Vacation-ville Part 1: Universal Studios

We got up early and boarded the plane to Minneapolis and then from there to Orlando. All five of us. The two and a half year old could hardly stand it he was so excited. He was getting on a PLANE! Then we took off and he was done. No more interest. Enough of that, let's go do something else now. That made for a relatively LONG set of flights from Washington State to Florida. 

Once in Orlando we got our LOADS of luggage (you need a lot of crap for five people for 2 weeks). We were missing one piece - our suit carrier with our dress clothes for our dinner at Remy on the ship. We had been kind of tossed up on doing that since it is extra (ha ha ha, jokes on us, everything is extra...), so we were nearly giving up and figuring if we were missing a suitcase we would rather it be this one. Then they found it. It had fallen off the baggage cart. Got a cab and headed on our way to the Universal onsite hotel - Cabana Bay Beach Hotel. 

For being the least expensive onsite hotel I have to admit I was impressed. The kids LOVED it and even weeks later still call it "that really nice hotel we stayed in in Orlando". The pool area was awesome - not that we had a ton of time there, but the kids and AB did get in one evening swimming. They have a Starbucks onsite and a decent hotel restaurant that is appealing to kids. The rooms were a bit small, but we were all fine. They sent a crib up for us and we had a great time at the hotel. I would totally stay there again. 

We opted for the Park Hopper ticket because we wanted to be able to ride the Hogwarts Express back and forth. You can't do this without a park hopper ticket. And you want to do this. It is totally worth the price difference. 

We got in early (1 hr early admission for hotel guests despite it being REALLY early for us on Pacific time) and beelined it to Hogsmeade. The whole two days was great and remains the highlight of my two weeks vacation. Nothing was busy and we walked on nearly every ride the first day. The second day we had a few 20-30 min waits. Both days I had the Cottage Pie at the Leaky Cauldron and Leif had the fish and chips. The Cottage Pie was a very yummy pie crust with a ground beef mixture and topped with mashed potatoes. And Butterbeer. Yum. 

One of the things that we hadn't experienced before was the child swap. We LOVED the Universal child swap setups. We loved having a room with a changing table and chairs and usually videos playing to watch at the end of the line, before getting on the ride. At Universal part of the fun is the walk to the rides, so Silas got to experience this also. And then on a few, we switched more than once! At Disney they just hand you a Fast Pass. And that has its advantages as well, come back at your convenience. But it meant the person with Silas had to go find something else to do while the three rode. I am surprising myself by saying that Universal was just far better equipped for kids that aren't big enough to ride. 

Leif's favorite ride - Gringotts

Skadi's favorite ride - She doesn't know - Jurassic Park, or Transformers or Men in Black (which she rode about 5-6 times) or Harry Potter, but NOT Minions

April's favorite ride - Gringotts (And Leif is in trouble for taking me on that freaking Minions ride)

AB's favorite ride - Men In Black or Gringotts

Silas' favorite ride - the Seuss carousel

So here is our two days at Universal in photos!

Silas on the plane - anything to keep him entertained. Oh and upon departing no one told me what a well behaved little boy I have. 

These two did awesome. 

Minneapolis wasting 5 of our 60 mins layover. 

We love Suessland. One of the places where Silas could do nearly everything (except the sky trolley!).

Flight of the Hippogriff. In front of Hagrid's home. 

Meeting Sam I Am and the Grinch. 

Sam and the Grinch

The Cat in the Hat and Things One and Two.

Silas LOVED this ride. He picked out his blue elephant himself. Skadi is also obviously enjoying herself. 

This one didn't want to be photographed on the little kids ride. 

This was my bribery photo. If he flew me through the water I would post it on Facebook that he rode One Fish Two Fish. He did fly me through the water. 

Super fast!

We took the train (ultra-cool) to Diagon Alley. 

Someone was digging MY hot Butterbeer.

Gringott's Bank ride - this one was great. 

Skadi naming Pinky in the naming ceremony. 

The night bus driver. 

Skadi had to meet him too. 

Finally something for Silas - BOOTS! And Dora!

One of Silas' favorite characters. Curious George. He played in the George Play area for quite awhile. 

Eating dinner. I don't know where she learned this pose, but it is entirely way too old for her. 

I am pretty sure they have no idea who this is. But Woody was walking through the park when the kids bombarded him. 

Silas was SO excited to see Spiderman and we talked about it for weeks before. He admired the photo of Leif and Skadi from three years prior with Spiderman. He was completely star struck. 

Yay Spidey!

Silas wanted to meet Wolverine, lol. 

Trying to spin me and make me puke. Lucky for me he spent the entire time fighting the inertia in the wrong direction. 

Gummy Bear. Or SpongeBob. But Silas thinks he is a gummy bear and that's fine with me. 

In the bed getting ready for the next phase of the trip!

Vacation-ville!

About a year and a half ago my husband's side of the family started talking about a vacation, all the family together. That would be AB's dad and stepmom and their total of 8 kids combined with their respective families! In the end three kids from each side (6 kids) with their families attended a 7-Day Eastern Caribbean Disney cruise! We counted down, we planned, we bought loads of stuff that all the blogs and Pinterest tell us we have to have on a Disney cruise. Then magically, the day arrived.

So if you are planning a cruise and decide to go over a holiday - like Thanksgiving - good to check prices of the airline tickets! We started checking about 8 months in advance and I suddenly felt sick. I fly a lot and had plenty of miles for at least a couple tickets. But not at the crazy prices I was seeing to get us down the day before the cruise and back the day after. We started broadening our search and went from tickets for $1800 a piece to $399 each (or 30K miles). Sold - two purchased tickets and three mileage tickets. Yay. We would put the money that would be spent on those crazy expensive tickets towards the expenses on a now 2 week vacation. 

Our plans: 

Fly on the Wednesday before the Saturday cruise departure.

Spend two days at Universal Orlando (YES! We love this place.)

Drive from Orlando on Friday to Port Canaveral, Florida that Friday.

Spend the night and depart on cruise Saturday.

7 Days Easter Caribbean

-2 days at sea

-St. Maarten

-St. Thomas

-Thanksgiving day at sea

-Castaway Cay (the Disney island)

-Back to Orlando

Saturday depart from ship and drive to Orlando - Port Orleans Riverside

Hollywood Studios

Magic Kingdom

Epcot

Boom Done. Fly Home

So my plans, instead of doing one humongous blog, split it into three. Universal, the Cruise and then Disney after. Or maybe it will be Universal and Disney after and then the Cruise separate. Well whatever  that ends up making sense. 

Christmas Funk

I don't normally have a Christmas funk. I am normally all about Christmas - kind of like Buddy the Elf. As a child I LOVED Christmas, everything about it. I still do, but the season didn't move me this year. I am pretty sure it was missing the big kickoff. I spent early November getting ready for a vacation and Caribbean cruise, not Thanksgiving. Then Thanksgiving was in the Caribbean and on a ship in a storm and there WAS NO PUMPKIN PIE! Or cranberry sauce. But really, NO PUMPKIN PIE?!?! I am not a turkey fan, though I will eat my husband's smoked turkey. But anywhere else? I'll take the beef or the stuffing and Brussel sprouts please. Thanksgiving dinner was rushed, Silas was a pain at dinner. The ship was rocking. And there was no freaking pumpkin pie. 

There was no Black Friday on Castaway Cay. Which is fine by me. I shop a bit on Amazon, but that's it. No cyber-Monday. No heading out into the woods to cut our own tree. We got back and it was suddenly, "oh crap, it's almost Christmas!"

We bought a tree at Home Depot, got the house semi-decorated. AB got the lights up, but I didn't get the villages up. I last minute got presents bought. Last minute for me was that they were still arriving in Amazon boxes on the 23rd on the doorstep. A few of my family members got their gifts late (like as in today). 

Christmas hit and I was kind of in a funk. It had come and gone too fast. And once again, like normal, it was just our family. The five of us. Despite invitations all around. 

Skadi asked me this year, "why don't we have grandmas and grandpas that visit like other people?" Well we don't. Then someone made a reference to being lucky to have a mom/grandma willing to be around and don't you wish you had one there too? It was from an adult and took me WAY aback. I kind of smiled when I was seething a bit inside (a sign of my state of mind, I don't usually seethe at references to someone commenting about my not having my mom around or making impolite comparisons). I replied politely that "no, I didn't have my mom there" (through my gritted teeth). 

So heading into Christmas I was a little irksome that I had to talk to my daughter about exactly why our family doesn't come to us at holidays, "they just have other things they want to do". 

And don't get me wrong - I am in no way implying by mixing these conversations that my mom would have been here if she had been alive. This is just where the post is coming from. Bear with me. Anyways, THAT was always a bone of contention with me. Even when my kids were little, we travelled to her because that was what she wanted and expected. Even though it was expensive and hauling SANTA presents sucked. We still did it. 

Hello rabbit hole, I finally found you. Here we go! 

 Sorry, I found this the other day and it kind of frames my mental attitude this Christmas and it took a bit to get here and I ramble. But if you are here you can choose to read on or leave. 

Then the other shoe dropped one year with regard to always going to Colorado.  The year I got this from my mom for Christmas. This was my Christmas gift. 

My kids got toys, my husband got gifts, my sister and her family all got new comforters and other presents. I got this home burned cd. Because my mom "forgot about me". No really, she apologized after everyone else opened their presents and I watched them all, "I am really sorry, I am not sure what happened, I just forgot all about you." 

I always wondered if it was a power play - we battled off and on my entire life, though less so later after I left Colorado. But there were still subtle moves that would leave me steamed. I am sure it went both ways. 

I found this cd the other day, picked it up and nearly launched it through the window. After I received it and she talked about how she had forgotten about me, we left and loaded the kids into the car and drove to AB's families celebration for dinner as was planned. I held it together until we were about 2 blocks away and then the tears deluged. AB and I agreed we wouldn't come to Colorado for Christmas ever again. We were done. Christmas from then on would be at our house and everyone could come to us. No one actually ever has. But whatever. 

We did end up making one last trek to Colorado a few years later for Christmas (though it ended up being after Christmas since *I* missed the flight) after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. We knew at that point that her time was limited and that she would most likely not see another summer, let alone another Christmas. So we bucked up and trekked once more that way. And 4.5 months later she passed away. 

People always miss their relatives past at the holiday. I do, but I feel as if it is different for me because my recent holiday memories are stained. I reflect on Christmases past and my teeth start grating an eensy bit. Mostly focused on that second to last Christmas spent with my mom in Colorado, but the power struggles date back prior to that as well. Then I have a little teensy bit of fear of being forgotten again by those I love. About not mattering to people enough that they even think about me. About not mattering enough that they would choose to spend their holiday with MY children. And here is where we spiral. 

And then I get a little pissy and Hans has to put up with me. A bit more so this year since I was already feeling like the holiday came and went way too fast and I wasn't prepared. 

I have this mental list of rules, of things I learned and keep in mind with my kids that I keep adding to. 

1. I will not perpetuate the crap-ass mother-first daughter relationships that dominate in my family. 

2. I will not tell my daughter (until she is much older and asks) about my relationship with my mom. I heard since I was a small child about my mom's and my grandmother's struggles. It sets up expectations. 

3. Christmas trees must be over 3 feet tall. A big family cannot gather around a 3' tree. 

4. The tree NEVER comes down on December 26th (unless it is a major fire hazard). 

5. My kids will always receive gifts from me for as long as I live. I have four lines on my list: AB, Leif, Skadi and Silas. Everyone else comes after. 

6.  If they want to come to me for Christmas then great. But when they have kids, we will go there no questions asked. And we will relish seeing our grandkids in their own homes. 

This year I found that damned Norah Jones cd again and that stupid thing put me in a bad place. 

This year? I threw it away. I wrote about it. And I am done. My Christmas rules list is longer and I am better. 

Have NOT fallen off the face of the earth

I have lists and lists of things to blog about - and I really want to keep my blog up. There is so much history here. My history. My family's history. But time - I have little.

Tonight we are on break. Christmas 2015 is a thing of the past. My 8 year old and 11 year old have placed importance on "staying up". So here we sit. Me tired. Them tired - but not admitting it. I will wait... I will lie in wait... And blog... And wait for them to fall. 

2015 has been a very good year for us. So many people around us have had sucky years. I haven't said much because 2015 has been a good, but busy year. 

1. Hawaii - just the two of us. Need I say more on that topic? Oh yes, I do... Kilauea nearly 25 years after my first visit. Loved it. Sea turtles, Dolphins, snorkeling. Oh and I gave a good presentation to a huge number of people. 

2. 2 weeks family vacation. 7 days on a Disney Cruise, 7 days in Orlando and Cocoa Beach. Rocked it. Yeah, it was great mostly. I still need to blog about it. Maybe tomorrow night when I sit here with two kids determined to stay up... 

3. I received a big, nice bonus. Very thankful for that sudden influx. Taking tally... Caribiner awards each quarter (for new funding), three invited talks this year. New client funding. Lots of travel (good and bad), And a new assignment that is proving to be challenging. Learning the ins and outs of running proposal calls.

4. Good health. We are blessed here, we truly are. I have friends who are fighting big things and I am so grateful that we are healthy. I am sure we will have our turn. I pray daily for those people I know who are fighting their battles. 

5. Dogs, dogs, dogs. I think this is a good one. We now have three. Our spazoid neurotic, anxiety ridden "white German Shepherd" Odin. Because of him I will never worry about home invasion. Because of him I will worry daily about people entering our property and leaving maimed. We had a pizza delivery guy the other day who was a dumbass. "But dogs like me, I will come in, he will be happier that way." Dumbass. No, he will rip you to pieces if you take another step. Step back now. 

I have my favorite. Ponzi. He is a 6 year old German Shepherd / Great Pyrenees mix who is loyal, relaxed and lovable. And fierce and protective and likes his caves but not the dog that is going to love everyone that crosses his path. But me, I get to be his favorite. 

And who the f, every thought I would own a chihuahua? WTF? But here we are. He came with Ponzi. They were touted to be best friends. And they are fine together, but not as dependent as we were lead to be. But now he is ours. And he loves Leif. And he is working dang hard to win me over. Would be nice if he didn't leave his little turds around the house... Even Silas is into the routine, "NO BEETHOMAN YOU DO THAT OUTSIDE!"

6. Kids. They are always my bright spot even though they can make me crazy crazy. Leif is turning into a neat kid. Ok, so he has always been neat. But he has distinct interests (Tae Kwon Do), things he is good at (chess and computers), he is emotional and kind and loving. He still hugs me and tells me everything. 

Skadi - I love having a daughter. Love it. She is smart and funny and my total opposite in personality. She makes friends at every turn, is outgoing, noisy, active, kind. Caring, fiercely defensive of her friends, easily hurt and often overlooked and misunderstood. Someday the child will have a teacher who gets her. 

Silas - he has been a huge challenge this year. Huge. He was such an easy baby, I don't know what happened. But he leaves me tired. And hoarse. And questioning my sanity. And then the little blonde boy smiles at me with his winning smile and it all goes away and he is perfect again. He is the third child that gets away with way too much, has way too many privileges because it is too hard NOT to keep him from the environment of his older siblings. 

Many many topics... If I write them will it prompt me to come back? 

-Goals - I have many.

-Silas sayings - he has many. I love that at 2.5 he is incorporating "actually" into every sentence.

 

-Silas in general - the kid is a genius. Or he has brainwashed me and you should be concerned. 

-Work in general. I always think I am going to blog about work. And sometimes I do. And then never actually post. 

-Spiderman and grapefruit. Ok. Let's just knock this one out right now. A long long time ago we were playing Apples to Apples and I had "Sticky". Leif played Spiderman, his grandpa John played Grapefruit. And I had JUST had an experience with Silas eating grapefruit. So I dang well knew how sticky they were. But I may NEVER EVER hear the end of selecting grapefruit over Spiderman. 

Case in point: Me: "Eww, this random thing here is sticky." Leif: "Really sticky like Spiderman or just barely sticky like grapefruit?" 

-Family Vacation. 

-My wishes and dreams - I want to write a book. I want to blog more. I want a house that is clean all the time. I want a kitchen renovation (ha ha ha), I want a backyard that works for us. I want my kids to have fun and be bored. I want time to walk the dogs. I want to read the stack of magazines sitting here instead of just toting them all over creation. I want to be a great cook. I want to save animals. I want a new car. I want more vacations. I crave a gorgeous Master Bedroom retreat. I want a cabin in the mountains. I want to get out in the trailer more often. I want jeans that actually look great on me and don't cost a fortune. I can't believe I am going to be 44. 

Oh nevermind, I just really want my family to be happy and want us all to be healthy. 

"Go away mom!"

So Leif had his best friend over for a camping night in the backyard. They were pretty inept in setting up the tent. Mom finally helped. 

Silas is at that age where he wants to do everything the big boys do. He was so excited to have E over. He made sure everyone properly greeted E. Many times.  E is the youngest of three, so he is not at all used to toddlers and found it all fascinating. 

The boys were inside and Silas was loving romping in the tent with Skadi. I went out to check on them. 

Silence. 

"Are you guys out here?"

Silence. 

"Skadi and Silas?"

I knew he couldn't stay quiet for long. 

"Get out of here mama!"

The newest goal

This goal blindsided me out of nowhere. Bam! Tonight it hit me though.

I will start by saying that I am not a people person. A friend recently told me that he built a cabin and (since he is single) spent 4 days there by himself. This friend is a social person, so it kind of made sense that he said he started to lose it four days disconnected. I admitted to him that I crave that. And AB and I fully plan to have a cabin in the woods to disappear to in the future. I look forward to experiencing that alone-ness. Of course, I have AB, so it would probably be easier than complete solo. Anyways, the fact that I find myself sitting there rolling my eyes half the time about people, doesn't surprise me. It's more the frequency with which I am feeling it lately. My lack of patience with people. And I am tired of feeling this.

I want to think it isn't just me. I had some level of validation last week that it wasn't just me. A high school friend posted about her frustration with social media. The feeling of never measuring up. And I nodded and thought about my life. The toddler who hits and pinches all.the.freaking.time. The dog who drives me insane. My kids ate Top Ramen for dinner. Not getting my daughter to her tutor on time (and yes, my daughter sees a tutor for her reading). The tween boy who is, well, behaving like a tween boy. The house that is never picked up. Feeling dead tired after a day of work. Not getting the exercise I want to get.

And everyone else is perfect. My friend challenged us to keep it real and post what it is really like under her hashtag. And I did. And it was fun and nice to see that someone else burnt the bacon. I like to think that I keep it real and that not all my posts are of perfection. But I am probably as annoying to others as many people on my Friends list are annoying me right now. But it isn't just people who are "friends". It is articles I see that challenge whether I am a good mom. It is the people shaming for dumb ass stuff like parking poorly, or disciplining a child in a store, or not disciplining a child in a store. The list goes on. I believe I am a good mom. But being inundated by it all is just taking a toll.

I thought about deactivating my Facebook account, but I am not quite there yet. I get a lot of information through there like what fruit French's has for picking, my kid's schools PTO, my school district. And even coworkers. I use Facebook messenger at work because I can't have my cell phone at my desk. So I can't cut the cord.

But I can cut my fingers off.

Ok. Seriously. I can't cut my fingers off. I can't even do that thing where you take a needle and put it through your first layer of skin and make it look like you have needles in your fingers. Eww. Can't do it.

But I can quit posting. Instagram I like. I follow a few organizations there (Smithsonian... you must do it) and I enjoy it. My close family members who care if I post the obligatory first day of school pictures are on there and they will get to see those pictures. I will post to Instagram. But I tend to be way more selective with what I post there and everything has to be associated with a picture. I like that.

I also have this page. My blog. The nice thing about a blog is that a person has to actively decide they want to see what you write and go there. Instead of passively showing up on everyone's feeds and annoying people.

I am not going to be absent on Facebook. You may see a Like from me or a stray response. But I need to silence myself before I go in to full on back up behavior on Facebook. I am an Amiable, I can feel my back up Driver emerging. And who all really likes a Driver on Facebook? Yeah, no.

I have Blogger on my phone and I will post here when I feel the need to share. I have been meaning to post more here because I have so much history recorded here. This new goal should serve to get me back here and maybe break that Facebook addiction.

Goals Update

I have been thinking a lot about my goals lately. First, that I need to wrap the ones up that are hanging out there flapping in the wind, but then also what I want to do going forward – i.e., the fall. There will be no real goals started in the summer. AB has dreams of taking the trailer out camping every possible weekend – and I usually push that back to every other or every third weekend. (Laundry has to get done sometime… yes, I know, big stick in the mud.)

 

So I still have the shelves and such to finish my little sewing/cross stitch nook thing in the playroom. They are painted and awaiting being hung. Once those are done I can do the fun part of sorting my sewing stuff and having a nice organized space for everything. 

 

And I did sort some stuff on the computer. Got rid of all those folders from old computers and consolidated folders. I have worked a little ways through the whole picture sorting thing, but haven’t gotten as far as I would like. The main driver right now is in space on the computer. We aren’t completely out of space anymore, so this has been idle. And I keep thinking we may need a new computer on the horizon and when we do then I will have space galore and won’t need to worry about trashing the crappy photos. I would love, love, love to do photo books for each year. But I just don’t have the time. Maybe when my kids (toddler) doesn’t suck up all my free time.

 

Then there was the back yard. AB did raised beds last year and I loved them so much I asked for three more for Mother’s Day. Then I decided I wanted the grass out from around them and pea gravel between and around them. So last weekend (instead of installing my sewing shelves), AB layed weed fabric and started dumping grass clippings on the weed fabric to kill back the grass. Eventually, maybe later this summer, we will pull back the grass clippings and fill the weed fabric area with pea gravel and have a raised bed area worthy of a Sunset cover. 

 

A girl can dream, can’t she?

 

So along with this I have an area that I want to put raspberries, blackberries, blueberry bushes and other things like that. For that area we are working on covering the grass with cardboard and then compost a few inches deep. It won’t be ready until next year, but then we can till it all in and plant the next phase of our edible yard.

 

This is the biggest thing I miss from our previous house. AB and I put in our yard and nearly every aspect of it provided food – a huge garden, fruit trees (which are a pain in the rear, I don’t want any fruit trees except maybe a nectarine tree), raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb. We want that in our current house and are moving towards having it. Now I need to just figure out how to get rid of all the ornamental bushes crap…

 

I am eyeing the fall for work on the Master Bedroom. I keep putting it off mostly because I am just not sure what I want or what the solutions are for the room’s issues. I want new paint. I would love new carpet (now that I have the taste for new carpet in the other areas of my house, but this probably won’t happen!), I need storage solutions and décor is completely lacking. It is the room in the house with the MOST potential for change. I want a refuge, a comfortable place without the toys, laundry baskets (full and not), clutter, crappy dressers, etc. This could be an easy, clean out the room and paint it thing… or it could be so so so much more. I mentioned our bedroom as the next target for my monthly goals and AB may have muttered something and rolled his eyes. Telling him it was for the fall didn’t change anything. 

 

"What's dis mama?"

Silas: "What's dis mama?"

(Pokes me in the boob.)

Me: "It's a boobie Silas."

Silas: (Giggle) "I yike boobies mama."

Skadi age 8

So as promised – Skadi “Bean’s” 8th birthday. Skadi has assumed a nickname courtesy of Silas and we think it will stick, maybe even surmount “Bean”. It’s “K.K.” Silas has called her K.K. now for months – since he started talking K.K. was one of his first “words”. 

 

Back story – for those of you who don’t know the origin of “Bean” or had forgotten… Skadi was born Skadi Jeanne. Same middle name as me, my mom, my grandmother, great grandmother… When she was born my mom called my grandmother and told her that she was born and we named her Skadi Jeanne. My grandmother was quiet and very nonchalant acting. Almost annoyed, I recall my mom telling me. It wasn’t until a few weeks later when she apparently worked up the nerve to ask my mom if “Bean” was a family name in the Carman family? Huh? We all got a lot of laughs out of it, particularly since there was a similar incident when I was born that involved my grandmother writing a letter to her family in California informing them of the birth of her granddaughter. My grandmother had notoriously bad handwriting and in a few weeks I started receiving gifts for Axel. My great grandmother and great great uncles called me Axel for years.

 

So anyways, Skadi seems anxious to lose the Bean and embrace K.K. and occasionally I even falter and call her K.K. myself.

 

Skadi had a hard time deciding what she wanted to do for her birthday. She had wanted a big party, but since her main birthday gift was actually a plane ticket to come to Colorado with me for work, I said no. Only a house party with a few invites. She labored over her invite list and I crossed a lot of kids off. SMALL party, I emphasized. A sleepover, she countered? Ok, 6 girls from your class, I told her. Then I gave on one thing.

 

“But mom, Aidan is one of my best friends ever. He is so nice to me and we play together as much as I play with the girls!” she cried. (Yes, actually cried.)

 

So I sent an invitation in for Aidan with a note explaining that Skadi is having a sleepover party for a few girls and we wondered if Aidan might like to join us for the evening between 6-9pm for dinner, cake and fun? Then I got the text, “Actually he would like to come for the sleepover, thanks for inviting him!”

 

WTF? 

 

I gave the phone to Hans to read and his response was “I should have read what you wrote in the invite!” I was clear, I swear, that the girls were spending the night and that Skadi wanted Aidan to attend and I had recalled debating on the times to put in his invite!

 

I counseled with a few friends on what to do. They are 8 years old. Littles. If the mom is ok with it… Skadi has brothers. Her older brother has friends sleep over and they all play together. What’s the difference if one of the boys happened to be 8? We decided to roll with it and let the boy stay over and sleep in Leif’s room.

 

Leif’s response was key – “the difference is that *I* don’t know him and *I* don’t want some unknown boy sleeping in my room!” And he had a point. But we DID know an 8 year old boy that he is friends with. And one even that HAD been on the invite list and then pulled off when I started repeating my mantra “SMALL party”.

 

So I contacted his mom, a good friend of mine, and explained the situation. After laughing she said that yes, her son would come over and spend the night and the plan was done.

 

When I was in first grade my parents let me have a slumber birthday party and invite ALL the girls in my class. I could never figure out why they said, “never again” after that party and not even my sister got a comparable party. But it was all about No after that wonderful party. 

 

I get it now. And now I will say NO! Never again! 1-2 kids sleeping over? No problem. Party? Nope.

 

A little bit of it was the strange boy attendee, but more was just all the different personalities and children I didn’t know and trying to figure out what was best for them. Most of the kids didn’t eat dinner. Or breakfast. They whined. They tattled. They didn’t sleep. They whined even more. 

 

I am under no delusions that my daughter doesn’t behave the same way at someone else’s house and that she doesn’t annoy the crap out of other parents who don’t know her. But goodness gracious! We were all tired the next day.

 

 

The following weekend after the slumber party Skadi and I got on a plane and flew by ourselves to Denver! No boys allowed. Girls only trip.

 

I had to go for work. One of my students wanted to give a presentation at a conference. Then my client decided to host a session at a conference in Denver and it was a natural fit. We were shoe ins for talks, it was convenient, and my colleagues would be there creating a safe environment for my student's first talk at a big conference.  The only problem was that it was over Skadi’s birthday. AB agreed to my fabulous idea to take her with me and rely on family to field her as needed over those few days.

 

It was excellent bonding time for us and my family. Not living in Colorado, my kids just really don't know my family well. We went to the museum, she hung out with my sister, my brother in law and niece and nephew. Grandpa came down and took her to the zoo. She went to a work dinner with me. We went to Casa Bonita with my best friend and her cousin. We went shopping. We went to the American Doll store.

 

SHE GOT HER EARS PIERCED! 

 

I would do it all over in an instant. We had such a good time together.

 

 

 

 

Catching up

I keep having thoughts of “I should blog about this” and then the time just slips away. It is slipping away badly. Can you believe it is already mid-May?

 

I thought I would just do a recap/catch up post as a jumping off point.

 

The kids:

 

Silas – I did an update for his birthday a few weeks ago while I was in Hawaii. So his update will be shorter, lowest hanging fruit – he goes first.

 

·         Well child visit: 

o   Height – 36” and 80^thpercentile

o   Weight – 27 lbs 11 oz and 30^th percentile

-Concern about the weight loss. He was up to just about 30 lbs, but has suddenly dropped off. Some of this is probably due to his increased activity level – he runs everywhere. But we would have expected him to hold instead of lose weight. He was terribly sick while we were in Hawaii and I suspect it was being sick and the lack of nutrition going in that caused weight loss. I also think that his refusal to sit down and eat dinner is part of it too. Apparently he eats well and a variety of food at daycare. But he is playing mom and dad for something and refuses most dinner, will sit for about 5 minutes. Eat a little, then scream bloody murder to get out of his seat and “go play”. In the interest of a semi-peaceful dinner, we eventually give in to the little terrorist and release him from his confines. 

- Out of hopes that he will gain weight we have loosened our dietary reigns on him. Normally there would be no dessert when no dinner was eaten. But for the time being… “ice cream? Of course you can have ice cream.”

·         Vocabulary: He still is powering ahead. Counting, speaking, expressing himself. This past weekend we bought a few containers of ladybugs and released them into our yard. The ladybugs would crawl on him and his response? “What the heck?” It was seriously the funniest thing. 

 

Skadi – My girl is 8 years old! Poor middle child. I didn’t blog about her birthday… and I really, really should. It was wonderful with a few weird things (not associated with her!). Ok, Skadi birthday blog post will come next. So this will be short about her. 

·         Well Child Visit: 

o   Height – 49.25" and 28^thpercentile. Probably still not tall enough to ride the water slide. She has gone up a bit and I am truly wondering if it is the stomach aches that have eased. About a year ago we started trying to pinpoint the cause of her constant tummy aches. Meeting with specialists in Seattle did little, we were given real pills, placebo pills, nothing worked. We finally (on our own) pulled her off gluten and dairy and eggs (mild egg allergy noted on her allergy panel) and then slowly let things back into her diet. We were trying to pinpoint something that was causing her distress – we became certain that it was lactose intolerance for a while. Nothing has really jumped out for us, but she is better. She is back to eating things with gluten, small amounts of dairy (cheese mostly, she used to drink a ton of milk and doesn’t anymore, she is a water kid now) and eggs don’t seem to bother her. It remains a mystery, but she isn’t writhing in pain anymore.

 

Leif – Finishing fourth grade. I remember 4^th grade well. Leif is definitely the brainy kid in class and chums around with the other brainy kids. He has a good friend who is overboard with technology. I always felt as though we were quite permissible with Leif given that he has his own Kindle and uses the computer regularly. Then I met his new best friend who carries an iPhone 6 that acts as his mobile hot spot. He informed me last weekend on his visit that he didn’t need my wifi code like other kids probably do. Yeah… most other 10 year old request my wifi password… NOT!

 

Leif’s big concern wherever we go (and it drives AB and I INSANE) has become “is there wifi there?” I suspect this will soon become a requirement for when we book something, “what, you have no wifi? GREAT!” We are constantly pulling a device (his, ours) out of his hands and working to get him to interact with the real world. He prides himself on his abilities too – he told us he “hacked” the typing test at school recently. Though the teacher became suspicious when he had a perfect result and made him redo it. It’s hard to admonish his actions when you are giggling (and the teacher caught on and took control…). Go ahead - call us bad parents. 

 

Leif was totally thrilled to be accepted as a part of the Safety Patrol Team at his new school next year. He will demand respect from the rest of the student body as he dons his safety vest and wields his flag.

 

AB – For the first time EVER, we left kids at home with AB’s sister and mom and he took off with me on travel. I had to go to Kona, Hawaii for 8 days. Yes, it was rough. We were running a short course on Sunday and then my presentation wasn’t until Friday, requiring me to spend a solid week hanging out in paradise. AB headed that way Tuesday and we stayed through Sunday, arriving home late Sunday night. It was nice to get away, but I was seriously missing the kids by Sunday. It was just a very long time to be away. I was talking with a colleague the other day who said she was so happy her family came and met her – she completely understood my feelings of missing the kids. In three years when we go back? We will take the kids then.

 

We had a super time though. I worked my tail end off the first few days that AB wasn’t there so that I could take a bit of time off with him. I let him sleep in Wednesday morning and I attended some conference. Then mid-morning we packed up and drove towards Kilauea. It was a must do for me. Nearly 25 years ago to the date I had stood and watched lava flow over the road in front of me, and into the ocean. Something I will never, ever forget. We took a leisurely trip towards Volcanoes National Park. Stopped at a black sand beach (it was a windy, stormy day, no snorkeling or swimming) and saw some nesting sea turtles! Once at Volcanoes we saw the crater rim before the weather moved in, hiked some lava tubes, drove to the coast to see the vast lava fields (and trip down memory lane for me). Then back up to the rim for nighttime crater viewing. Loved it all. Then the long trek back to the hotel that night.

 

Thursday and Friday we hung pretty close to the hotel, ate good food. Then Saturday we went out on a snorkel trip at the Captain Cook Memorial. I had a super time snorkeling and hanging out on the boat. AB had done a few snorkeling outings the days prior, so he wasn’t quite as impressed, but I was thrilled!

 

AB’s work is going fine. His contract will end eventually (maybe soon, maybe not) and he is trying to figure out what he wants to do. Work in a similar area to what he is doing now (he should be a shoe in), find a job in town with a private industry with more reasonable hours and actual vacation and sick time, or make a play (again) to try and get on at my lab. We may have some leverage, but not going to count those chickens before they hatch.

 

Me (aka Nuclear Mom) – Things have been going gang busters at work. I can’t even describe it. A few years ago I took on a technical project again and that work has blossomed. I could fund myself fully on that project, but I try to keep it to 30% time because I have so many other things I want to do. The project has led to solicitations for me to speak at conferences and next week, at a University. I am thrilled about the resurgence of technical work in my daily portfolio over management duties. I enjoy that little boost I get when I get those cold e-mails that say, “I read your article…”, or recently “I cited your team’s publication in my proposal and the funding agent has asked us to see if we can work with you, interested?”

 

So the remaining 70% of my time I am trying to figure out how to split it. Right now I have about 150% work I am fitting into that 70% of time. I am trying not to drop things. I had the privilege of running two proposal calls this past quarter. One from behind the scenes and the other very much in front. I have been approached about taking a new position at the lab and yet another new office in a different building and I have accepted. It has yet to come to fruition, but the scuttle I hear is that it will once things settle down with the client reorganization and another key high level role has been filled internally, then we will transition me. I had hesitations with it – mainly the personalities I will be working with and the fact that I love my job currently, I was not clamoring for change. So frankly if they find some other poor sap or decide it isn’t the right job for me, I am totally fine with that. I have been encouraged by some colleagues recently to take it and run with it and very nice things said about my work, so I am willing to give it a shot. 

 

The main PI I have worked with over the past 4 years was just notified of his promotion to fellow yesterday. I am so happy for him. We have worked really, really hard over the last several years and he very much deserves this honor.

 

My travel schedule has been ridiculous over the past few months. Enough so that I am looking at achieving status on TWO airlines by the end of the year. Of course that says that if I would have focused all my efforts on utilizing just one airline that I could have a higher status… but I am a sucker for convenience and going with whoever can get me home fastest to see my family.

 

I like travel. I don’t like flying pretty much at all, but it is the means to the end. I like my work. But what I don’t like is missing the kids and being away from my family. I am not to that point where I feel as though I am missing major aspects of my kids’ lives, but I can see how that could happen – I have no less than 5 trips that have been proposed to me for the next couple months. (None that I have accepted.) I have one more trip next week and then I have committed to avoiding travel at least through the end of the school year (end of school year is a bugger for kids having stuff to do) and if possible, through the summer. My next non-negotiable trip on the books is scheduled for September 1-3. And so when I saw that is the first day of school (Sept 1), I started trying to weasel. I may have gained a reprieve for one day. My new position is going to require travel, so I need to figure out how to balance this all. (And part of the reason that AB is thinking about seeking a position where he might have more flexibility.)

 

Home life… after the month of April concluded I was able to come back to reality, escape the crashing waves of other people’s proposals and being gone more than I was actually home. I insisted we spend Mother’s Day at home – we normally take the trailer out. That was a good decision not only for my mental health, but physical health since I fell to some horrible cold/cough sickness that I am wondering if I am ever going to lose.

 

Goals status – 

·         January was carpet  and I am happy to report that after 4 months, the living room carpet has been installed. And it is gorgeous and soft and the entire family is in love. I am doubly thrilled to have that process behind us.

·         February was the sewing room. Shelves were cut and painted, then life happened. They still sit there ready to be hung and filled. It’s fine. I have had other things I wanted done that were on a more pressing timeline (garden).

·         March I had wanted to organize my photos on the computer. I would put that at about 40%. They have been organized, but I have just started on purging duplicates, bad photos, etc. I need to do it when the kids aren’t around and hovering since they want to know why I am deleting THAT picture. Typical response is “because we have three others that are better”. But it goes so much faster if *I* just do it.

·         I didn’t even attempt April, and I didn’t blog about May – but May was the garden. At minimum I wanted to get my three raised bed planted. But AB raised me one and built three more raised beds that I wanted and filled them with raised bed dirt. I have the first three planted, but planting the last three is on the docket for this weekend. Eventually I want the grass surrounding the raised beds to be gone and pea gravel to occupy that space. Maybe it will be my June goal…

 

Then comes Memorial Day. I travel Monday through Wednesday of next week. I am happily taking the Thursday off to hang with my kids since their teachers are walking out (I am very supportive of their positions, they need to be paid more, the administrator’s pay raises are ridiculous and I want my schools to comply with the new WA state law that says there shouldn’t be more than 26 kids per classroom… my district gets nearly every bond voted in that they ask for, come on!). I am going to get us ready to go camping on Thursday and then Friday we are out of here for some much needed forest/mountain time. I need that outdoors time, kick off the summer, snuggle with the kids in the trailer time in a bad, bad way.

 

Silas is TWO!

I say this all the time. But it's real. How is it possible?

How is it possible that my kids are growing up so quickly? TWO! Silas is TWO! My little blonde haired, blue eyed boy.

Silas' birthday landed on the Thursday after Easter - so it has been a big week for him. We practiced all week saying "I am two!" and singing "Happy birthday". But until the party Friday where everyone sang to him, focused on him and put a giant cake (WITH FROSTING!!!) in front of him, he didn't really grasp it. And well, he maybe didn't really grasp it then either.

Silas is my rough and tumble one. He has to be to keep up with his brother and sister. As has been par for the course with my kids, he is a talker and advanced there. He speaks in 3-4 word sentences and uses a huge variety of words and is really moving along with conveying his needs and frustrations. He calls Skadi "KK", Leif is "Lay" and Odin is Odin. Lucky is "Ki-Cat". He has transitioned from mama and dada to mommy and daddy.

Silas has coveted every balance bike he has seen in the past few months, so we got him one. We have heard, for the last 4 days since he opened it, "I got a bike!" Poor beep beep (the farm ride on toy) has been cast aside in favor of a BIKE!

Silas' favorite things to do (aside from ride a bike) is to feed the animals. Odin's food dish is always overflowing, the Goldfish has plenty of food to cloud up his tank and Lucky gets fed twice a day - which hasn't happened in ages. But Silas is diligent in doling out the food - though heaven forbid one of them (Odin) decides to swipe something from him. That will definitely ruin his day.

His other favorite thing to do is "go outside". This is actually a very particular request though. He doesn't really want to go out into the backyard to play. He wants to go into the driveway and ride whatever convenient riding toy he has up and down the slight slope.

We are pretty convinced he is the smartest toddler around too. He counts to 10. No joke. I have no delusions that it is anything more than reciting what he has heard just like he does "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes". And probably the fact that we squeal with joy when he does it means he has learned that "I do this and it makes them happy" thing.

Silas is an excellent sleeper, sleeping through the night 90% of the time -  8:15-7am. He naps like the dead - 3-3.5 hrs usually. Eating... the child has an amazing sweet tooth. And kind of like me - once hungry, the attitude (normally happy go lucky) changes. Hangry.

Silas is kind of a solitary kid. He is wary of other kids invading his space and they better not touch the item he is interested in. He reminds me a lot of Skadi in mannerisms. He will bowl you over and isn't one to be bowled over.

He still loves his thumb and we love it too. Love not having to keep track of a pacifier. I am sure the day will come when we like it a bit less. But already he is to the point that he only sucks it when he needs to calm himself down, or at nap/bed time.

KK is his bestest friend in the whole world and she is amazing with him. She plays with him and engages with him and appeals to his dangerous side as she flies him around on beep beep or his scooter. Leif is an incredible help with Silas, gets him out of his crib, fixes breakfast for him, brushes his teeth, helps get him dressed, but isn't the one who is going to entertain him like Skadi does. All in all, both kids make for the best team with Silas.

Silas truly made our family complete. We are so blessed to have him. He is an amazing boy. I love his little kisses, his hugs, his learning and seeing the world through his eyes! I love you Silas!

Woohoo!

So back when I penned the last post, I wrote "woohoo" at the bottom to remind me to write about "woohoo". But I spaced it. And then apparently I don't proofread my posts very well before posting and so it looks like my last post ended with an unenthusiastic "woohoo". It wasn't intended that way. So now I will explain the big "woohoo".

One evening we were eating dinner and I complimented my (extremely picky) daughter on eating well.

Silas perks up and says to her, "Yay Skadi, woohoo!"

And, of course, we all laughed.

Thus started the "woohoo phase".

Whenever anyone is praised for anything in the house Silas chimes in with a "woohoo".

"Yay Lay [Leif], woohoo!"

And there are days when the woohoos are less enthusiastic. It sounds like a very blah, "woohoo."

AB and I both get woohoos as well.

Me: "Yay, we aren't late today." (I mumble when we drop off at daycare.)

Silas: "Woohoo mama, woohoo!"

We have been laughing at the woohoos now for awhile and of course, you start wondering where they pick it up. And then we realize that neither AB or I *ever* say "woohoo".

I asked at daycare and sure enough - his lead teacher gives a woohoo whenever they do something good. Finish a book? Woohoo! Everyone sits down for group? Woohoo!

So woohoo everyone!

Progress - but it's slow!

So January was carpet for the living room. I thought we were progressing hugely when I spontaneously painted the living room.

Carpet though, has stalled. It is crawling forward at a snails pace and it isn't really my fault! Nope, I can't take the blame on the January goal.

First off Home Depot took forever to get here for our quote. Then AB signed us up for a Costco quote - and then they showed up at the wrong time and begrudgingly rescheduled us. Unfairly begrudgingly so, IMO, because I would have not scheduled the appointment during one of my recurring weekly meetings at 11am. In fact, I specifically recall talking to the scheduler and saying "oh how nice it will be to be home at 2pm, a full hour and a half before my kids get home!"

So then Home Depot gave us our quote and AB balked. Ok, so I balked too. Way higher than we thought - and when you look at the quote we kind of wonder exactly how much waste they were planning on having? Our room is 18.5 x 19.5. And they wanted to order 49 linear feet of 12' wide carpet. WTF? Why do they need 13 feet extra? To make up for the free install deal? Shadey much?

So yesterday AB decided to sign us up for quote #3 that came in about $800 cheaper than the Home Depot for the highest end "can't possibly ever stain this carpet". So anyways, getting the last two measures and final quotes this coming week and then the carpet is special order. We will be lucky to have it done by the end of February, early March more likely. I guess that's ok. Gives us a few more weeks to trash the current carpet.

My current February goal is my sewing "nook". Shelves just need to be cut (AB...) and installed (AB...) and then I can put all my sewing stuff in. Looking at a ribbon rod (where did I get all that ribbon?) and a thread rack. AND AB is talking about adding onto one of the shelves a custom flip up sewing table. Really!!

Unless I want my February goals to suffer a similar delay fate as January I need to figure out how to dangle the carrot. I was thinking if I moved all the fabric into our bedroom - and put it on AB's side of the bed... I keep telling him it's no big deal, just show me how to use the multitude of saws in our garage. I can do it!

So I am already thinking about March. And I have a March must do that came to me today as I plugged my phone in and tried to back it up to the computer.

I succeeded about 5 hrs later after deleting random programs and crap my son has put on the computer. But truly, the vast majority of the space on the computer is from photos. My photos file is out of control.

I am not sure how to tackle it, but I need to sit down and organize the computer. Remove photos that suck. Create a file to save my favorites. (For eventual insertion into a photo book... when the kids are grown, I expect.)

So there, March goal is on deck. Organize and reduce the memory of the computer that I really, really do not want to replace right now.

Toddler Speak

Silas loves to wake everyone up. It is his duty in the house to open a door and yell at the TOP of his little voice:

"WAKE UP LEIF!" and "WAKE UP SKADI!"

Or his version:

"WAY UP LAY!" and "WAY UP KAY KAY!"

(Yes, we have all latched onto Kay Kay and she is never escaping this nickname. That's ok, it still sits with her fine.)

Leif has a bunk. This morning Silas and I were standing in Leif's room talking to him from below when Silas went over to the bunk's stairs.

He eyes me and takes two steps up.

"MAMA SAY NO FALL SI SI!"

So I said it, "Silas, don't fall!" (I say this a lot.)

"NO FALL MAMA!" And he proceeds up the stairs.

woohoo!

The ongoing laundry saga...

So I discussed the other day my oldest son's phobia of having to do laundry. 

It greatly affected his life when I made him sort socks. And yes, I made him tackle the whole basket of socks, everyone's socks. Not just his own. 

Yes, I am mean. But really. I do everyone else's laundry, he doesn't need to limit himself to only matching up and folding his socks. 

It was such a painful experience that he decided that he would resort to only wearing one pair of socks each week. 

This way, it is 6 fewer pairs of socks to sort and fold! A tremendous and innovative time saver!

Except EWWW! 

It didn't blow past me for long. It becomes pretty obvious when the stacks of socks are drastically underrepresented for one person.

And it's the middle of January. It isn't like it is sandal city here. 

How long will the laundry phobia go on and how can I ride this horse?