Vacation 2010, Part Five

Something pretty amazing happened a few days before Liam's second birthday.

Up until a couple weeks ago, I was still putting Liam to sleep at night with a bottle and a good fifteen minutes of cuddling in the nursery rocking chair. It was kind of our dirty little secret as most kids are supposed to be off the bottle and putting themselves to sleep by this age. I don't even have a good excuse except to admit that I've been lazy and that he's growing up so fast that I was in no hurry for the last of the 'baby stuff' to be over with.

One night, in the beginning of August, I sat myself down in the rocker with Liam on my lap and a bottle in my hand. I was completely stunned as he pushed my arm aside and began climbing into the crib on his own. He still wanted me to hang out while he fell asleep, but he had no interest in the bottle or the cuddling. I took this as a pretty obvious cue and we've been bottle free ever since. I can only hope potty training will be this easy.

We were pretty excited about this milestone being achieved before our vacation. We figured that Liam just might be big enough to share a room with his big brother, rather than bunk on an air mattress on the floor of our room, which was the original plan.

Here are Liam's digs for these two weeks:

We pushed his bed against the wall (unfortunately couldn't help the mirrored closet doors) and we attached the side bar that we had originally used on Will's bed at home. So this vacation is pretty much a crash course in the "big boy bed". In the beginning, there were some sleepless nights. It's taken about a week, and I think he's finally adjusted. Once we get home, there will be a toddler bed in place of his old crib.

This growing up stuff really does happen overnight.

Speaking of overnight, we've been barricading the front door to the condo.

The floor plan of the condo has the kids' room (with the two twin beds) in the front of the unit, right next to the front door. You can see the kids' room to the right of the front door in the above picture.

Normally, I'm the crazy one. The one that has fears that my kids are going to climb out the window or get strangled in the mini blinds or drown in the dishwasher. But even Bill was concerned that the kids might try and escape. Both of them have shown that they are capable of unlocking and opening the door. I should also mention that our door is right next to the elevator, which both of them can also operate. And did I mention the alligators that are practically living right next door? Right. So, we're barricading. End of story.

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The rain continued into the second day of vacation. We stayed low key and hung out here, which was just fine by the boys. They absolutely love this place.

Here are some of their favorite things.

First of all, Will has his very own 'workspace'. It's a great big desk facing out over the alligators and turtles. The top of the desk is a big lid that opens up and the desk itself houses all of his skateboards and Legos and Transformers and army guys.

I'm not sure exactly what is going on here, but it all looks very important...

Our refrigerator at home has a very tight seal. The one here does not. Therefore Liam can open this one. He opens it like five hundred times a day. Here he is, at six-thirty in the morning, helping me with breakfast.

So what's on the menu, Liam? Hot dogs and chocolate sauce? I'm pretty laid back when it comes to nutrition, but even this is a little too extreme for me.

Liam is also enjoying the fact that most of the cabinets are empty, giving him plenty of space to hide.

I know. It's a bathroom and it took me almost a solid week to get over the gross factor. But it's clean and this morning he took some books in there and he was busy for almost fifteen minutes. Typical guy.

They're loving the glass dining room table, which incidentally is IMPOSSIBLE to keep clean. I highly recommend not buying one for your home.

If you're wondering what's on Bill's plate, it's called a "Low Country Boil". That's shrimp, sausage, potatoes, hush puppies and corn on the cob. All thrown together. Not my thing, but he loved it. The resort was cooking them downstairs by the pool. Here's what it looked like when he brought it up.

He loved it. Call me crazy, but that's just not appetizing to me. And the smells? Oy.

I almost had a panic attack when I discovered that the cable company here doesn't carry Nick Jr. They have regular Nickelodeon and all the Disney channels, though. Will discovered "Phineas and Ferb" this week. I'm not sure if this is or is not a good thing. He does look comfy though. I think he prefers this single couch to the monster sectional we have at home. Something about not having to share with all of us...

And lastly, I give you... the shower stall.

Apparently, big, important and hilarious things happen in the shower stall. I lifted my camera overhead and snapped this pic...

I'm not sure what's going on. I'm also not sure what's all over Liam's shirt.

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We did venture out to the pool while it was drizzling. This is what the pool looks like when it's raining. We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

And here are some other pool snaps:

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Later on, it did clear enough for us to make our nightly pilgrimage for ice cream.

We also stopped at the beach, which was crowded with vacationers who had the same idea that we did-- trying to make the most of a mostly rainy day. It was pretty much a bust.

We arrived to the sights and sounds of kids crying and running out of the water. Jellyfish. Nothing says "dive right in", like the screams and tears of little children as they come limping out of the water. I only wish I had a shot of my kids' faces. Total looks of horror.

Here I am trying to convince Liam to at least get his feet wet. Not much luck.

Thankfully, we've been to the beach a couple times since and the jellyfish have mostly stayed away. I wish I could say the same for the rain.

Vacation 2010, Part Four

Sunday was technically our first full day of vacation.

Officially, we kicked it off with a bike ride.

Unofficially, I kicked it off by getting up with Liam three or four times after two in the morning and then finally caving and bringing him into our bed.

He gave me my final wake-up call at 6 am. And then Will came stumbling out of his room about a half-hour later. Bill woke sometime after that. Then came breakfast and sunscreen and so forth. We were finally off for our bike ride at about 10 am.

We had built up the anticipation for this ride. In all previous years, we had rented Will a "kiddie cart" where he was seated in a little cart that was attached to the back of our bikes. This year we decided to get him a "tag along". When attached, this basically creates a bicycle-built-for-two.

Two days before we arrived, when we would bring it up, he would say that he didn't want to try it. We reassured him and changed the subject.

The day we arrived, when we would bring it up, he would whine that he didn't want to try it. We reassured him and changed the subject.

The day of the ride, as we were preparing to go, he was crying that HE DIDN'T WANT TO TRY IT. Enter the tears and the stomping and the hyper-ventilating. We skipped the whole reassuring spiel and went straight to bribing him with everything we could think of. We couldn't exactly change the subject as we were headed outside to, you know, ride bikes.

Four hours into vacation and already a meltdown? At this point, I was ready to call the rental company. Bye-bye tag along. Hello kiddie cart. In a case like this, I am generally more apt to let Will take the lead. The thought of forcing him outside his comfort zone is not a pleasant one. I'll try and convince him verbally. Give him the "big-boy argument". List all the benefits of learning to ride a bike. You don't want to try it? Are you sure? Okay. No problem. You'll do it when you're ready. Maybe next year. Maybe when you're twenty. Whatever.

But then, in the back of my head, is this voice. Johnny from his pre-K class is already riding a bike... with no training wheels. He should be riding a bike. You're not going to make him ride a bike? Within two to three years, all the kids will be riding their cool bikes and yours will still be riding his Diego tricycle. You are screwing this one up big time. When he's like fifteen, he's going to hate you for not making him ride this damn bike...

Then Bill comes to the rescue. In a situation like this, he just doesn't take no for an answer.

Will can pull out all the whining and tears and hysterics and Bill stands his ground. Now, if you're anything like me, you'd be wincing through this. And if you didn't know Bill, and what a great dad he is, you'd be calling this parenting-style grade-A-assholery. It wasn't pretty, but he got him on that bike.

And you know what? He freaking loves it.

Riding this bike. Going down water slides. Jumping off diving boards. Riding on roller coasters. Eating weird things like cow tongue. These are accomplishments that have given Will huge swells of pride and accomplishment. And they have really become some of his most favorite activities (minus the cow tongue). These are things that, in the beginning, he was terrified of and swore he would never try.

Who knows if we're doing it right? Forcing him to try new things. Sometimes, we're just looking at each other clueless. Trying to make the decision that will cause the least amount of short and long-term damage. But in this particular case, I am loving the outcome.

Anyone know the best way to defog a lens when going from

68 degrees of AC to 98 degrees and intense humidity?

These foggy pics drive me nuts.

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After our bike ride, we hit these fountains outside the public beach.

This just might be the best cell phone pic I will ever take.

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Afterwards, we hung by the pool for a while and then headed inside for lunch and naps. By the time the kids woke up, there was a huge storm sitting over our area. Lightening, thunder and pouring rain. We spent the entire afternoon inside. I won't bore you with the particulars. This was pretty much it...

Planning on at least a little rain in the next two weeks, we packed tons of toys and art supplies. The kids were more than happy to relax and play in the AC for a few hours. And Bill didn't seem to mind a solid line up of programming from ESPN and the Discovery/History Channel.

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We weren't about to let a little rain keep up from our nightly ice cream ritual, so we kept our eyes on the radar and the skies. During a precious window of dryness, we took a 5-minute bike ride up to the local ice cream shop.

It's truly amazing how a child who refuses to use a spoon for applesauce or yogurt will rise to the occasion when presented with a big cup of chocolate ice cream. He sat on that bench for a good twenty minutes until every last bit of that ice cream was either in his mouth, on his chin or down his shirt. Clearly, Liam's been holding out on us.

Vacation 2010, Part Three

I forgot about the work involved with watching a two-year-old at the pool.

On the first night here, after being in the car all day and then grocery shopping, we decided to order a pizza and bring it down to the pool. It was a little after eight, and just getting dark, when we made it down there. We rationalized keeping them up late with the fact that they had been couped up in a car for almost two days.

There are three pools in our complex, but there's a photo of the one we were swimming in at left. There are no stairs, just a slightly inclined ramp that leads in and out of the shallow end. (I snapped this picture earlier today, but normally people don't really camp out there like these ladies are doing.) Anyway, I stayed in the low end with Liam and Bill headed to the deeper end with Will.

Liam's not really much of a fish. I mean, he doesn't hate the water or anything. But he'd much prefer to be running circles around the pool rather than swimming in it. The inclined ramp at the shallow end gave him the perfect exit strategy. We'd head into the pool with me holding his hand. He'd then demand independence by whining-- and when that didn't work, screaming. (I'm such a sucker for the screaming thing.) I'd drop his hand and he'd pretend to be satisfied for a few moments, but once I sat down in the water or turned my head for a second, he was off.

Out of the pool. Heading fast towards the deep end or standing clumsily on the flimsy lounge chairs or stealing some guy's flip-flops or on his stomach trying to lower himself into the nearby jacuzzi. In the water. Out of the water. In the water. Out of the water. Chase. Chase. Chase. Me calling out, ineffectually and like a crazy person, "No running...", "No, Liam...", "Come here, Liam..." or my personal fave, "Boo boo's, Liam, BOO BOO's..." Him smiling and laughing and completely unfazed. That is, until he caught sight of his older brother who was jumping in the pool on the other end.

Jumping in?! Oh, I could just see the wheels turning in his little head. To his credit, he showed some serious toddler intellect when he headed for the section marked "1-foot". He yelled out, in toddler-ese, "To infinity... and beyond!" and made the leap. I was right there. Saying no at first and then realizing I was just wasting my time. Each time he jumped, I offered my hand-- and each time, I was met with a "NO!" I was spotting him the entire time, but it was still giving me serious anxiety.

Will had seen us from across the pool. And for those of you who don't already know, Will just thrives on toddler chaos. One of the reasons he loves having a little brother is that he feels that it gives him the license to act like a two-year-old and he just couldn't wait to join the party.

So now, they're jumping in together. And when that got boring, Will started climbing on me. And if I didn't know better, I'd suspect that the two of them were in cahoots because it gave Liam the perfect opportunity to escape again. So now I'm chasing after a two-year-old and dragging a five-year-old behind me. The two of them are laughing hysterically and energy-wise they are just feeding off each other. Ramping each other up more and more by the minute.

So now I'm having visions of someone slipping on the cement. Or falling into the deep end. Or cracking their head open on the side of the pool. Or even worse, the trifecta of slipping on the cement and hitting their head and falling into the deep end. And then it hits me. Where is Bill?

Okay, so Bill will deny this I am sure. But I assure you that I am not lying when I tell you that he was in the deep end. Chest deep in water. Playing with Liam's plastic blue shark. The one that squirts water like a bath toy. He was just floating there, squirting Mr. Sharky and all like "la la la la la la la la la la...". And then, he looked up and caught my glance for just a second.

Anyone who's been married long enough with a kid or two knows the look I am talking about. It's the "I am seriously about to lose my shit and if you want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem then you're going to need to step it up real quick" look.

Within minutes, we were drying off and eating our pizza.

There's a learning curve to traveling with kids. I don't know why I continue to forget.

Hey! Great idea, honey! Let's take our over-tired, over-stimulated, under-nourished kids to the big, giant pool in the dark. Wow. That's just going to work out awesome!

And it was totally my idea. It wasn't the kids' fault and it wasn't Bill's fault. (Although, that Mr. Sharky story is priceless.)

We've been here for four days and we've had some really great times at the pools since that first night. Will is getting to be a great swimmer-- jumping in, surfacing and swimming back to the wall on his own. And Liam is getting more and more used to the water. His confidence is growing and he's been staying in the pool for longer periods of time. (Well, like five minutes at a time, but you know, I'll take it.)

They're swimming, smiling and happy. And 85% of the time they're not driving us crazy. Just as long as we remember to keep them well-rested and well-fed. Funny how that works.

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So we got back to the condo and put the kids to bed. We popped open a giant bottle of wine and sat down on the couch. "The 40-year-old Virgin" was on television. We sat there, cuddling together. Relaxing and feeling the wine take the edges of two days of driving and kid-juggling. Catherine Keener and Steve Carrell were just getting into their big argument near the end of the movie and my eyes were getting heavy.

Bill straightened and stood up, forcing me to sit up on my own. "Are you coming to bed?", he asked as he headed towards our room.

Now there's, "Are you coming to bed?" and then there's "Are you coming to bed?". After spending one night packing and another night in separate hotel room beds with kids, this was quite clearly the latter.

"Yes, just a second...", I said as I rubbed my eyes and pointed to my glass of wine that was still half-full. I took a sip of wine and tried to focus on the television. I was getting up. In just a minute. The wine was acting like a tranquilizer now.

The next thing I know, I was waking up face-down on the couch almost two-hours later.

Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap.

The lights were still on. Some cheesy infomercial was playing on the television.

I straightened up and wiped the drool from the side of my face. I put my glass on top of the television and stuck my head in our room. Our television was on. ESPN was spewing out the latest word on Brett Farve and Tiger Woods. Bill was sleeping.

We have a good relationship, Bill and I. But each of us has their own pet peeves or "buttons". For example, I hate it when Bill leaves his shoes under the coffee table. Or when he leaves the opened mail scattered all over the house. Or when he comes home late without calling. Those are some of my buttons.

I have to say that Bill is really much more easy going. There are some things I do that get under his skin, but this is numero uno. I fall asleep on the couch all the time and it drives him insane. And it's not like I'm avoiding him or anything. I am 100% in love with him and completely attracted to him in every way. It's just that, at the end of the day, I am so completely exhausted that I can hardly move.

Being that we were heading into the first day of vacation, I definitely wanted to make things right. I crept into the room and before getting into bed I turned the digital clock around so that the time was facing backwards. ESPN was still blaring and really though, isn't it the same thing over and over again? I slipped into bed beside him and snuggled up next to him.

"Oh, Sweetie...", I said in a disappointed tone, "... you fell asleep?" Long sigh.

"Mmmmm... Wha..?" He was disoriented and I could see him searching for the clock in the darkness. I flipped off the television and distracted him with some particularities that are best left unshared here.

All I have to say is, crisis averted. He woke up the next morning a happy man. I even let him sleep in while I got up with the kids.

So, to recap, I'm keeping the kids well-rested and happy and the huz well-rested and happy. And as for me, I'm laying off the wine and sticking to the hard stuff for the rest of the trip.

Vacation 2010, Part Two

We've been vacationing here for the last eight years.

While it might be fun to see new places each year, I find it comforting to go somewhere so familiar. We stay in the same place. We swim in the same pools. We make camp at the same beach. We eat ice cream at the same shops. We almost take the same vacation every year, except not exactly. Because vacationing as honeymooners is just a tad different than vacationing with two boys age five and two. Oh, just a tad.

So we first stopped here as honeymooners. Our honeymoon was officially a 7-day cruise out of Florida, but we had decided to stretch it out by leisurely driving down the coast and stopping at a few random places along the way. None of it was mapped out or planned.

We stopped early in South Carolina and were offered a free night's stay and dinner at a local resort. The only catch was that we would have to sit through a one-hour timeshare meeting. So we went and we stayed and we loved it. The next day, we were matched with some salesguy who gave us free coffee and a tour and must have been shooting some serious rainbows out of his ass because we were hooked. Two grown adults, with math degrees no less, signed over a huge chunk of wedding booty and were the proud owners of a brand new timeshare.

And the following year, we came and still loved it. We owned a huge place (for the week, anyway). We brought family and friends and they loved it. And the next year, the same.

Two years in and still loving it, we were finally doing the math. We would eventually own the place (for the week, anyway) after five more years of monthly payments... but the maintenance fee was out of control. We realized that we could rent the very same (or similar) place and pay much less. Thankfully, we were able to unload the timeshare without taking too much of a hit. And luckily, we're currently still renting from year to year in the very same place.

Here are some shots of our place this year. It has three bedrooms and three bathrooms and it looks exactly the same as the unit we rented last year.

Dining room/living room area.

Balcony out the door to the left.

Kitchen with the laundry room behind it.

Love the breakfast bar and the open floor plan.

View from the balcony.

There's a big bridge over a huge pond stocked with alligators and turtles.

I used to think that the alligators and turtles coexisted peacefully.

But after eight years, we finally saw an alligator eat a turtle.

Shell and everything. Fast and loud and well, crunchy.

Everyone on the bringe was like, "ewwwww" and "awhhhhh".

People were covering their kids eyes. Babies were crying. Real drama.

Will's take: "It was cool... and sad."

Liam's take: "Turrrrdle..."

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So same vacation. Except a little different every year. Here's an example of that.

Last year on a luggage cart.

This year, on a luggage cart. (Take one.)

This year, on a luggage cart. (I lost count.)

You can only beg your kids to smile and look this way and stop doing that with your hands and "if you do this then I'll give you M&M's" so much.

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Besides checking in and unloading the car, one of the first things we always do is grocery shopping. Throughout the last eight years, we've evolved quite a bit. In the beginning, we ate just about every meal out. And I'm not going to lie. That was pretty awesome.

But hitting restaurants with two little kids, after a long day at the beach or the pool? That's a recipe for disaster and sure to be an epic waste of money.

Nowadays, we almost never go out. We just stock up on the essentials.

Parenting FAIL, I know, I KNOW.

We're not usually this bad, but we like to keep it simple on vacation.

We do have some fresh fruit and veggies going on.

See! There's a pineapple.

Three things in this photo I will not accept responsibility for are:

Reese's cereal (gross)

Chef Boyardee (really gross)

Canned Cheese Spray (off the freaking charts gross)

These were Bill's picks, I assure you.

Vacation 2010, Part One

We left the hoop.

So after we partied, I packed. And packed. And packed.

Because traveling over 800 miles with two little kids requires a lot of stuff. And a lot of stuff requires a lot of... well... packing.

On Thursday night, Bill kept saying things like, "We're going to be in the car by 6 am" and "I'm setting the alarm for 5:30 am" and "If we can get an early start, we'll miss all that traffic." It sounded good on paper, but it should be noted that he was on the couch watching tv and I was in the next room, still packing. We did manage to make it to bed by midnight and five and a half hours of sleep seemed pretty reasonable. I've done far more with far less and I was on board with the early wake-up call.

Then at about 12:20 or so, Liam woke up crying. So I went in, rubbed his back, stayed a few minutes-- hung over the crib and then dropped to my knees and crawled out of the room. (This is the routine. Don't judge. It works.) And then, at about 1 am, he woke again. And then again, at about 1:45 am. Finally, at some point after two, I surrendered to the couch with my boy and his blanket and his stuffed Wubbzy. He was still waking up every so often, but getting him back to sleep here required less of a "routine".

We ended up pulling out of the driveway at 7:58 am. Which, considering the sleep issues, was an accomplishment.

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Why me?! Why me?!

During last year's road trip, Liam got a horrible virus. We were driving to Florida and somewhere around Virgina, he developed a really high fever and some serious diarrhea*. He was miserable and inconsolable. We spent some time in an ER in Savannah. Fluke thing, right?

Here we are, one year later, and it turns out that Liam is cutting his molars. Leading up to the trip, he was having trouble sleeping, he was drooling and he had the worst runny nose ever. His fingers were perpetually in the back of his mouth and he just didn't seem himself. The molars really didn't occur to me until Friday morning, as we were on our way. Liam was chewing on a munchkin and he screamed out in pain and started crying.

He wasn't able to eat much on the trip, but that didn't stop him from trying. He'd cry and beg for food, put it in his mouth, and then two seconds later he'd be screaming from the pain. This happened over and over and over. This kid's got the memory of a goldfish, I swear. We tried getting foods that were soft and dosing him regularly with recalled Motrin and Tylenol. In a point of desperation, we even stopped off at a pharmacy in Virginia for some Anbesol. In a two-on-one wrestling match, we ended up numbing his entire mouth in an effort to get to the molars. And, from the pitch of the screams, it turns out that feeling your entire mouth go numb might actually be more traumatic than the pain of teething. Go figure.

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Road Trip!!! Woo-hoo!!!

So throughout the 800-mile trip, I kept saying things aloud like: "Hey, this isn't so bad.", "Liam is doing pretty well considering." and "This isn't like we planned, but I'm still having fun." Part of my optimism was an effort to keep Bill's spirits up, but in all seriousness, it was good.

Regardless of the challenges involved with two kids and such a long trip, I love road trips. The conversations, the lack of distractions, the music, the scenery, the time spent as a family. Love, love, love, love, love.

So yes, Liam cried a lot and only slept a little. And yes, there was so much traffic that Virginia took twice as long as it should have. And yes, I practically overdosed on coffee and smelly rest stops, but all in all, it was good.

We played games like "I Spy" and "20 Questions". We uploaded silly trivia quizzes on my phone. We took turns telling our favorite movie, foods, etc. We told stories and silly jokes. We jumped on the beds, swam in the pool and made a scene at the free breakfast bar at the Super 8 hotel in Smithfield, North Carolina.

The super-long road trip has been a staple in our summer plans for the last nine years and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

* I've been a mom for five years and I'm still spell-checking the word diarrhea. WTH.

Birthday 2010

Well, it's official. I have a five-year-old and a two-year-old.

In just the last week, we've celebrated in six different ways.

The last seven days have been filled with cupcake baking, present wrapping, house decorating and birthday song singing. It's taken a few days, but things are finally getting back to normal.

The decorations have been packed away and the cupcakes have been eaten. The toys have been stripped from their twisty-tied-death-grip packaging and we've finally figured out a place for just about all of them.

This is just a brief recap of the madness that was Operation Birthday 2010.

We kicked things off with a party for Will at a local place that specializes in kids' parties with slides and inflatables. For about the cost of a month's worth of groceries, we threw a 90-minute party where everyone had their fill of jumping, bouncing and sliding. The kids feasted on cold pizza, fruit punch and ice cream cake. Will got to sit on his very own inflatable throne and he particularly enjoyed hurling the goodie bags at his friends and yelling, "THANK YOU FOR COMING!".

Before the actual day, Liam celebrated his second birthday at camp with his new friends. He chose the theme of "BUZZ!" for his cupcakes-- which is two-speak for Toy Story.

Liam's birthday was on the 6th and we celebrated with a small party at home for our foursome. We swam and dined on hot dogs cut up into little circles, french fries and lots of ketchup. As per tradition, we decorated the corner of our dining room...

And ate more cupcakes...

Liam got some great gifts. So great, in fact, that Will immediately started lecturing all of us on the importance of sharing. Then, he promptly took over as Liam looked on.

Will's birthday was on the seventh and he was thrilled that it fell on a weekend. We had told him that he could be in charge for the day, and he reminded us of this no less than two hundred times. We ate his favorites-- chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and ravioli for dinner-- and we spent the majority of the day at Hurricane Harbor. Bill and I won a small victory when we were able to persuade the birthday boy to take a short nap. This 'short nap' lasted about three hours and enabled us to do this...

And this...

The next day, we had grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins over for a bigger family party. And of course, more cupcakes. Like last year, we tried to get a decent family birthday photo. We are now officially 0 for 2.

Last year.

This year.

The last stop on the birthday express was cupcakes for Will's friends at camp. While making another batch of cupcakes sounded awfully tempting, I ended up ordering some cookie cups from Mrs. Field's. With the exception of the price, they were awesome and I'm definitely going to learn how to make them for next year.

So that was it. Just like this summer and these last few years, these birthdays came and went in a flash. This picture, in particular, makes me wonder where the time has gone.

But whenever I get misty-eyed and nostalgic for the time gone by, I am reminded that there are plenty of adventures ahead.

I have a feeling five and two will definitely keep me on my toes.

Behind the Scenes

This is the first time I've had a chance to sit down and relax today. And guess what. It's tomorrow.

In the past forty-eight hours, we've celebrated two birthdays. One for Liam, who turned two on Friday. And one for Will, who turned five on Saturday.

At my first OB appointment, when I was pregnant with Liam, I knew his due date would be near Will's birthday. It turned out that, due to my planned C-section, I had the option to have Liam on Will's birthday. They could be born exactly three years apart and always share the same birthday.

I thought that this was an awesome idea. Two brothers, one birthday. How very cool. Right?

Wrong.

From my husband to my family to my friends, not one single person was in agreement. I got some polite mmm-hmms and nods, but people mostly looked at me like I was crazy. The boys each needed their own special day. It wouldn't be fair to make them share. They deserved their very own birthdays.

I didn't see the sharing as such a big deal. But being the independent thinker that I am, I scheduled my c-section on August 6th-- the day before Will's birthday.

So now my boys have 'their own special days' and I run around like an insane person throughout the first week of August.

The kids celebrate their birthdays on two different days at camp. We have two different birthday parties here at home for our family of four. And then, we have one big family party for grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins.

And even though we keep things pretty low key, there's a pretty good amount of work involved in putting all of this together.

I'll be recapping the week of a thousand cupcakes in a future post. But in the meantime, here are some 'behind the scenes' baking photos...

Mesmerized by the Kitchen-Aid mixer than gets

pulled out of the cabinet like four times a year.

Will digs in as Liam is still mesmerized by the mixer.

"What's this?"

Liam turns his attention to the wire beater.

Liam carefully studies his big brother.

But why lick the batter when you can instead fling it all

over the kitchen? A true independent thinker, people.

"You gonna eat that?"

Will is not about to let any batter go to waste.

Liam finally gives it a try as Will cleans the plate.

Is this the look of a kid who needs his own special day or what?

Sabotage

I had a David Banner moment on Tuesday.

For those of you scratching your heads, David Banner was the fugitive scientist who suffered the curse of transforming into The Incredible Hulk when subjected to extreme emotional stress. After wreaking massive destruction and chaos, Dr. Banner sits in an alley with his head in his hands. He has only a vague recollection of what happened. His clothes are tattered and he is filled with regret.

The day before was filled with activity. We spent the entire Monday at the beach and the entire night at a BBQ. The kids went to bed later than usual on Monday and I stayed up late into the night to make a batch of cupcakes for Liam's birthday, which was to be celebrated the next day at camp.

Despite my lack of sleep the previous night, Tuesday morning was actually going according to plan. I dropped off the kids. I did my five-mile run. I ran some errands. I picked the kids up. I walked in the door. That's where it all fell apart.

Our beach bags, from Monday's day trip, were sitting on the table. Another set of bags, from Monday night's swim and BBQ, were in the kitchen. The kids lunch bags and backpacks from camp were lying on the floor, which seemed to be covered in a thin layer of beach sand. There were dishes in the sink and the countertops were littered with junk mail and papers. And toys, as usual, were everywhere.

The kids were full of energy. Will was following me around the house, wanting help with his Transformers and his racetrack and his Legos. Meanwhile, Liam was following Will around the house, generously "offering" his help with all of these things. From time to time, Liam would get a hold of a track or a robot and all hell would break loose.

It was almost 1 pm. Bill would be home at four. The plan was to leave for on overnight trip to PA shortly thereafter. We were supposed to be packed and ready to head out.

I hadn't eaten since before my run. I was exhausted and I was overwhelmed.

My memory of what happened next is foggy at best.

I briefly distracted the kids and put the baby gate in the kitchen doorway. Alone at last, in what can only be described as Hulk-like behavior, I ate my way through two and a half of the three remaining cupcakes.

I stared down at the plate. All that remained were smooshed cupcake liners, fallen sprinkles and a few drops of icing.

As I started to regain my sanity, I wiped my face with a napkin and made a hot cup of coffee. I hopped the gate, sat in the playroom with the kids and sipped my coffee-- trying to get the thick taste of frosting to dissipate. I played and transformed and built and picked up. I was doing the calorie math-- the bagel from this morning, the run, the cupcakes. I put the boys down for naps and set about cleaning and unpacking and packing. Should I eat lunch on top of the cupcakes or just skip it, I wondered? In the meantime, I found a piece of candy in the pocket of a duffell bag and ate it without thinking. Not incredibly suprising, I know.

As my energy began to fail me, I made another cup of coffee.

Caffeine and sugar. Lack of real food and decent sleep. Too much to do. A recipe for disaster that I know all too well.

As an adult and as a parent of two children, I wonder when will I learn? When will I learn not to over schedule? When will I learn to manage my time so that I can get a decent amount of sleep at night? When will I learn to set aside time to prepare and eat healthy food, rather than reach for whatever is easy and tastes good? When will I learn not to sabotage myself?