Cabama House

This is what K called the Cabana house we stayed in on our vacation. She seemed to love the ocean as much as her mother. We had to drag her off the beach kicking and screaming everyday. She just wanted to stay and play in the sand for hours.
I was amazed at both my kids capacity for growth and change. K did not want to go near the water either in the pool or ocean the first day. By the end of the week she was jumping into my arms in the pool from the steps and running into the ocean with me. I couldn't believe it. I was worried about her learning to swim but now am not concerned. I just need to get her to the pool more frequently. J was the same. He wouldn't even look at the ocean in the beginning. By the end he was floating around the pool in his floating device on his own. (With us nearby of course. don't call CPS)
Overall, we had a wonderful time together. K's new thing is saying probably. sounds like probly. We have a book on a kids first 100 words and I ask her to identify the items. There is often more than one so she will say probly right here and right here, pointing. On the way home she asked where we were going. I said we were going home and she said "to the cabama house?". I said no, to our house and she said "probly the cabama house." Sweet girl. She really loved our vacation.
N and I even managed to get out on our own while the grandparents watched the kids. We celebrated our 5th anniversary together by having dinner on the beach at a nice restaurant. It's our usual, but it was nice at the beach. Happy Anniversary honey. I love you.

Big World Little World

Funny how big and how little the same things can be. Or how short and long.
We drove to Florida for vacation last week and had a wonderful time. More on that later. I called my mother from the road to see how her progress was going. We were all going down to see my sister get married. They were leaving from Ohio and I, from Indiana. She was ahead of us by about twenty minutes and about to stop for fuel. I called back and asked where they were. Dad said they were just coming up on exit 20 and I looked up at the sign we were passing and I was going under exit 20. What are the odds that we would end up driving through Kentucky and Tennessee together on a trip of over 700 miles? My sister was driving and they caught up to us. It made the drive go rather quickly and we played cat and mouse for awhile. Finally, we pulled over for some gas and so Gma and Gpa and my sister could see the kids, since it had been awhile. It was a nice way to spend about half the drive. They pulled over to sleep and I pressed on so we could make it while the kids slept. We thought this would be the path of least resistance. Turns out N was nervous the whole time that I would get too sleepy, despite my best argument that I would pull off and nap at the first sign of fatigue. She didn't sleep much either which made for some grumpy parents when the kids woke up. But we made it and witnessed a wonderful wedding and had a nice vacation at the same time. We are just thrilled about my sisters new husband. He is a great guy and she deserves to have some happiness in her life. I can't wait for the new baby to come. Wahoo, go A.
The way home was much longer. We drove during the day so traffic wasn't as light. Also, kids have a way of making it long. Did you know that 6 miles ( the distance between exits) can take what seems like an hour when your 11 month old is screaming his ever loving head off. Then there is the stopping. I am used to going straight through whenever possible, but you can't do that with kids. We did a lot of stretching our legs and running off as much energy as possible.
All in all it went really well though. K did a wonderful job and was a very good traveller. J didn't understand why he couldn't be held while we drove and got tired of being confined. He likes to be mobile so it was a bit of a struggle. Really, even he did well considering.
Next year we will just have to plan on the extra time and maybe make some extra stops on the way with things to do.

Chase

For awhile now Jack has been crawling away from us and then suddenly stopping to look back. I thought he was just checking to see if we were still there or maybe to see if we were still looking.
Now I have discovered that he is baiting me into a game of chase. Last night he stopped to look back and I was on the floor. I started to crawl towards him and he let out a huge laugh and then took off away from me. I chased him all over the house as he squealed with delight. I even got him to chase me for a minute. When I would catch him he would giggle with joy. Kate even got in on the action. Tonight, he started it again by giving me the most playful look I have ever seen him give. He seems to be discovering how to interact more when he plays. Much to his fathers delight.

Uninspired

I have not been writing of late. I just haven't felt inspired at all. I decided to write just to do it and see what comes out. It's not that I haven't had anything to write about. I guess I have just been busy and stressed and haven't done it. We are going on vacation in a couple of weeks, so there is a lot to do. Well, I guess it's kind of a pseudo vacation. My sister is having a last minute destination wedding in Florida and we are making a vacation out of it. We have some friends in Jacksonville and are going to visit them when the wedding is over. I am looking forward to it although it is straining the budget quite a bit. We hadn't really planned on a vacation this year since we bought a new house etc. but I think we will be able to manage it alright.
K has been stressing us out lately. She does so well some days with going potty in the bathroom but then she always seems to slide back into going in her panties. She knows what to do but just can't seem to be bothered by it sometimes. We have tried many things but nothing seems to work. Any suggestions here would be great. We are pretty much at our wits end.
On a good note one of my very best friends had a baby this past week. The baby looks beautiful and he and Momma are doing very well. I am so happy for E. He is starting on a wonderful journey filled with amazing moments and also great challenges ( see above). I hope he enjoys every minute of it like I have.
It seems to be a week of catching up with my best friends. I have heard from another of my very best friends this week and he and his family are doing well. The kids are growing too fast though. You will have to do something about that S. Uncle D wants some fun boy time with them before they are all grown up. Maybe letting off some rockets or something.
My other best friends J&C are trying for another baby. Go girls! I will be praying for you. You can do it. Maybe you can have a little one growing and listening to motorcycles racing around the speedway. I hadn't heard from them for a little while either since they were out of town for a bit, so that was very exciting news.
Also heard from my friend and mentor D. thanks for the email. Glad you two are doing OK.
That pretty much brings you up to speed on all my friends:) I don't have many but the ones I do have are definitely keepers.
Well, I do feel oddly better having written down my thoughts. However disjointed. I will try to keep up with it even when I don't feel like it.

The Big 3

Well, I can't believe it. K is about to turn three. It just doesn't seem that long ago that I was holding this little 4.5 lb. girl for the first time. Now she is so big. I am amazed sometimes when I look at her and it seems that she has grown overnight. She is so curious about the world and so sweet. She has started the Whys. She wants to know everything. N started to cry yesterday when she realized K is turning three. K wanted to know why she was sad. N said she wasn't sad, she was crying from happiness. K seemed a little confused by that but later said that mommy was crying because she was happy.

I love the ordinary moments that kids seem to be able to make extraordinary. We were having some ice cream yesterday and K looked up and said, 'be careful everyone, the ice cream is really tricky.' I am not sure what she meant but it was a very funny moment. Today, I was reading a book with K before nap time. Well, actually she was reading it to me. She has been doing that lately making up great stories to match the pictures. I was holding J on her bed as she read. J was playing with a yellow balloon. Suddenly, he realized that he could see through it as he held it up to his face. He started moving the balloon away to make sure it was the same things that he was looking at through the balloon. Pretty soon it became a game. it was like his own little hide and seek game. It was fascinating to watch. All the while K was making up a story to go with the pictures in the new little bear book she got from her grandma for her birthday. An extraordinary moment in our lives and all we were doing was reading a bedtime story. I love it.

The Brave One

K and I went on a Daddy-Daughter camping trip last weekend. Nand J stayed home. Oh yeah, and my entire family and their families went too. It was a typical wild weekend with my family including lots of fun and drama. Five girls and my mom. It's hard not to have drama. Or fun. K really enjoyed it and was very good the whole weekend. Lot's of kids to play with and Lot's of fun things to do. We had water fights and swimming. Biking. Probably my favorite part was going down to the creek and skipping rocks. K is so brave. She didn't even hesitate and loved playing with the rocks. She didn't seem to mind the fish or the craw fish at all. It was really nice having a whole weekend with her. She is an amazing little thing. You can almost see her little mind working.
Wednesday N, J, K and I went to the county fair. We like looking at all the animals and eating fresh sweet corn. J was really curious and looked around a lot in wondrous amazement. K, the Brave, wanted to ride on the rides. We went on the train first. then the space ship. They were pretty benign. She wanted to ride the motorcycles like daddy. They started off pretty fast and I thought she might freak a little, but she hung on the first couple of laps and then she got comfortable and started looking up at the ceiling while it all whizzed by. Then she wanted to go down the big slide. N and I thought she might get freaked out going up the stairs and being that high up, but she didn't even blink. We got to the top and I asked if she was ready to go. She said yes and off we went. We got to the bottom and I asked her if it was fun and she said "let's do it again, daddy!" So we went to get back in line.
We had a caricature artist draw the kids and they turned out great. Then we started heading for the car since it was already and hour and a half past their bedtime. We walked past the pigs since we missed them on the way through the first time. I asked K if she saw them and heard them oinking. she said " yeah, they're in their nests daddy". they were all in cages for the night. I thought it was super sweet. she is such a sweet girl. and brave. N and I worry that she is too brave sometimes. I guess it's a parents job to worry.

Bonne Quatorze Julliet, Tout Le Monde!

It was a good evening, this one. The kids are obviously feeling better after a weekend of cranky fussy snotty sickness.
It's funny thinking about what will amuse your kids. Usually, it's something simple like playing with a cardboard box or throwing something randomly in the air. Enjoy.

Oh, it means happy fourteenth of July (Bastille Day) everyone. I was going to make you look it up. But I am too nice, I guess.