, and ordered two suits from Landsend.com. Two different styles (a one-piece - hurrah! - and a two-piece), two different sizes, two different colors/patterns. I took all my measurements, which differed wildly from the ones in the sizing charts (apparently my proportions are not what one might call "standard"), and had no idea which measurement I was supposed to size to. I am praying that at least one of the suits work out, because my current swim suits are butt-saggy (seems to be a pattern with me lately) and have enough room in the chest region to squeeze some small watermelons in with my breasts. There have been some close calls with what one might call "indecent exposure" at the pool already.

I'm a bit nervous about how it will turn out - here's hoping they have a generous, hassle-free return policy!

Enough rambling, I need to get myself to bed so I am ready for Lucy's middle-of-the-night wake up call tonight!

So Four is Not the Age When the Ability to Understand Sarcasm is Developed

2011-07-18T22:15:00.004-04:00

I made Finn cry yesterday. Like, heaving sobs.

It went down like this. There were shenanigans of the super annoying type going on, from both kids. The likes of which I probably don't really have to describe, as I'm sure anyone who has ever spent time with young children is fairly familiar with things like: "I hate grocery shopping! I won't get my shoes on! I won't walk toward the front door and the waiting car, I'll instead throw this toy around dangerously and pretend like I can't hear you! Oh, we're in the car and on our way to the store? Well, I'm thirsty! I need water! Now!"

Not direct quotes, PER SE, but you get the gist. It was, suffice it to say, SUPER annoying and frustrating. M. and I were both giving as much crab as we got, to convey said annoyance and frustration. In the process I told the kids (and this is a direct quote), "I give up. We're giving you back. We're not going to be your parents anymore."

The irony (?)(not entirely sure I can correctly identify all instances of irony, even at the advanced age of 34) is that we CAN'T give them back. I don't think my uterus would be very happy about that, among other reasons. We made 'em, we're stuck with 'em.

M. shared a look with me that was along the lines of "Word." Lucy continued to demand water from the backseat, oblivious. But Finn, well, he took this QUITE seriously. I heard some sniffles, looked behind me, and saw his face crumple in despair. Big fat tears started rolling down his face, and in no time at all he was sobbing. He doesn't WANT us to not be his parents anymore. He doesn't WANT someone else to be his parents. We are so MEAN. Why would we say something so MEAN to him?

I felt immediate remorse, of course. Finn "cries" occasionally - the kind of crying that is more for show because he's not getting something he wants, like a toy or TV privileges. It's quite loud, but short lived and tearless. I can tell he has complete control over it and doesn't really "mean" it. But this was different. He was truly upset. I guess because he really loves us or something.

We stopped at Starbucks and bought him some damn water. And chocolate milk.

ALERT: Bathroom Language Abounds In This Post, Do Not Read If You Don't Want To Hear About Poop

2011-07-13T13:39:00.004-04:00

****Late Breaking News!*****

I interrupt this regularly scheduled work day to announce that...

Lucy pooped on the potty!

I know you are all just as thrilled as we are, WHY WOULDN'T YOU BE? Clearly my child's bathroom habits are of great importance, if not to the world, at least to this blog's readership, right?

So, yes, the pooping. On the potty. It happened yesterday morning at daycare (so I guess in this instance, "late breaking" means more "late" than "up to the minute reporting"). Meaning not on my watch, of course. At home she just tells me when she is mid-poop, usually as she is crouching in some kind of corner or behind the kitchen trash can with an odd twinkle in her eye (Why the trash can? Why the sly twinkle? Toddlers are strange creatures). By then it's far too late to hustle her to the toilet. I'm pretty sure the clean-up would be horrendous (Lucy, the toilet, and me!). But this time, I guess her teacher set her on the potty to pee, and once that happened, asked Lucy if she was all done. Lucy said no, and then nonchalantly proceeded to poop (since I wasn't there, I am extrapolating the "nonchalant" part of the event based on Lucy's personality). Her first potty poop, one for the (non-existent) baby book!

Given that Lucy is now peeing regularly on the potty (if by regularly one means a few times a day, for the last 3 weeks or so), and insisting on wearing pull-ups, AND has now started down the road of pooping on the potty, I suppose I need to take this potty training initiative she is showing seriously?

Yes, I ask that as a question, as I am hesitant. Can a not-even-27-month-old actually be potty trained? She can't even really pull up or down her own pants yet. She still sleeps in a crib. She is my BAY-BEEE! (sob) (no, I am not really crying over this) (after all, it is by no means a nightmare if she wants to up and potty train herself earlier than I expected)

Bottom line is that M. and I will push a little harder if there is some chance of success, but I don't want to push if she really is too young and is just showing a passing interest. So tell me your experience if I don't already know it. Have any of you managed to potty train a young two-year-old successfully? Did any of you try and fail miserably?

S.A.S.L.

2011-07-11T20:55:00.004-04:00

My afternoon was long and painful and traffic-filled, and my pants are tight. And also maybe currently pulled up over my belly button to alleviate the yucky tight feeling. MAYBE.

Despite all that, and my eyes that are crying for sleep (perhaps because I stayed up until midnight last night, or perhaps because I am currently "watching" the home run derby), I am compelled depart from photo posts and parenting rants to rant about something else entirely. I bring you...

Stupid Ass Song Lyrics

(also known as "Time To Hire A New Song Writer" or "Have We Really Already Written All The Good Songs?")

First up: Maroon 5's Never Gonna Leave This Bed.

Oh, all right, I'll link to a video of the song.

There.

Now, let me just clarify that the tune itself is actually kind of catchy. I don't have a problem with the MUSIC, per se. I have a problem with the lyrics. In particular, with one part of the chorus. Because, as I may have mentioned, it is stupid. To break it down for you, the offending text is thus:

"Wake you up in the middle of the night to say,
I will never walk away again
I'm never gonna leave this bed"

First, boyfriend CLEARLY doesn't know how precious sleep is. Has he ever raised a toddler? Waking me up in the middle of the night to talk to me? Oh, I don't think so. Save it for the morning.

Second, he will "never walk away again". So... he's walked out before? That's so... cool? And catchy? Um, no. Thanks for the reassurances that it won't happen again, but I'd be taking my chances out on my own, not giving this guy who WON'T LET ME SLEEP another chance.

And finally, the ultimate message. He's never going to get out the damn bed. Do I even need to point out all the WRONGNESS of that? He's going to be in bed, expecting God knows what, but it sure as hell isn't sleeping. ALL THE TIME.

If you want to wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me that you just started a load of darks in the washer, then we can talk. But if you're going to wake me up to tell me that you're never leaving our bed? You'll be leaving it pretty damn quick.

Next Questionable Song: California King Bed by Rihanna

Let's again examine the chorus:

"In this California king bed"
- Is she really singing about... a bed?

"We're ten thousand miles apart"
- A really big bed?

"I've been California wishing on these stars"
- What exactly is "California wishing"? When did we decided California was an adjective? And is this somehow related to California dreamin'? Maybe California wishing should focus a bit more on balancing the state budget than Rihanna's heart. Just a suggestion.

"For your heart for me"
- Um, unless we're talking sentence structure, nothing snarky to say here.

"My California king"
- Did she write this to Arnold Schwarzenegger? Or maybe the King is more literal than figurative, like Larry King? He must have a house in California. Maybe she's singing to him.

Just two songs that have been driving me crazy lately. What about you - are you a person that strives to learn the actual words of songs that you hear on the radio? Any song lyrics that drive you nuts?

Everyone But the Lobster Had Fun

2011-07-10T21:59:00.008-04:00

As has become an every-other-year tradition, we spent the past 4th of July weekend with M's parents, who made the long drive out from Wisconsin to spend some time with us. Though we didn't make it to any fireworks (9:15 p.m. on a school/work night is just never going to happen), we had fun, relaxed, and did our best to celebrate the nation's birthday. A rundown in photos follows.

Granny and Grandpa arrived the Thursday afternoon before the 4th. They battled traffic around Indianapolis and pounded the highway for two days straight, and still managed to arrive with smiles. Probably because they drive a Prius. Effin' gas mileage. We celebrated with Italian take-out, wine, and dessert. They brought presents for the kids, which we held over their heads to get them to eat said dinner. Dinner was eaten, gifts were gifted, and everyone went to bed happy. No non-blurry photos exist of this time period, so you will have to use your imagination to picture the reunion and the (faster than I expected) warming of the kids to their grandparents. It had been a year and a half since Finn and Lucy last saw their grandparents (Lucy was only 9 months old!), so I was expecting the shyness to last for some time, but it went by the wayside by bedtime or so.

Friday morning we bundled the kids off to daycare. Yes, some might think that cruel. But M. and I both had the day off (with some work to attend to all the same, those damn Blackberries never go away), and we knew that the next 3 days of constant kid-contact was going to be both draining AND ample time to enjoy their company. So, to daycare they went. We enjoyed a leisurely morning breakfast on the deck, did some grocery and bush shopping (Not at the same store. And don't get me started on the bushes, which were a replacement for hydrangea bushes we bought 4 years ago that NEVER BLOOMED. And always managed to get eaten by the effin' deer. Trying to keep this PG here. But I do NOT like those deer. When is hunting season? This vegetarian may be on board with some rifle action this year...).

Anywho, once the various shopping errands were taken care of, we took off for a lovely lunch in the Maryland country/mountainside. It looked like this.

Then we drove to a nearby winery to sample the wares.

Here is M. in his "I am a serious wine drinker, excuse my hat" pose.

A group photo. Notice that no one is trying to keep an eye on wayward children out of the corner of their eyes. This was a good choice.

After the tasting we each ordered a glass of wine to suit our own preferences (mine was the Pinot Grigio, Granny and Grandpa each had a different sweet/dessert wine, and M. had a hearty red, to give you insight into our wine preferences. This place, thankfully, had something for everyone), and we sat out on the lovely patio. Sans kids, if I haven't mentioned that already.

I decided to have an East Coast meal for my in laws, who are pretty land-locked out in Wisconsin. Because I am New England raised and not all that comfortable with whole crabs (and dieting, thus not all that comfortable with crab cakes), I decided to try my hand at lobster salad. I have never, ever cooked my own lobster before. I have eaten plenty, and not just lazy man's lobster at a restaurant. I've cracked 'em open and eaten them whole (after rinsing out the gross stuff, of course). But until last week, I'd never actually cooked one myself. Here he is once he was cooked. Yes, it was a he. No roe. I'm going to pretend he didn't suffer much. But I did. We don't have proper lobster removal utensils, so I had to use a hammer and kitchen shears. I managed to scrape a flap of skin off of one of my fingers in the process. But I do believe I got all of the edible stuff out, and the recipe I followed made a very nice lobster salad. I even managed to find top-split/New England style hot dog buns to do it up right!

We also ate corn on the cob. And this was the first time the kids were enslaved to husk the corn. But it won't be the last...

The next morning (Saturday), I waddled off to my weightwatcher's weigh in and then came back to wake up a sleepy head Lucy. Girlfriend was still sleeping at 8:50 am when I returned. I was only a little afraid she was dead.

There was some kind of Folk Life festival happening on the D.C. mall that weekend, so we opted not to go in to D.C. for our touristy activities with the in-laws (next time, next time). Instead, we went to the next best thing - the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum annex located just next to Dulles airport.

Parking may not be free, but the place is worth the trip.

For example, they have a SPACESHIP. A whole freakin' space ship. How often do you see one of those? Here is the big SPACESHIP'S HINY, making Grandpa look quite tiny in comparison.

Here is a patriotic Finn and Granny in front of some other kind of fighter plane-type aircraft. Shut up, I spent most of my time chasing Lucy. I didn't get to read any plaques.

I'll spare you more of the same, but we have lots of "little people, big planes" pictures. They also have an IMAX theater, where we saw a film called Fighter Pilots. Finn loved it, and Lucy spent her time walking from person to person in our party, removing her shoes and trying to lose them in the row in front of us. Needless to say, she was less enthralled than the rest of us, but for a 2-year-old, she did pretty OK.

Here we have Lucy being led out to the car by Granny and Grandpa, proof that she really, actually liked them by then.

In fact, she still (over a week later) asks for them every day, multiple times a day. It is both cute and annoying.

We grabbed a late lunch in nearby Reston, Virginia and let the kids explore the outdoor fountain. Making for good photo ops.

And fear of drowing.

The next morning we went to the local airpark for breakfast. I think I've blogged about going there before, but I'm too lazy to find the pictures. Anyway, picture a restaurant inside a building right next to a local airstrip, with hundreds of little airplanes parked within a several hundred yard radius.

Here we are after ordering our food. I don't know why I look weird. About to speak? Lucy looks like she's smelling something unpleasant, so maybe it's related.

Here is an action shot - you can get an idea of how close we are to the planes taking off and landing.

Cutie Lucy.

After breakfast the men went golfing and Granny and I took the kids to the pool. Um, no photos, for some reason.

The last day of the visit, the 4th of July. Here, 3 generations of M. men carry on the aircraft theme of the weekend by looking up videos of Blue Angels on YouTube.

M. made Bloody Mary's. They were yummy.

The kids "hid" behind their play kitchen.

We strolled around an outdoor lake/restaurant/shopping area. Hmm, though I don't see a UW shirt in sight, it's clear that Badger habits die hard in this family, given the amount of red, eh?

King Finn

Before grilling out in true 4th of July fashion (the only part of tradition, outside of televised fireworks, we were able to keep up), we finished off the afternoon with a neighborhood walk/scoot. Both kids had scooters and helmets. Only Finn actually scooted.

Lucy alternated between getting dragged along on her scooter in true Queen Bee fashion,

And getting carried...

One way or another.

Finn was ahead of the gang the whole time, having clearly mastered his new scooter (two-wheeled, the three-wheeled one was given to Lucy, with thus far weak results...)

And nature was manhandled.

Finally, Lucy would like you to know that she would now like to wear Pull Ups. Or, as she calls them, Cool Ups.

She doesn't always want to use the potty, of course.

(Though she is using it a few times a day.)

But, diapers? They're for babies, man. No more diapers for this chica.

(Or so she'd prefer, if Mom and Dad didn't balk at the cost of pull-ups and refuse to let her wear them at night).

It seems we may be doing this potty training thing again. Goodness.

About Friends

2011-07-05T21:24:00.005-04:00

OK, so by now it may be evident that I create a bit of mental anxiety (guilt?) for myself as far as my kids go. I'm not exactly an easy going mom. I worry about their diets, their daycare, their sleep habits, their bathroom habits, whether they see their parents enough, whether they watch too much TV, whether I'm a crappy mom for yelling at them (in my mind) constantly. Whether I am circling anywhere within a 12-mile radius of what might be called "good parenting" and "raising upstanding citizens."

Yes, I do worry about all of those things. Though definitely NOT all at once. I am able to live with myself and function at a somewhat high level, after all.

My guilt/anxiety/worry/whatever you want to call it all really boils down to how well my efforts now will prepare my kids for the morass that is high school (and let's be honest, in this day and age, probably middle school, too), and all the peer pressures and temptations and different ways that LIFE could go horribly, horribly wrong for them (have I ever mentioned how the A&E show "Intervention" is my worst parenting nightmare come to life?? For real. And there's so, so much more than drug addiction to worry about out there!).

But to be honest, my job as a parent is only part of the influence. I think M. and I do a descent job making the kids feel loved, giving them some consequences, helping them be clothed and fed and generally secure (but not too secure). That really is the bulk of a parent's job, right? All the other tactics (Tiger Mom? Lots of praise? Only earned praise? Giving choices? Restricting choices? Homeschooling? Private schooling? Public schooling? Exclusive breastfeeding? Cloth diapering? etc) that one might read about and do or not do or not do and criticize others for doing is all just... extra stuff. Maybe it's important, maybe it's not. But it's extra, in my book, as long as we're doing those parts about love and consequences and food/clothing and security.

I have (for the most part) control over my interactions with my kids. They aren't always what I think of as "ideal," but I do have control there. What I won't have control over is my kids' interactions with their friends. And that is another whole sphere of influence that will help shape who my kids become.

The right friend(s) can mean the difference between good grades and bad. Between learning to say no (to sex, to drugs, to whatever you aren't quite ready for) and getting in over your head. Between happiness and self esteem, and depression. Maybe not for all, but for many. I have always been one to succumb to peer pressure (good god, I only started this blog because my sister had one! Although perhaps that could also be the competitive gene kicking in...), and I credit the straight-laced group of friends that I had all throughout public school (and my sisters!!) for my lack of bad behavior.

So, how do I help my kids choose the right friends?

Since my children may not count my advice for much when they are older and it is most pertinent, I'll put down a few suggestions for posterity's sake here.

A good friend is always supportive, even when they are jealous.

A good friend will not talk shit about other friends. If your friend talks shit about mutual friends, run, don't walk, away. Because they're probably doing the same thing about you behind your back.

A good friend has ambition. That ambition should include scholastic or vocational achievement of some sort. It should not be solely focused on dating or partying or achieving clear skin (though such things do have a place, to a degree).

A good friend should like to read, at least a little.

A good friend is one with a curfew.

A good friend wants success for you.

A good friend will hold your hair while you puke, and take you out for coffee in the morning. Please note that I'd prefer this only be exercised in college, however.

A good friend will always like whoever you are dating, even when they really don't. You can find out the crappy stuff on your own, and then a good friend will provide a very nice shoulder to cry on.

A good friend is one you are comfortable with, even after years apart and far too sporadic e-mails and phone calls. And by "comfortable", I mean able to discuss sex, poop, relationships, hopes, fears, mucuous plugs... you know, ANYTHING.

I have good friends. Some I have known forever, some are a bit newer. For all of them, I don't see them enough. But I love them, and I know they have my back.

The luck of dorm assignment in college brought me to this lovely lady. We share a name, a sense of humor, and much more.

And this one. Jennifer. Oh! The laughs we have shared. And frankly, a lot of tears. The good ones and the bad ones. The William and Mary housing system must have had some sort of Match.com beta system when they picked roommates my year. I was so, so fortunate.

Margo and I were each charmed by fellows from Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and managed to find each other out here on the East Coast as a result. She is nice and lovely and funny and the best wine drinking buddy EVER. And she is leaving me to move to Minnesota. I am sad.

Stacey, Kristin, Natalie, Helen, Me. Two I have known since birth, and the other two for almost just as long. We are ALL like sisters.

I must share more photos from our girls' weekend of revelry. And all of those caveats about picking up where we left off? Completely true.

Though I don't think there was any hair-holding, and we were all able to eat breakfast (at least the second morning).

And I definitely consider my sisters to be my friends. Best friends, really.

I have more good friends, but not many more. Good friends are hard to come by, and I cherish mine.

I hope Finn and Lucy find the same.

And I hope they consider each other as good friends, if not always, then eventually.

What signs of a good friend would you add to this list?

Look Over Here!

2011-06-27T21:39:00.002-04:00

I just had a fabulous weekend with my sisters and two old friends (old = known since I was in single digit ages, not wrinkly old) that are like sisters. I'd love to write all about it, and regale you with some of the funny anecdotes and stories, but it will have to wait as I'm running around in circles at work, and getting the house ready for a visit from M.'s parents starting this Thursday (yay, guests!). For now, go read my sister Stacey's (first of a few, she promises) post about the weekend, with photos included.

I will say that my weekend was tempered with a bit of guilt, as Lucy managed to get herself a raging case of hand, foot and mouth disease the morning I left town. M. was a trooper, and deserves Dad of the Year for how well he handled it. As you check out the pictures of me smiling and eating and drinking, think of poor M. holding a cranky Lucy for hours on end. Total Rock Star.

The Car Makes Me a Zombie or Something

2011-06-20T21:41:00.009-04:00

There's something about being in the car.

In the car, I become a "yes" mom. Maybe this happens to you, too? Now, I don't mean the kind of "yes" mom that gives in to demands for things like chocolate or Burger King or new toys. What I means is that I become the mom that says yes to all the crazy, hare-brained schemes, explanations, and "what ifs" that my children come up with. For example, we see a truck on the road, and Finn tells me that it is a front loader, when I can clearly see that it is, in fact, a bulldozer. Rather than correcting him, I agree.

We venture out on a day with thick cloud cover, and Finn insists that the sky is blue. I weakly attempt to tell him that perhaps the sky isn't really blue but is rather somewhat greyish/purple-y, and then immediately cave with a "Well, maybe you're right" when he sticks to his guns.

Or perhaps we see a car flipped over on its hood, parked at the police station (this has happened). I could use this as a teaching moment and explain that the car probably ended up that way because someone was driving to fast or not obeying other driving (sobriety?) laws. But Finn postulates that a super strong giant came along and flipped the car over, and I agree that sure, why not, that could totally happen.

Or that yeah, no, maybe we've never driven past that building over there before, even if we've driven past it 500 times.

It's just that there's something about being in the car that makes me so TIRED. I do whatever I can to avoid a battle (and trust me, there are many I can't avoid). I simply don't have the energy for the detailed explanations that it sometimes takes to get a point across or to TEACH SOMETHING, for whatever reason. And trust me, my examples above don't really do justice to the crazy nature of some of the conversations one can have with a four year old in the car. They are CRAZY. And at home, out at the playground, at a store, anywhere else, I try to up my game and actually tell my kid the truth. To pursue an actual point, if you will. But in the car, it is just too much for me to handle, apparently.

I suppose it's because most of the time I spend in the car with the kids is somewhat stressful and exhausting even without all the extraneous battles and mind games thrown in. If it's the morning, I'm sweaty from wrestling approximately 5 bags, 3-4 blankies, 2 kids, 2 sets of snacks and/or water cups, and a steaming-hot, precariously-perched, but oh-so-necessary travel mug of coffee into the car. Not to mention frantically checking for the car keys, my cell phone, my bluetooth device, my blackberry, my ID, and my other ID before leaving, and typically running back in to the house to find at least one of those things.

I'm hurrying, and desperately looking forward to the next time I can climb into bed (why, oh why can't I have that exact same feeling at 9:30 at night so I can actually GO TO BED EARLY and not feel so damn tired every morning), and trying to get to work in time to get ready for an 8 or 8:30 meeting.

Coming home, my eyelids feel like they are made of sandpaper, and I'm full of guilt that I left work 15 minutes later than I meant to (Side note: When will I be OK with my kids spending a full 10 hours in daycare? Because I am not there yet), and I'm thinking about what I'm going to cook for dinner and how we're going to have time for Finn's homework and bathtime and can I fit a run in or will M. kill me?

And it just becomes so much easier to agree. There's time to fix these things, right? Just because I don't correct the assumption right away doesn't mean that my kids will forever be convinced that every small copse of trees is a forest, right?

And, cue nonexistent segway to... Pictures!

These photos are all from this past Father's Day weekend (side note: Happy belated Father's Day to all those wonderful dads out there), so I'm not going to give legends for ALL of them. But you should note that the below photo of the red velvet pancakes the kids and I made from scratch for M. is proof that I could never be a food blogger (it's my presentation and photography that's off, not the actual recipe, as the pancakes garnished with chocolate chip mascarpone and maple syrup were quite yummy):

And this is what making red velvet pancakes from scratch can do to your cheap, off-white, linoleum countertops.

Developing a sense of style already

Medical exam to check for any blocked arteries following breakfast

I exercised my teenage girl skillz by putting two french braids in Lucy's hair, a first for her. She cried. She didn't buy my explanation that beauty is pain. Not sure that we'll be attempting those again any time soon, but she sure looked adorable while she had them in!

Come Monday

2011-05-30T20:59:00.006-04:00

A quick low-down on our busy, exhausting, fun Memorial Day weekend. Which is mostly just an excuse to show you some more photos without writing much text. Because this grossly hot weather we are having has completely melted my brain, or at least my ability to think of interesting things to write.

We had dinner out at Red Robin Friday night to celebrate a whole week of green circles at school for Finn. The guest of honor chose to eat, per usual, pizza. Though it is a burger restaurant.

Finn got a summer haircut:

I am loving that he has some excellent self esteem as far as his looks go, but this kid has been staring at himself in the mirror nonstop ever since the clippers came out. He thinks his haircut is absolutely beautiful. I of course agree, but I'd prefer he not interrupt all of our meals to stand up on his chair in order to look in the mirror we have hanging in the dining room.

In a flash of inspiration that combined with an ideal weather forecast, M. and I decided on the spur of the moment to scrub (Saturday) and stain (Sunday morning and Monday afternoon) the deck. I have no pictures of that experience, but I feel I must mention it because my muscles are still complaining. As is my husband.

We went to a winery north of Baltimore Sunday afternoon and spent hours picnicking, drinking cold white wine (quickly, so it would not get warm), enjoying the company of good friends, and listening to a Jimmy Buffet tribute band. To prepare the kids, we indoctrinated them with a Buffet "Best of" CD so that they would enjoy the performance. Ever since, Finn has been walking around singing smatterings of "Cheeseburger in Paradise" ad nauseum.

While at the winery, we attempted to get a family photo snapped:

As you can see, the kids weren't too on board with that plan. Especially Lucy.

Here are a couple of photos of my hot husband looking particularly hot (at this point, given the weather, probably both literally and figuratively):

Our wonderful friends, Margo and Leif (hi, guys!):

This guy (at his insistance) was my partner on the dance floor (not pictured). He loves shakin' his booty! This kid would KILL at a wedding. Now we just need one to bring him to. Any takers, unmarried cousins or brother...?

He'll grow into this, I'm sure. Go Pack!

The Boys

Margo and a rare sighting of Lucy in front of the camera with her eyes open.

Somehow Lucy managed to come down with an ear infection WHILE WE WERE DRIVING home from the winery. Not sure how she managed that one, since she hasn't had a cold lately. But she suddenly started in with lots of tears and complaints about her ear hurting, after zero indication that anything was wrong.

Which brings us right in to today, Monday. It involved grumpy, tired parents (from sipping on wine all day yesterday and not being able to properly sleep it off, what with the ear-pained child who kept WAKING US UP during the night), a quick trip to the doctor's office (LOVE our pediatrician, who fit in an office visit for us even though the office was closed), sundry errands, M. trying to kill himself by finishing up the deck staining process in 98 degree weather, a three+ hour nap for Lucy once the antibiotics started kicking in, and the typical mad scramble that is the night before the work week starts anew. But even though today wasn't all that remarkable or even all that fun, it was nice just having an extra day to spend with each other. It made the fun we had yesterday even more relaxing, knowing we didn't have to kill ourselves to get back early to get ready for work and school.

And it means that this week? Is a 4-day work week. Woot!

Cousin Birthdays and Crash Dancing

2011-05-28T07:30:00.004-04:00

Yesterday marked the one-year birthday of Finn and Lucy's cousin, Josephine (JoJo). In tribute, a birthday serenade:

Toward the end of the video you can see Lucy's own Baby JoJo - her new baby doll that she is IN LOVE with. I think mostly because I had the brilliant idea to name her Baby JoJo, whom she is also IN LOVE with.

While I'm here, a bonus video of the kids having a rockin' dance party, with more falling and crashing than actual dancing:

Watching these two play and giggle and hug and hold hands is just so, so wonderful - my favorite part of parenting.

Green FTW!

2011-05-22T21:02:00.006-04:00

Hello from a decidedly more relaxed, less panicky state of mind. That last post was, as advertised, a vent, and it did it's job - helped me get all my angst out so I could start the next day with a fresher attitude. But thank you everyone for the reassurance and kind comments. We are all doing well, and things are looking up - we've just had a wonderful weekend, and take a little look at Finn's behavior chart for the week:

Started off quite poor (hence the vent), but finished with lots of green circles all around! We are tracking the color he gets when he's at school, and then also giving him another circle depending on his behavior at home after school (on the weekends, we just kind of divide the day in half). That's why he has two circles for every day - we are trying to reinforce the school's system (and encourage good behavior at home, of course). Finn has been insisting and insisting and insisting that he CANNOT get a green circle - the best he would try for is a yellow (yes, there are yellow circles, too, for the "so-so" crowd). Hopefully the latter part of this week has convinced him that he can, indeed, behave well enough to get a green circle. And it's given us lots of opportunity for positive reinforcement.

Not sure if this is coincidence or not, but the green circles made their appearance the same day that I called the daycare director and asked her for some suggestions on how to deal with Finn's napping abhorration. For now, Finn's teacher is going to let him look at books on his mat while the other kids sleep. This is a bit tricky, as it's possible the other kids will see him doing this, and try to get out of napping, too. And there is still potential for Finn to create a ruckus, as he doesn't necessarily have the attention span to flip through books for a couple of hours, what with his inability to actually read yet, his innate desire to be active as many hours of the day as possible, etc. But it's an improvement, I think, and when the center's summer camp opens in three weeks, he'll be able to go hang out with the camp kids during nap time, avoiding the situation entirely.

Then we just have to figure out how to deal with nap time once again when summer is over. But we are thinking of moving daycare centers by the fall, anyway (for several reasons, several of which are logistical and meant to set us up for the next year when he attends kindergarten), so who knows what the situation will be by then.

M. is out of town for the next couple of days, and I need to get myself to sleep so I can power through the morning rush without him. I'll wrap this up with a few new photos - good night!

Finn was wearing boxer briefs last weekend, so he had M. wrap his hands with blankets to look like boxing gloves.

And then he boxed.

We went to an event at the NASA Goddard center last weekend, and had to park and take a shuttle to the campus. The shuttle was a school bus, and it was Finn's second time on a school bus - but he doesn't remember the first. So he was very excited.

The outing took place right after swim lessons and during nap time. So Lucy slept (on me) through her first bus ride. She was pretty confused when she woke up after the drop off. But she did manage to stay awake during the return trip.

The next few pictures were taken yesterday:

Consider Me Good and Vented

2011-05-18T21:10:00.003-04:00

I'd like to vent. I know I said I wasn't going to post negative stuff about the kids here, but M. is working and I can't watch the interesting TV shows we have recorded without him, and I've pretty much read the whole internet now, so I'm left with blogging. And I could write some nonsense, as I had planned, about things I like lately (to make me feel better?), but I just don't have it in me. I'm feeling crappy, and I don't want to post about my new obsession with large dangly earrings (though I do, in fact, love them). So instead, I'll just go ahead and vent.

About how my son is the worst-behaved kid in school, (there's a tracking chart, so I've seen proof), and how that frustrates me and makes me feel like a terrible mom and also, shamefully, embarrasses me. I'm embarrassed that my kid is now THAT KID. The one that causes trouble and makes his teachers growl when I ask how his day went. Has them sighing and giving me dirty looks when I inquire about what, exactly, Finn did to earn him the shameful red circle on the behavior chart.

It's my scarlet letter, though, not his. He could care less that he's the only kid in a class of 17 that got a red circle instead of a green circle.

Maybe it's better that he doesn't mind.

(Circles are stupid.)

(I don't really mean that. It's a fine shape.)

I'd also like to vent about how Finn doesn't like school, and how that's likely 90% due to the fact that he is forced to "nap" (not that he sleeps) for 2 hours a day, and this kid doesn't have any desire to nap AT ALL anymore, so he tries (or doesn't try, in many cases) to repress wiggles and noises and talking and he CANNOT do it. Not that I am trying to make excuses for him and say that is normal kid behavior, or that no kid could do that. It's just that my kid? Apparently cannot do that.

And he is doomed to nearly a whole year and a half more of weekday "nap time," until he can reach freedom and Kindergarten.

Tell me, are there daycare centers out there that allow some of the kids to NOT nap? Maybe take the non-nappers to a separate room and give them SOMETHING TO DO TO QUELL THE NOISY MIND?

I don't know that eliminating the napping problem would help with all of Finn's behavior issues, many of which involve, as documented here in the past, NOT LISTENING. Like, at all. And showing off. And being firmly in the "follower" camp when classifying people as followers vs. leaders. As long as the leaders aren't grown-ups, in which case Finn does NOT follow. Or rather, listen. Or whatever. Point is, it's damn difficult to get him to do what you want him to do, if YOU are a GROWN-UP. But if you're a kid with some kind of sneaky kid plan, he'll follow you in a heart beat.

And I realize that allowing Finn to not nap at school might not fix THOSE problems.

I don't know what will.

Time?

Jail?

But maybe it will help him like school again.

I feel like all I do is yell at him. And I hate that.

I don't want to be that parent that complains about how the "system" is to blame for my PRESHUS SNOWFLAKE'S problems. I know we need to work on Finn's behavior, I just don't know HOW. How do I get him to show some respect for adults, to listen to me and M. and his teachers, without crushing his spirit? Because so far our tactic is to take away all the joy in life (if joy in life = watching TV and playing outside after school and family fun time which is no longer possible because we are too busy yelling at Finn for every little infraction to try to impart some knowledge about how to be a good person). And it's not working.

We can't even get to the point where we're rewarding good behavior, because there just hasn't been any to speak of.

He's such a sweet, smart boy. Granted, one who smacked his mama on the butt today for no reason, but still. Sweet and smart.

How do I keep that, and get rid of the not-so-good stuff?

Playdates and Pictures

2011-05-14T07:21:00.004-04:00

This Saturday morning posting is brought to you by The Disney Channel and Honey Nut Cheerios, two things that are allowing peace to reign throughout the house despite Lucy's 6 am wake up nonsense.

Last night we attempted our first "Happy Hour" playdate of sorts with a couple of other families we know through daycare. I don't know about all of you, but our weekends are pretty much filled with trips to various retail installations (grocery, Target, home improvement-y stores, etc) and swim lessons and around-the-house projects and the random adventurous outing inspired by guilt that we never DO anything FUN with our children. Relaxation is hard to come by, as well as any spare time to plan a playdate. Friday night we are fooled into the false sense of relief brought on by the start of the weekend (until Saturday morning, where the weekend craziness is soon revealed to equal or exceed the craziness of the work week), and we take it easy - order a pizza, have a drink (or three), skip bathtime, and enjoy ourselves. I finally had the brilliant idea that maybe this is the best time to have a playdate. The kids entertain each other rather than begging us to be all interactive and interested in superhero sagas and whatnot, and the adults get to actually talk to other adults. Win, win.

All things considered (and by all things, I mean the utter meltdown Finn had by the end that followed on the heels of about half an hour of sheer brattiness, both clearly due to overtiredness), the playdate was a success that I think we'll be repeating. The one drawback is that by 7:30 pm on a Friday night, the kids (as Finn proved) are just DONE. But of course they don't want to admit it, they want to play! All night! So getting home was a bit rough.

The other drawback is that a Friday night playdate means I overindulge just before my Saturday morning Weight Watchers weigh-in, but I figure as long as I'm pretty good Monday through Friday afternoon, it all evens out. We'll see if that holds true in another hour or so...

It's been important to me to try to get some playdates in the works lately, for a few reasons. Partly because EVERYONE seems to do playdates, so it feels a bit lame when my kid does not, even when he ASKS for them. But mostly because Finn has been telling us lately that he doesn't like school (do they all do that? How seriously should I be taking this claim?), and he's been giving his teachers a hard time and fighting with his friends more than I'd like (is this normal kid drama? I DON'T KNOW!). I want to give him an opportunity to socialize with kids that I know he likes outside of the school environment. Yes, we have some neighborhood kids that he plays with when we are all outside together, but not in a scheduled or conscious "let's be friends" way. What are your thoughts on this? How do you work playdates into your busy schedule, or do you? Do you think playdates are an important part of childhood socialization, or are they just something that parents with not enough to do to fill the day have successfully pushed on us?

I'm not saying *I* think the latter, of course. It might just be an opinion out there.

Enough blathering, now for a few photos:
What could be more fun than a big box, am I right?

Lucy in her new birthday sweater from her great-grandmother Mimi. Looks smashing with her eyes, no?

A Mother's Day morning cuddle from Lucy

We cleaned the kids up a bit for Mother's Day, which called for an attempt at a decent picture of the two of them together. This was marginally the best of the lot.

Or possibly this one. As you can see, the subjects remained uncooperative per usual, but still cute.

Finn at my Mother's Day lunch.

And Lucy, too.

This is the type of thing that can happen when you skip a nap, I guess.

My bounty from M. and the kids - beautiful flowers and a card.

My bounty from myself - an outfit from the Loft. I couldn't resist, though I perhaps should have. White linen pants is pure folly - I am rather well known for my propensity of staining all things white, and I hate ironing. But they looked so cute and summery when I tried them on that I went ahead with the purchase anyway.

Aren't We All in a Bottle, Really?

2011-05-13T16:00:00.003-04:00

I'm here, I swear. I haven't forgotten about this blog, I've just had no idea what to write lately. Can I just say? That OH, THESE KIDS... they are really exhausting me. That is just the plain truth. And I don't want to come off as someone who complains about her kids constantly, or who takes no joy in them. So I haven't been writing here. I don't want Finn and Lucy to read this space one day, and think I was miserable (even if sometimes I was).

Rather than dwell on the not-so-good stuff that I haven't been able to/wanted to articulate, I'll instead use this little drive-by-posting as an opportunity to write down a few of the cuter/funnier things my kids have been doing lately.

Finn saw a picture of bin Laden on the cover of the Economist this past weekend, and insisted he was a genie. I bet Xtina would think twice about asking him to rub her the right way.

While Lucy still does everything in her power to get me to NOT brush her hair, she has taken a shining to pigtails. It's difficult creating the latter without the former, but I am trying my best to get that point across. As you might imagine, she looks quite adorable with pigtails.

Lucy has also taken to saying "later" or "maybe later" when we inform her that she cannot do something. It comes in very handy, actually, and I am eternally grateful to the little girl she learned this from at daycare (transient though I'm sure this habit will be). For example, picture this conversation, which has actually happened.
Lucy: Lucy read more books.
Me: No, Lucy, it's time for bed.
Lucy: Maybe later (meaning the books, not the bedtime).
And then that's it - we get compliance. It doesn't work everytime, but when it does, I swear I hear angels singing.

Finn has finally mastered bike riding. Last fall, he could pedal forward on his tricycle and/or bicycle, but only if headed downhill or on flat land. He lacked the coordination and strength to power himself up any kind of hill. But now, the kid's nearing mastery - he's a lean, mean, bike-riding machine.

I thought I had more for this post, and likely I did LAST NIGHT, when I actually PLANNED to write this, before Blogger ruined my best intentions (and deprived my grandmother of pictures of the kids - they're coming, Mimi, I promise!) by being completely, utterly inaccessible. But that's all my weary brain can come up with for the moment. Expect some random, non-kid-related posts in the next few days and weeks as I try to get over this blogging dry spell. And those pictures, of course.

Awkward Bathroom Conversations Take Two

2011-04-29T09:52:00.002-04:00

Finn, up early and bothering us as we try to get ready for the day (sound familiar?): Mommy, I need to wear one of these.

Holds up my green lacy bra.

M.: Oh, really?

Finn: Yes, my shirt keeps falling off at school.

M. and I: Exchange quizzical looks/smiles.

Finn again: Is that what this is for? For keeping your shirt on?

Me: Um, not really.

Finn: Proceeds to loop bra strap over his head and around his neck anyway, patting a cup nicely once it covers his chest.

TWO! And Easter. And Parents on the Brink.

2011-04-24T20:56:00.006-04:00

It seems I've had an unplanned blogging break, with no passable excuses or explanations. Sorry about that, folks. I'm back to bring you a breakdown of the magic that was Easter 2011/Lucy's Family Birthday Celebration.

Yes, that's right, Lucy has a birthday. It's tomorrow, in fact, which is nice because it doesn't ACTUALLY coincide with the whole "son of God rising from the dead" and "furry Bunny hops around and delivers candy and whatnot" anniveraries so many marked today. My baby is now less than 24 hours away from being 2. I'd love to get all sentimental and teary, but alas, that would not be a true reflection of M family life these days. For sentimental and teary, I suggest that you instead read the post I put up last year. Much more touching than the below will be, I'm sure.

Especially since it's still fresh in my mind that our four-year-old told our almost-two-year-old to "shut it" several times today, that the two-year-old was certainly loud enough to deserve it, that each child received AT LEAST 3 times outs (it's possible I lost track) in the handful of hours we were actually home, that the two-year-old chucked both her plate and her water cup across the table tonight to great mayhem, that the four-year-old has already broken one of his sister's new birthday toys and has in general become a big, selfish pain-in-the-ass since it's not HIS BIRTHDAY OMG LIKE HE NEVER GETS ANYTHING EVER. Add in various forms of candy and cake and a trip to the zoo and it made me want to actually DONATE my kids to the zoo. Because I don't think I could sell them for much.

And sometimes they spit, so they'd fit right in with the camels and whatnot.

The trip to the zoo was actually quite fun - a friend from work volunteers there on occasion, and offered to take our family and another family on a tour of some of the zoo hotspots. It was fun and informative and really, one of the best trips we've had to the zoo. Which is saying quite a bit, as we like to go a few times a year and generally enjoy ourselves every time.

But the kids clearly used up their quotient of "cute and well behaved" while at the zoo, so that didn't leave much for the other parts of the day. Not that I mean to sound ungrateful about the idea that they chose to use up all of their best behavior reservior while we were surrounded by hundreds of people, because I am very, very grateful for that timing, such as it was. But still. A leetle extra niceness to aid in properly celebrating Lucy's birthday before the onslaught of the work week would have been nice.

The day went thusly:

6:20-ish: M. miraculously wakes before the little ones and gets out of bed, while I slumber on. Makes coffee.

7:00: Lucy wakes up, starting whole "Easter" thing - baskets and subsequent egg hunt where children are completely inept at finding eggs RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEIR FACES; Finn finds all of Lucy's eggs for her, but misses most of his own; Finn becomes convinced that the Easter Bunny likes Lucy better than him; M. and I make noncomittal but semi-comforting noises and drop MAJOR hints about remaining Finn eggs. All eggs eventually found.

7:30: Sugar coma achieved. Breakfast.

8:50: Leave for zoo, after solid 40 minutes of wrestling kids into clothes, packing snacks, and doing the minimum to ensure that we adults are semi-presentable.

9:30: Arrive at zoo, spend a couple hours learning and watching and walking and sweating. Eat lackluster but expensive lunch at zoo restaurant.

1:00: Head home. Kids are loud and annoying for entire car trip.

2:00: Arduously but successfully convince Lucy that it's naptime, though it is in fact an hour AFTER naptime. Furiously de-wire and extract presents from boxes, wrapping a few to give the child "something to rip" due to the vague understanding that kids like "to rip things." Wrap "gift" for Finn, at his insistence, that he picked out for himself while shopping for his sister. Watch him open "gift" a mere 20 seconds later, with a passable job of acting surprised.

3:30: Desperate to silence whiny 4-year-old with "nothing to do", wake up almost-two-year-old who is definitely NOT ready to be done napping with several renditions of "Happy Birthday to You". Feel flattered when she applauds my singing despite extreme sleepiness. Help almost-two-year-old open gifts. Run interence with four-year-old, who wants to play with said gifts.

3:45: Cupcakes, candle and singing. More sugar.

4:00-8:00: Break up fights. Console. Dole out time outs. Pick up carry-out food. Cajole kids into eating. When that doesn't work, threaten kids into eating. Give up ever getting two-year-old to actually eat. Give more time outs. Wonder, yet again, just what the appropriate response is to a child who has just asked for dessert despite not eating ANY dinner. Contemplate the whole zoo donation thing. Wrangle kids up into bath and, finally, bed.

Now: Quiet, and wine, and left over chocolate. And photos & videos for you.

Checking out the zebras, which we learned are definitely black with white stripes.

Taking a break outside the lion exhibit.

Checking out her new dollhouse from Grammy and Bumpa (and fun accessories from Mimi and Papa).

Finn models Lucy's new sun hat.

Lucy is clearly excited for all her presents, no?

Cupcake mess.

Demonstrating that as one gets older, one is a little better able to contain the cupcake mess. Just a little.

One of Lucy's favorite presents appears to be a little Elmo camera that M. picked out for her, since she keeps stealing ours and using it (and draining the battery).

It is obnoxiously loud, but she loves it already.

Finn tried his hand at lacrosse.

Here, a preview of the cake we are bringing in to Lucy's classroom at daycare tomorrow to celebrate her birthday. Inspired by her love of the show "Jake and the Never Land Pirates", we made a pirate treasure chest. The plan is to strew some bracelets and whatnot inside the chest and around the outside, to serve as party favors and make it look a bit more like an actual, full treasure chest. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get a picture of the dressed-up cake tomorrow, so I captured one for posterity's sake tonight. I am typically not one to make fancy/theme/decorated cakes, so this was a bit of a stretch for me. It may have caused some marital strife.

For your viewing pleasure, a segment of the kids' attempt at Easter egg hunting. You'll notice that Lucy mostly does other things, like playing with a balloon. Finn wanders around aimlessly, sort of looking, but mostly complaining about how few eggs he's found. If you are eagle-eyed, you will an egg in plain sight right above the kids' easy chairs in the bookshelves. And Lucy eats a peep.

Here is a video of Lucy demonstrating how to use one of her Easter basket treasures. And an uncomfortable A. who realizes that it has been more than 36 hours since she last showered and has NO business being on film.

This is a video of Lucy's reaction to the Giant Anteater, who was curled in a ball with his head hidden under his big fluffy tail. Every so often he twitched his tail to expose his face, completely shocking Lucy each time.

And finally, the "blowing out the candle" moment. Notice a certain 4-year-old's stealthy snatching of his preferred cupcake before the flame is even extinguished.

Mixing It Up, Chocolate-Style

2011-04-10T20:42:00.014-04:00

In an effort to further one of my New Year's goals, the one where M. and I try to do fun activities with our kids, and where "fun activity" does not equal "shopping," we took the kids to Hershey Park today. Closed for the winter season still, the park was open for a special military appreciation day that allowed not only military service members, but also all DOD employees (like me) to attend. We figured that it was a good opportunity to go see a place we've been meaning to go to, without all the lines and crowds. The fact that the water park section of Hershey Park is not open for the year yet was actually a plus, as I can't imagine doing both an amusement park and a water park all in one day with a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old.

M. and I were a bit nervous about going, as Lucy has been more than a handful lately. And Finn has been less than stellar with the whole "listening to what we say and doing what we tell him to do" stuff. But surprisingly, things went very well, and a good time was had by all. The hardest part of the day were the car rides, as the park is roughly two hours from where we live, and Lucy grew weary of being in the car after about 15 minutes. We utilized a slew of snacks and round after round of Raffi's Bananaphone song to get around that, though, and managed to survive each leg.

The park had a LOT of rides for the little kid crowd, which was great, and helped ease Finn's frustration about not being big enough to ride the big roller coasters. There was also a zoo, which was fun to see and a nice afternoon break from the rides. And before we left, we made sure to tour the Chocolate World "Factory" and bought a bucket of Hershey's candy that is sure to sabotage my Weight Watchers' efforts this week.

My only disappointment with the experience was that we never saw any of the Hershey Kiss lamp posts that I remember from the couple of visits my family made to Hershey Park during my childhood. I figured they'd be lining the street that leads to the park entrance, but I guess they are on a different street. A street we did not drive down. And now my kid thinks I'm crazy because I told him there would be chocolate shaped lamp posts and then there weren't any. Oh well, maybe next time. Which Finn insists shall be next weekend, but I suspect will be about a year from now, much to his disappointment.

And speaking of crazy, what's really crazy is that Lucy did not take a nap today AT ALL. She never even so much as took a long blink in the stroller (OK, fine, I didn't really expect her to), and then she didn't sleep AT ALL during the 2 hour car ride home. This, has never happened. Lucy has never NOT had a nap for an entire day. Whenever we've had mid-day activities that prevent her from napping in a bedroom somewhere, she has always made up for it by sleeping on the car ride home. Not this time. She was loud and goofy and demanding and whiny and SUPER tired. But she did not sleep.

She is sleeping now, that's for sure. One of our easiest bedtimes in recent history (which is not saying much, I guess, as bedtime with Lucy has actually become quite difficult lately).

Now for the photos:

This was our first ride of the day - we eased in with some fairly tame cars and trucks on a track. Some of the rides were for children only, which meant that it either had to be tame enough for Lucy to ride with just Finn, or she had to sit on the sidelines while Finn rode alone. This one allowed me to ride with her, though my knees wish that they had made the leg room on this fire truck just a smidge bigger!

Finn chose the race car, of course.

One of the tamer kids-only rides that Finn and Lucy rode alone. They were very happy to sit together, and didn't miss us parents at all. This was Lucy's favorite/most memorable ride of the day, from what we can tell. Finn's favorite was something called the Reese's Xtreme Cup Challenge - he and M. did it alone as it wasn't Lucy-appropriate - mostly because it involved "shooting guns."

Lucy LOVED the carousel. She rode on one of the horses that moved up and down by herself, though I stood right next to her and tried to surreptitiously keep a hand on her, which she vehemently did not want. Later on in the day we found a smaller carousel for little tykes, and she rode that one all by herself while I stood outside the gate and tried not to hyperventilate. She looked so big and grown up!

Waiting for the "Mini-Scrambler" to get started, hamming it up.

Mid-Scramble, and loving it!

Our pilot-in-training

The kids were allowed to pick one treat to eat, and both chose cotton candy. This picture shows you the "Before", where they were just getting started on their treats. As you can see, the cotton candy was practically bigger than they were. I give myself much credit for not freaking out about how sticky EVERYTHING got. Including the stroller and my hair.

Here is Finn's "After" photo, before we cleaned him up. He ate the whole thing.

This is Lucy when we finally wrestled the cone from her hand and threw it away. You can see that she, too, pretty much ate the whole thing. In this photo, she had already been cleaned twice with a wet wipe, so you don't get to see the whole "sticky pink face" look that she sported earlier in the day.

Here we are, about to exit the park - tired, happy and sticky. We not only survived, we had a great time!