The past week has been gorgeous! Well, other than today. My younger son (YS) and I have spent the majority of this week outside enjoying playdates, parks and just our own backyard. It felt like summer, not spring, had sprung.
However, as much as I have enjoyed this fantastic weather, I don't mind that it's started raining again. We're going to Aruba next week! The Big Giraffe and I are celebrating our ten year anniversary a year early. We never really did a honeymoon and instead promised ourselves we would do something special for our tenth. Hence 4 days in Aruba!!!!
The preparations have begun. Haircut today, pedicure sometime next week, lots of excited conversations with friends during the day, conversations with the Big Giraffe in the evenings about what we're going to do....all this prep is sounding an awful lot like prep before our wedding!
And yes, we are going without children. Family friends are coming to stay at our place with the kids.
so now you must be in Aruba....Great!!!! enjoy the time off
I'm truly amased though that you go to the hairdresser before a vacation so before it's going to bleach by sun & sea? before it's getting sweaty and sandy and salty each day? And you'll make it shorter so you can't make ponytails or put clips in when it's sticking to your head from the heath?
hehe, I'd never do that, seems completely pointless to me. Vacation = ungroomed look! And upon my return, I go to the hairdresser.
Our kids have never spent a night away from us. Let me re-phrase that. We've never spent a night away from our kids. Notice the emphasis is on the Big Giraffe and me!
When our older son (OS) was younger, he did spend a night here and there with a friend which was wonderful. My mom also came to stay with him a couple times so that we could get away for the weekend. However, once we had two, it just became a lot more complicated, particularly because our friends all had at least two kids.
About a year ago I was talking with a friend who also has two kids and an out-of-state family about what he does to get away with his wife. He said that whenever his family comes to visit, they stay for at least a week so that there's plenty of time to spend with him and his wife and also time so that they can get away and the family can spend time with the kids. When he first told me about it, I thought it was a little..well...rude. I mean his family is presumably coming to see him. He pointed out that his family doesn't see it like that since they enjoy spending time alone with his kids.
I discussed this with a couple of other people that I know with out-of-state families and they said that they do the same thing. Who knew! Apparently not me. They also often extend their trips to visit family by a night or two so that they can stay in a hotel over by their families while their families get stuck babysitting the kids spend quality time with their kids.
I ran this by some family members and they seemed to really like this idea. The Big Giraffe and I were excited. We would finally be able to get away even if it is only to some dinky hotel in Worcester or the Chicago suburbs. However, just like with the best of plans, it just hasn't worked out. I think the longest we've had family visit us has been a couple of nights, and our visits to them do not last any longer. When that visiting time is jam packed with activities, there is little extra time available. It also becomes an added expense when we're already paying to travel to the Midwest at the same time.
We've had a few friends volunteer to watch our kids for us recently. For my birthday I told the Big Giraffe that what I would really like is to be able to go away for a night even if we stay here. There's a lot to be said for getting to stay in your quiet house. There were many emails between the Big Giraffe and my friends, a rumor of a few fights between the Big Giraffe and me, and we now have an official get away weekend! Sally HP will be watching the boys one night and my triathlon training buddy will be taking the boys the next night. Some family friends have also volunteered to watch the boys for...gasp here...several nights in a row so we can go away for our ten year anniversary!
Back in November my aunt had offered to let us use her time share in New York City for the New Year. Not the whole year, silly, from December 30th - January 2 at the Manhattan Club which is located just north of Times Square! This was right around when Merlin got sick though and so while we really appreciated the offer, we couldn't accept it. A little while after he passed away though I called her to see if it was still available. Those of you who know me in real life, particularly those of you who actually saw me this week, will not be surprised to learn that it was.
We got there on Wednesday, and the boys were beyond excited. After we checked into the hotel, we met Suzanne, her husband and another friend for dinner. After rejecting the opportunity to wait an hour for two disparate tables at a pricey but excellent diner called the Brooklyn Diner, we went to a different diner. I took great delight in eating gyros since I enjoy them so much and they're hard to find around here. Afterward we went back to the hotel where I fell asleep; the boys did continue to stay up incredibly late. I think I had a slight fever that night, as I was coming down with a cold and sore throat.
The next day we made it to the Brooklyn Diner for breakfast. As expected, the food was great, but it ended up being $100 for the four of us! I do have to say that we had been warned that the portions were huge and that we should have the boys share. The upside is that we got three meals worth of food and didn't have to buy breakfast the next day! The Big Giraffe and I traded off working out at the otherwise empty gym and then took the boys to FAO Schwartz. Being New Year's Eve and being FAO Schwartz made it super crowded. The boys were overwhelmed. We had told them they could each get a small souvenir. It was all just too much for YS and he couldn't make a selection. We told him he could get something at the M&M store.
After getting a snack, we took the boys to Rockerfeller Center to see the Christmas Tree. The Big Giraffe and I were quite taken with it. The boys were quite taken with the pigeons eating soft pretzels and couldn't have cared less about the tree. In fact when the Big Giraffe was trying to take their picture in front of the tree OS wanted to know if he could get his picture taken with the pigeons instead! Sadly though I said no and am now regretting it.
We watched the ice skaters at Rockerfeller Center and even saw a marriage proposal there (or two brazen people willing to lie to get the ice to themselves)! Then we headed off to the M&M store. Given that it was just past 4pm on New Year's Eve in an area filled with a captive audience of cold pedestrians who had almost eight hours to wait for the ball to drop, we were surprised to find the store closed. YS was pretty upset, until we stopped in a dinky souvenir shop where he fell in love with a stuffed animal frog. It was actually nicer than a collection of stuffed animals, including a frog, sewed to a toy boat that we had passed at FAO Schwartz, and cost a lot less so everyone was happy.
Later on that evening we got together with Suzanne and hubby and 3 other friends for a New Year's Eve dinner at a Turkish restaurant. Those of you who know me will not be surprised that I ordered gyros again! The food was great, and the conversation was even better. The boys both enjoyed the food and drawing pictures on multi-colored post-it notes. They became ecstatic on our way out when a couple gave OS a really nice velvet hat with streamers that lit up and YS a light up necklace/noise maker. We then headed back to the hotel. Three of us fell asleep just before midnight. The Big Giraffe made a literal eleventh hour (and forty-five minute) attempt to walk outside of the hotel in sight of the ball, but could not get an elevator. He watched the ball drop on TV in the room, same as he used to when he lived in New York City.
After breakfast the next morning, we headed to the Museum of Natural History, which also happens to be the Big Giraffe's favorite museum in the world. All I can say is that it is one large museum! We were there for several hours and probably only saw about a third of it. The boys had a great time, particularly with the taxidermy, ocean section, and dinosaurs. I do wish I had listened to myself and left earlier instead of trying to milk their attention span for all that it was worth. Our departure included temper tantrums.
Suzanne's hubby and YS made deep dish pizzas for everyone while Suzanne and I went to an Israeli cafe to get real hot chocolates with actual melted pieces of chocolate added to steamed milk The boys watched Disney's cartoon Robin Hood...three times over the evening. During the third showing after dinner, a few of us went to Magnolia Bakery to pickup cupcakes. It shouldn't come as any surprise that I was up for a large part of the night with horrible stomach pains.
After a final breakfast with friends, we took the boys to see a gingerbread house exhibit made up of creations from several famous bakeries. I am sure they were beautiful when first crafted, but they did not stand up well to a couple of weeks in a hot and dry hotel lobby. I would even go so far as to say that the one the boys made last week with a gingerbread house kit from last year looked better. Then we hit the road.
OS is named after a friend of ours who passed away at 30 from colon cancer. We had originally planned on driving to northwest New Jersey on our way home to visit his parents. After hearing about an alleged blizzard hitting New England, the Big Giraffe conducted an extensive analysis of weather.com's hourly predictions throughout our route. He concluded that the trip to New Jersey should be fine and that the trip home was predicted to be equally bad no matter when and from where we attempted it. If weather.com was right, we could stop at a hotel on the route for one more night. I had planned ahead and brought an extra change of clothing for both boys and me.
We not only had a great time in New Jersey (hey, stop snickering, I lived in the Garden State for two years and I like it) but we found a gap between internet and reality. Yes, there was a lot of wind, but there was no traffic and no snow in New Jersey, New York, or Connecticut. Wind blew a light dusting of already fallen snow into the windshield a few times in the last half hour as we approached home, and there was slush coating the road in the two minutes from leaving the highway through pulling into our snowy but passable driveway. Maybe it was part of their New Year's resolution, but the cats didn't even pee on our beds when we were gone!
A. Elliot's Lesson Learned: Bringing extra clothes is a great way to ensure an easy road trip, and choosing New York City and seeing friends is a great way to ensure fun at the destination.
Our trip with the boys was a success. Of course success was defined loosely as surviving the vacation with minimal hours of therapy needed later. In all seriousness though the boys did really well both on the airplane rides and in the car portion of the trip. I say "rides" because it turns out our direct flight was not so direct after all. It did a surprise stop in Philly that was not listed on our itinerary (or apparently anyone else's). Since we flew with a girls soccer team, we heard the complaints quite clearly from a dozen teenage girls and their coaches. At least we didn't have to deplane during our stop.
I knew it was going to be a good trip as soon as we left the Columbus Airport to drive into Chicago and I saw a sign. The skies parted and there it was clear as day..."Waffle House". Oh yeah, baby! We don't have those out here in MA. In fact we also don't have them in Chicago. When we went to my BIL's wedding in KY a few years ago, the Big Giraffe actually went on the Waffle House website and plugged in our route to find out where the Waffle Houses would be. I had never been to one before, but after hearing him and other friends rave about it, I really wanted to try one.
After civically performing my quality assurance test to ensure that Waffle House in Columbus was adequate, we drove into a whirl of really fun events, including the rehearsal dinner, the post-rehearsal party at a local amusement park and arcade, the actual wedding, and the subsequent family picnic. We even had fun in between the main events. For example, we took the kids to see Ice Age 3 with relatives who had three kids. We originally had expected a larger posse, when we planned to see Up. Once it turned out that the only conveniently scheduled movie was Ice Age 3, the overwhelming majority suddenly had something better to do. Coincidentally, none of them had children. I find that highly suspicious.
After the picnic, we went to visit my BIL and SIL. We all had a fabulous time. The boys were very impressed by their inground swimming pool. Unfortunately my dreams of being a rock star were dashed when they introduced us to Rock Band on the Wii. I totally stunk at it. I'll need to meet with a career counselor in the next week or so to discuss this.
As much as I enjoyed the vacation, there has been a more serious turn in life. A few days after coming back I learned that my mom is in the hospital with hemolytic anemia. I flew out for a few days to visit her and just came back yesterday. My thoughts remain with her.
A. Eliott's Lesson Learned: Success criteria for a family vacation are surviving the vacation with minimal hours of therapy needed later.
I'm sorry to hear about your mom? Which treatment does she need for that? Is she going to be ok? I hope she feels better soon!
I don't get rehearsal dinners? What's there to rehearse? the eating? the sitting? the serving of plates?
or is it the wedding ceremony that gets rehearsed? What fun is that to take all spontanity out of it? Who cares if someone walks a bit faster than the other or comes in the wrong order? (sorry my European opinion I guess...I'm always so confused when I read/hear/see stuff about rehearsing activities before a wedding).
A long long time ago, the Big Giraffe and I went on a couple of fabulous vacations including a spontaneous trip to Paris. Walking along the Seine hand in hand in hand, we looked forward to our future; to other fabulous vacations. Some day we vowed not only would we come back but we would also visit other places like London, Ireland, Hawaii and Glen New Hampshire. Alright definitely not the last one, but what can I say except that a lot has changed since we made that vow; by which I mean we became parents.
All joking aside, Storyland in New Hampshire is a really neat place. It's an amusement park for younger children. They also have different little houses and play structures based on nursery rhymes. Basically if you can walk, you can go on about 90% of the rides there. Unlike kiddie sections in larger amusement parks, the rides are made for parents to be able to go on them too. Depending on your feeling on amusement parks that can be a good or a bad thing! I should add that doesn't mean that the seats are much larger. It's just like Magic Kingdom where it doesn't matter if you're a newborn or a hundred, you can all go on the Winnie the Pooh ride or ride on Dumbo. The only difference is at Storyland you are flying on a wooden shoe. My kids fail to understand why this continues to crack me up.
The Big Giraffe and I took the boys this weekend to Storyland. They had a great time. We did too. I also solved one big parenting mystery. I wondered why the parents who were standing outside certain rides taking pictures looked so happy. At first I thought it was because they were happy their kids were having so much fun. Or how you smile at kids to get them to smile for a picture. It's sort of a reflex. Then I got on the Whirling Whales. Storyland has a policy where if anyone doesn't like the ride, they just give the thumbs down sign and the attendent stops the ride. Let me just say that I seriously considered taking them up on their offer*! I asked the attendant at the end if parents had ever done the thumbs down sign for themselves and not suprisingly they have.
That's when it dawned on me why those parents outside the ride looked so happy. They had escaped! They had suckered their partner into taking the kids on the ride ! During the Tilting Turtles ride, I too was a happy parents taking photos of the Big Giraffe and the boys. Guess who the sucker was?
Sunday we went to Santa's Village. Much like how long ago the Big Giraffe and I took a Ferris wheel to see the Seine, this time we took a Ferris wheel to see Jefferson, New Hampshire. Practically the same thing, right? The boys really enjoyed Santa's Village and the Big Giraffe and I did as well. Monday we went back to Storyland.
This morning the boys were incredibly crabby. After such a busy weekend, we kind of expected it. We knew we were playing with fire. Of course now that one parenting mystery is solved, I'm left with another. Why is it that YS takes so long to take off his shoes that I've gotten about two new gray hairs in that time span yet in the three seconds it takes for the barista to hand me a cup of coffee this morning (hey I'm tired too!) YS managed take off his shoes and socks in a temper tantrum? Guess who the sucker is now?
*For the record, I subsequently went on the Whirling Whales a few more times without getting sick. I was a little nervous there because I have big plans for the boys and I to go on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith when we go to Disney in a couple years.
Professional Mom of two cats, a dog, an ant farm, and oh yeah...two boys: a 6 year old and a 3 year old. Also found in my house is my husband who is known on this blog as The Big Giraffe.
For those of us who didn't get an instruction manual with our babies and for whom parenting hasn't always gone as planned. On a more serious note this blog is about supporting a woman's ability to make her own choices about parenting including the choice, for whatever reason, to bottle feed her babies formula.
so now you must be in Aruba....Great!!!! enjoy the time off
I'm truly amased though that you go to the hairdresser before a vacation
so before it's going to bleach by sun & sea? before it's getting sweaty and sandy and salty each day? And you'll make it shorter so you can't make ponytails or put clips in when it's sticking to your head from the heath?
hehe, I'd never do that, seems completely pointless to me. Vacation = ungroomed look! And upon my return, I go to the hairdresser.