+ 1 - 5 | § ¶Today
This morning i got to go out for breakfast with my mom, all by myself, without kids. It has been AGES since i got to go out with her, and the Wednesday between our birthdays seems like the perfect time to get to go out together. Hurrah!
Zane loves this old wagon. He pulls it all over the backyard. We were using it as a kind of wheelbarrow substitute, but i guess it does make a better kid's toy, after all.
The kids and i went to the library this afternoon. We got a ton of books (as we were leaving, a lady walking in was telling her kids, "You can each get two books," and i almost laughed. Because in my bag i had about 7 books for Houston alone). Houston is into BOOK books. No more of this beginner reading stuff. On the way there, he requested some books by Jonathan Rand. Jonathan Rand came to Houston's school last week, which is fine and all, but the books? Eeeuch! Not what i would have chosen for him. So i let him get ONE of those, and then loaded him up with books like The Boxcar Children, a Hardy Boys book, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid. I am now trying to remember what other books i should recommend to him.
When we were leaving, Houston asked if they could "run around in there for a few minutes." Um....Sure? So they did. Ran and jumped and climbed and played Follow the Leader and bounced off the walls. Kids really do have boundless energy, don't they?
+ 5 - 0 | § ¶Naps
Recently i've been trying to decide what to do about Zane and naps. See, when i put him down for a nap, he will almost always sleep. I'm not sure how long it takes him to fall asleep always, but i know that often times he will be in bed quietly for up to 4 hours. Four hours is a REALLY LONG time. Not only does that mean that he's out of commission for 4 hours in the middle of the day, which means that *i* cannot go out during that time, but it also means that he is waking up really early in the morning and going to sleep late at night.
I have tried waking him up after a shorter nap, but - 1. I don't know exactly how long it takes him to fall asleep, so i might be waking him up 15 minutes after he falls asleep, and 2. Once he naps, he suffers the same effects of late to sleep and early to rise. So that's not really helpful.
When he doesn't nap, he's generally totally fine. He's exhausted by bedtime and usually falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, which is good. But he's not noticeably crankier or anything during the day. MOST of the time.
And then there's days like today, when he slowly got more and more fragile, until he finally curled up on my lap at about 2:00 and fell asleep. THIS from the child who has rarely fallen asleep anywhere but in his bed. So he was obviously exhausted. Poor little guy. He's also taken to falling asleep in his carseat during short car trips in the late afternoon.
Probably i'm going to drop naps, because as we come into summer, it's just too nice out to have to work around a long nap in the middle of the day. It's nice to be able to go out and do something without having that nap time looming over us. Hopefully we can move wake-up time to a wee bit later when we don't have to get up for school, and that will help. But i also imagine that there are going to be days when Zane just kind of insists on having a nap. And that's ok too.
+ 2 - 3 | § ¶Home Improvements
For a couple of years now, we've had a compost pile, which is great and all, but ... it was literally just a pile of compost back in the farthest corner of our yard, behind our van. Like this. It was pretty ugly and Graham would occasionally hunt around in there for food, and ... yeah. I just wanted to actually contain the compost better. So we bought some "poultry netting" (because apparently the term "chicken wire" is offensive to chickens?), and built a little compost bin, which looks SO much better. Hurrah! My plan is to use the area next to the fence as part of our vegetable garden this summer, since that is the most sunny spot in our yard.
Speaking of our house.... It was originally built back in 1899, and when the original people built it, they used high-quality stuff. Oak floors, fancy window moldings, etc. Everything is kind of wonky and slope-y, but i guess that's kind of what you expect with an old house. They did their best. But in the 100 years that the house was owned by people that were NOT the original builders or us, there were some really un-handy handymen who lived in or worked in this house. There have been plenty of examples of things that have been fixed or added on REALLY BADLY, but the most recent example is our front door.
We decided to change the locks, see. Who knew that changing the locks meant that we would first have to take the entire door off its hinges, fix the frame, make the door half an inch narrower, and THEN do the work necessary for the locks? CRAZY! (Not that, technically, that was all necessary to the locks, but the door was messed up enough to make it nearly necessary. And it was getting to the point that we could barely close the door, and if we did close it, we'd practically break our keys trying to lock it.)
So we are slowly, every so slowly, fixing up our poor old house.
+ 4 - 1 | § ¶Happy Birthday, Mom!
Today was my mom's birthday, and it coincidentally landed on a Sunday, which meant that we all got to celebrate together! We ate cake-like stuff and sang "Happy Birthday" and generally just enjoyed each other's company. Katrina drew all over her face, Zane leaked snot and grossed everyone out. It was a typical kind of Sunday. But with more cake.
Speaking of my mom and her birthday.... The year she was born was kind of an amazing year. Communism was becoming a new, huge fear. The term "Cold War" was coined. UFOs were sighted for the first time (and landed in Roswell, NM...maybe). India, Pakistan, and New Zealand all quit being British. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. Queen Elizabeth got married. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found. NASCAR started.
So...ok, NASCAR is probably not up there in importance with all the rest of the stuff, but the point remains that my mom was born in a really historic-kind of year. Crazy.
And, um, Mom? If someone decides to figure out what year you were born and now knows how old you are because of me, um, Sorry.
+ 0 - 5 | § ¶Won't you be my neighbor?
There were thunderstorms predicted for this afternoon (and thunderstorm it DID!), so this morning we headed out to the backyard to see if we could get it cleaned up and raked and dog-poop-free before the rain hit. The kids and i all headed outside, and i threw myself into cleaning up as fast as i could...until the next-door neighbors spotted us.
Have i mentioned out next-door neighbors? Not Corbyn, the kid who comes over for dinner and computer games. And not the guy who asked if "the natives get restless." (And not even the lady who convinced me that she needed me to go to her house and sit outside for her "garage sale.") (Geez, i have a lot of weird neighbors!) These are the neighbors who live upstairs next door. It's a long explanation, so i'll just put it after the jump, and if you're interested you can go read about them there.
Also, we went and bought new blinds for the windows that have been blindless since we moved in 10 years ago, and now no one can see into our house! Woo! And we got new doorknobs and deadbolts, because we're still not sure how the thief got into our house last time and it just seems prudent to change the locks. And we got new window locks, so now our house will be as secure as we can feasibly make it.
i'm still talking...
+ 2 - 4 | § ¶SOTM and Carnival
I am SO TIRED.
Not that that's really interesting, but it's just an explanation in case this is incredibly short or incredibly long and babbly or if it just doesn't make sense at all.
This morning we dropped Houston off at school and then stuck around for an hour because there was an assembly in which Houston was getting an award for being an Academic Student of the Month. Woohoo! Katrina has been begging ALL YEAR to be allowed to play on the school playground, so i let them play for about 45 minutes. Then we went into Houston's classroom (at his teacher's invitation) and watched their class for about 10 minutes, until we headed over to the assembly. The assembly was about 45 minutes long, with 1st graders doing a little presentation thingy and zillions of Students of the Month being honored. After all that, we got in the car to come home, and Katrina's first question was, "Can we go somewhere fun?"
This afternoon was gorgeous - around 80 and sunny, so we played outside and i did some work in the garden, cleaning out leaves and pulling up weeds. (I am hoping they were all weeds. I nearly pulled up one plant, but remembered just in time that my mom had mentioned how nicely my bleeding heart plant was growing.) The kids rode their bikes up and down the street. Juanito got out the scooter and made it work again. Houston asked if he could go shirtless.
This evening was the carnival at Houston's school. It's not so much a carnival as a bunch of little games where kids use tickets to play something to get tokens to get fun prizes. The kids loved it. It was insanely noisy and chaotic and crazy and loud, and i was starting to feel a little bit crazy until we went outside and suddenly i was fine again. I forget how much random noise really stresses me out. It's why i don't like techno.
Did i mention that i am tired?
+ 4 - 2 | § ¶In which i swear way more than i ever do.
I baked some pastry puffs for dinner tonight. They start out about half an inch thick and end up about 4 inches thick, so Katrina and Zane hovered near the oven the entire time, yelling, "They're PUFFING!" Or, in Zane's case, "They're popping!" Because puffing would make no sense.
Speaking of making no sense, while i was cooking, Zane ran into the kitchen with an eraser that had a picture of a spider on it. He held it up and yelled, "This damn pider!" (Pider = spider. In case you couldn't figure that out.) I looked at him, trying not to laugh, and asked, "Um, WHAT?" He repeated, very clearly, "This damn spider!" Katrina and i looked at each other. "Maybe he is saying this brown spider," she suggested. "No! This. Damn. Pider!" We tried a variety of guesses: Damp? Black? Bad? Finally Katrina crinkled up her forehead and said, "Maybe he is saying this damn spider?" I asked him. "Noooooo!" he said, utterly frustrated. And he finally gave up.
A few hours later, i asked him if he wanted me to put a little stamp on his hand. He let me, and then ran to show Katrina his "damn butterfly." Ah! Yes. The eraser does kind of look like a stamper thingy.
Speaking of Katrina saying cute things.... Or rather, speaking of cute things said while i was cooking (Yes, that fits better).... I was cooking, and the dishwasher was running, and Katrina was helping, and suddenly she looked down and said, "Well THAT can't be good!" (Incidentally, i love it when she says phrases that i don't expect but that, once she says them, i totally recognize as being said in exactly the way i would say something.) There were soap suds leaking out of the dishwasher. Juanito assures me that it's nothing to worry about. I kind of agree with Katrina.
+ 2 - 3 | § ¶It's a mad, mad, mad, mad world.
Y'know how i've mentioned that Zane really doesn't like unpredictable things? Like butterflies, for example. Ok. So remember that for a minute.
As i was cooking dinner tonight, the kids were outside playing in the backyard. Suddenly, Zane started screaming. Perhaps i should have run straight outside to see what was wrong, but frankly, he screams often when there's no need for intervention. "Graham is too close to me! AAAAAAAAAAH!" Or, "Houston just picked up the ball i wanted! AAAAAAAAAAH!" I realize that he's just making himself heard, and that's all very well and good, but if you scream several times a day about unimportant things, i'm just not going to come running right away every time. I glanced out the window, verified that Houston and Katrina were not near enough to pester him, and went back to cooking. He screamed again. A more urgent scream. This time when i looked Houston and Katrina were standing near the door of the bus, looking in worriedly.
I went to get my shoes. By the time i got back to the door, Houston was calling for me to "come QUICK!" I ran through possible scenarios. Broken leg? Bee sting? Trapped in a well?
There was a bird in the van. A live, flappy, very agitated bird. Zane was paralyzed with fear. The only thing he could do was stand frozen in place, screaming at the top of his lungs. To move toward the door would mean stepping closer to the scary, unpredictable bird. When i rescued him, he cried and told me, "I was SO SCARED! The bird scared me!" Over and over. Poor little guy. He stayed inside the rest of the night.
Later, when he was in bed, he started crying loudly again. When i checked on him, he was freaking out because there was a feather stuck to his sock. A scary, scary feather.
The world is a terrifying place for a two-year-old. Good thing there's cookie dough to make things better.
+ 2 - 4 | § ¶My kids are cute.
I hope Houston always remembers how to make this face. He's been making it for years, and it's totally hilarious.
Katrina had ballet this morning, but Katrina does not cope well with pain. At all. She woke up, still whimpering about her arms hurting. And in all fairness, she did seem to have a low fever, hardly ate anything today, and didn't want to do anything but lie down most of the day. She even took a long nap, which is highly unusual for her these days. Regardless of feeling bad, she did really want to go to ballet. The entire time, Katrina's eyes were all teary. She looked weepy and stopped a couple of times to come out for a hug and a drink of water. She didn't move her arms around when they were doing little pirouettes and such, but she managed to make it through. A little bit drama-y, but she stuck with it. And looked completely miserable.
Have i mentioned lately how adorable Zane is? Because he is completely adorable. Snuggly and cute and completely precious.
+ 5 - 1 | § ¶Katrina got shot
Katrina had her 5-year check up today. She's known about it for weeks. She's been excited about seeing Dr. H, getting a prize, doing all the things that Dr. H asks her to do (skip, hop, look this way, walk on tippy-toes...). But until today she had not asked the inevitable question: "Will i have to get a shot?"
Two years ago, when she had her 3-year check up, i promised her that she wouldn't be getting any shots, but then she ended up having to get a flu shot and she cried and screamed and i felt like a big, fat liar. It was horrible. She continued to mention the shot that she got there for the next, uh, two years. So i have been dreading the moment when she realized that she would be getting a shot this year. I figured she's ask eventually, but i was not going to be the one to bring it up.
So this afternoon she asked if she was getting a shot, and i told her yes, and her bottom lip trembled and she got very sad, but then she got over it and remained excited about going to the doctor's office. (It is a testament to how awesome our pediatrician is that she was STILL excited to go, even in the full knowledge that a shot would be waiting for her.)
She got her eyes checked (perfect!) and her ears checked (perfect!) and her pulse taken and her weight and height (still 90th percentile for height, 50th for weight - same as it has been since birth). And THEN she got to put on this completely adorable little gown that made me just want to gobble her up. She charmed Dr. H, who declared her to be "far too beautiful" and "completely adorable." He asked me about any concerns i had...and i couldn't come up with even ONE. (What's up with that? Is she really that good or am i just in the know because of Houston?) And then, just before he left the room, he mentioned that she would have to get shots.
And she crawled under the bench. She waited patiently under my seat until the nurse came in and kind of needed access to her arms. And then sat on my lap and cried and cried and cried. And cried. After the second shot, she gave the nurse a look of utter betrayal. Four shots later, she continued to cry. An hour and a half later, she was still crying. She is not exactly a big fan of pain, i think.
The good news is, she doesn't need any more shots for a long, long time. And also, she's cleared to go to kindergarten. So that's good.
+ 2 - 2 | § ¶Derby Car!
Houston had his first Derby car race today. His car was a very solid second place in his heat. I'm not sure how fast he was overall, because they arranged the whole thing kind of weird, but i think it would have placed at #4 overall. Not bad for a first try, i'd have to say. We spent the morning there, along with my sister and brother-in-law, cheering on all the cub scouts.
Then, while Zane napped, i tried to get the kids to do their chores, a feat that usually runs somewhere between pleasantly easy and slightly annoying, but which today was akin to beating my head against a brick wall until i had a mild concussion and had knocked out several teeth. Fun!
But then, when the house was reasonably clean, we headed out to have a picnic at a nearby park. It was too nice a day to spend any more than necessary inside, after all. The kids slid and climbed and swinged (swung? swang? swingeded?) and did that some more and were just generally really cute. Beth came with her little bandaged foot, and she mostly kept me company between times that i was running around, but she did go sit on the swings with the kids for a few minutes.
And then, after the kids were in bed, Beth and i watched a movie and then talked until way too late, and now i need to go to bed.
+ 3 - 1 | § ¶Sagging
A couple of days ago, in a fit of silliness, Houston pulled his pants down to his knees and said, "Look! I'm Corbyn! Because Corbyn always wears his pants all low down!" Which, indeed, Corbyn does do, although not as bad as many other kids i see. Houston walked around the house for about one minute with his pants all sagging, and then declared that he did NOT understand how anyone could wear their pants like that - it was too hard to walk!
Today, we were driving to the store, and on the corner was a teenager wearing pants that were literally down around his knees. And just as i was silently thinking that it looked really stupid and must make movement incredibly difficult, Houston piped up from the back seat to ask, "How can anyone WEAR their pants like that? It's crazy!" It's nice to see that he has some fashion sense. Clearly sagging will be to him what bell bottoms were to me.
Day 2 of potty training for Zaney, and still no accidents. He has peed in the potty a couple of times, but mostly he just waits until i put a diaper on him to sleep, and then 5 minutes later he informs me that he has a poopy diaper. Stinker.
+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Collections
Zane has found a new and exciting way to play with Graham and his cone. Graham is not thrilled. Oh, also! Zane is not wearing pants in that picture because he has on underwear. Because i'm starting potty training with him, you see. So far, no accidents. It's only been about a 3-hour trial, though.
Houston has had his bottle cap collection for almost exactly 3 years, and is apparently getting a bit more organized about it. He started going through them all yesterday, washed them off, and started separating out the doubles. He then had to decide what to do with the doubles, so he called Katrina over and asked her if she'd like them to start her own bottle cap collection. Her response? "No, i already collect rocks and worms and squirrel nuts."
My kids collect such odd things.
"Hey!" Houston asked, "What did YOU collect when you were little, Mama?" When i told him that i used to collect napkins, he cracked up and yelled, "Katrina! When Mama was a little girl, she used to collect NAPKINS!" At which point Katrina started laughing like crazy too, while i mumbled, "Hey, i have some good napkins. Even some from Jerusalem...."
So maybe i'm not really the best person to talk about my kids' odd collections.
+ 2 - 3 | § ¶I bonk my head!
Last night, as Zane was flopping himself into his bed, he whacked his head on the headboard. (The boys' beds are bunk beds which are currently separated, so his "headboard" is really more of a step that leads to nowhere.) He cried, i comforted, he went to sleep. This afternoon, as he was getting into bed for a nap, i cautioned him, "Be careful not to bump your head." He started animatedly telling me, "I bonk my head on that and i cry like this, 'waaaah!' and my head bonked right there...." He was still talking about it as i whispered to him to sleep well and closed the door. I had to wake him up when it was time to get Houston from school. He opened his eyes, grabbed his blanket, looked around all confused, and immediately started telling me the exact same story about bonking his head, almost as if there had been no time elapse at all. It was a little bit hilarious.
The weather is finally becoming spring-like again. Today was gorgeous, so we seized the moment and went outside to wash bottlecaps and make dirt soup. The kids did, anyhow. I started trying to get rid of some of the leaves that have been sitting under the snow all winter long. Blech.
+ 0 - 5 | § ¶Blah, blah, blah
Katrina had her first ballet class of the new session today. Afterwards, she told me, "My heart hurts! So, so much!" They weren't doing anything particularly strenuous, and she didn't mention it again all day, but by about 6:00, she was a weeping pile of goo from sheer exhaustion, so i'm going with the assumption that the lack of sleep from the past week is finally catching up with her.
This afternoon we got to babysit for my friend Linda's kids. Katrina had a blast playing with the older two kids, while Zane kind of flitted around the house, torn between the big girls and doing his own thing. Meanwhile, i got to follow this little cutie all over the house, keeping her from getting into all the little things that i forget we have, now that Zane is big enough to not get into stuff. (Although, Juanito and i were talking about it, and i don't really remember any of our kids getting into stuff very much. Other people have stories about calling poison control several times a week. I've never even had to consider it. Of course, now i've probably jinxed THAT....)
Graham had his last checkup at the vet yesterday, and they gave us the OK to remove his cone...but only if he promises not to lick his leg. We got our cameras all set to video, fully expecting him to go crazy with glee as soon as the cone was off...and it was the most anti-climatic moment ever. He doesn't seem to care if his cone is on or off anymore. In fact, we've started just leaving it on most of the time anyhow, because he just keep licking his leg when it's off, and he's perfectly content to have it on. (Though i DID take it off when all the little girls were over, because he just takes up so much more room when he's wearing it.) Crazy dog.
+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Easter Sunday
Happy Easter! This morning we opened the humongous Easter basket that Beth left on our table yesterday. She's so nice. There are cupcakes in there, and eggs full of candy for all of us, and little chicks that flash colors when you put them in water for the kids. Hurrah! Beth is really nice. (Also, she's not the one who broke into our house and tried to steal our stuff. She actually has a key.)
We went to church, which was...disappointing. And random. We had a guest minister and, well, i'm still not really sure what the point of the sermon was. My notes are filled with things like, "Blah, blah, God is a Jew, we're unfair to Palestine, Johnny Carson, good guys win." And, "He gets horny when he and his wife lay down their yardsticks." The music was really good though. We sang some of the old hymns i grew up with, and i found myself wishing my grandpa was nearby so that he could sing the harmony parts.
After church we went to my parents' house for Easter dinner. Dinner was, of course, delicious. Afterwards we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. (Here's Houston, Katrina, and Zane, and all three kids together.) We played games. Katrina, Houston, and their cousin Cheyanne put together an elaborate "bakery," where we adults were invited to come eat. After "dinner," we were treated to games (a couple of rounds of Hungry, Hungry Hippo) and some shows. The shows were made up of some random stories, lots of costumes, and a lot of throwing pompoms up in the air repeatedly. I videotaped them for a while, but then it started getting just a little too redundant.
And really, it was an awesome day. But i'm crabby. Possibly because the police were here until 2:30 in the morning and the kids were up at 7:30, so i'm tired. Possibly because we were robbed (we have found 4 things they took: my pot full of change - maybe $30-40, an old camera that my brother Jim gave us for the kids to use, my old flippy camera, and a hub that Juanito had attached to his desktop. Random, stupid things, but WHY?? They didn't take my big camera, even though it was sitting right there in front of the desk. I kind of wish they had, because it's broken, and then i could have gotten a new one). Possibly because i'm just a really big brat. Whatever. Little things are annoying me. I need to go to sleep.
+ 3 - 2 | § ¶Fortunately/Unfortunately
Fortunately, it was a beautiful day in Kentucky today. The sun was shining, the temperature was reasonably warm. The kids got to blow bubbles and play with silly string, run around, climb, and "be circus performers." Katrina's big act was run full tilt at the swing and flinging herself onto it on her tummy.
Unfortunately, during what turned out to be the grand finale, Katrina ran at top speed, flung herself onto the swing, but was so super-powered that she overshot it a little bit and ended up flying onto and then over the swing and landed face first in the mud. Sad.
Fortunately, she wasn't hurt, and recovered quickly enough to eat lunch with her uncles before they took off.
Unfortunately, our vacation has come to an end, and we had to leave for the long drive home.
Fortunately, everyone survived. It wasn't quite as smooth sailing as the trip down, but we all lived through it with very little trauma.
Unfortunately, we came home to a house that had been broken into. Again. We did have some warning, because Beth called shortly after we left to tell us that she came over and found our back door wide open. She wasn't sure if we'd been robbed or if the back door had simply swung open of its own accord, but as soon as i walked in, it was pretty obvious. My desk was torn apart, stuff was flung all over. Upstairs, my jewelry boxes had been tossed on the bed and rifled through.
Fortunately, i don't think anything was actually stolen. We'll have to look more carefully after the police have checked for fingerprints and such (I wish they'd get here! I want to go to bed!), but i did see my Jerusalem ring and my baby ring still in the box, and i know my wedding ring and engagement ring are still safe. That's mostly all the jewelry i really care about. Our cameras and laptop were with us in Kentucky, and our computers and other electronic equipment were apparently too old-looking for them to want to steal. They seemed to be searching for money, and didn't find it.
When Katrina came into the house, her first comments were, "The robbers vacuumed for us!" Because i'd left the vacuum cleaner out. And, "They left us a present with CUPCAKES!" If only all thieves were so kind. Sigh.
Also, this is my favorite picture of Houston with no teeth.
+ 1 - 3 | § ¶Kentucky: Day 6
We had lots of hiking and driving around the countryside, taking in the beauty, planned for today. Unfortunately, it was pouring and thunderstorming almost all day long. So instead we spent a lot of time just hanging out. Zane and i spent about an hour on the couch, just having a conversation. He is So Amazingly Cute. And also, he really, really loves one-on-one time. He thrives on it. He doesn't get a lot of time to himself or time with just him and me at home, so he's been loving the attention.
Katrina soaked up as much time holding ChiChi as she could possibly get. ChiChi isn't terribly fond of being held and pet by the children, even though they are desperately fond of holding and petting her. The combination makes for a very nervous dog and a very sad Katrina much of the time. Today she managed to get in about 15 minutes before ChiChi flat out refused to be held any longer. She was in heaven.
Then, after lunch, we drove down to "downtown," which led to many rounds of singing "When you're alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go...." And then all the kids yell, "DOWNTOWN!" We like that song. Downtown Wilmore has a cute little drugstore, which still has completely random things for sale like: books, jewelry, shoes, toys, and pharmaceuticals. It's kind of awesome. It also has a little soda shop thingy, with a counter and homemade ice cream and everything. We got ice cream. The kids all sat at the counter. It was remarkably cute.
We spent a few hours in the basement, trying to sort out and clear out some of the various and random computer parts that have accumulated over the years. And then we went to dinner at Juanito's mum's friend's house. She is a lovely woman from Africa, who cooked us an entire, huge meal of Kenyan food. Delicious. I am being completely spoiled and will never want to cook again. It'll be too depressing to have to eat MY cooking after all the wonderful meals i've had in the past few days!
+ 1 - 3 | § ¶Kentucky: Day 5
Today we drove into Lexington and spent the day driving around to see fun things. We meant to start at a labyrinth, but it has apparently closed, but either way we didn't know that right away because we went to the wrong place and ended up in this beautiful old cemetery with blooming flowers and headstones that were nearly worn off and big budding trees. It was beautiful, and i felt a little bad for enjoying it so much. The kids were fascinated, since usually they only see cemeteries as we are driving past, and they are simply places to point at and say, "Oh. That's so sad!"
From there we went to a chocolate factory, where we got to see how they make chocolate into bunnies and chocolate covered pretzels and such. We let each child choose one thing to eat, and, predictably, Zane ended up covered in chocolate. It was yummy, though.
And then we went to a little park with fountains (where Houston managed to get soaked) and low walls that were perfect for running on and jumping off of. And then we parked at JJ and Lauren's house and walked to Thoroughbred Park to see all the horse statues. Zane was a little terrified of some of the statues at first, not sure that they weren't alive. I could understand why, really, once i bent down and looked at the horses from his point of view. They were kind of terrifying. Once he was confident of their non-aliveness, though, he loved it. And THEN we walked over to a playground until it was time to go to JJ and Lauren's house for real.
JJ, of course, cooked up a fabulous meal of salmon and homemade pasta and all kinds of other delicious foods. Houston decided that he not only likes asparagus, he LOVES it. He could not get enough of it. He was terribly sad once it was all gone. Zane spent at least an hour and a half mixing dirt and water together in big pots to make "dirt soup." We sat around talking and watching JJ cook and eating and having fun, and by the time we left it was nearly 10:00. The children, who were acting not at all tired and amazingly well behaved, considering, were all asleep within 10 minutes in the car on the way home.
+ 4 - 0 | § ¶Kentucky: Day 4
Monday, as we were driving home, Zane fell asleep in the car. We were going to try to keep him asleep so that he could have a bit of a nap, but he woke up as everyone was getting out, so i tried driving around a little to get him to go to sleep. He never did fall back asleep, but in the meantime, i drove up the street the opposite way that we usually go, and found that, just up the street from Juanito's mom's house, there is a huge park with a playground and a little creek to explore and bridges to run across and everything.
Today, since the weather was back to warmish, we headed to the park. I'm guessing that we spent about half of our time playing on the playground, and the other half exploring and studying and poking around by the creek. There was an old building of sorts that looked cool but was terribly stinky inside, an old slave wall, and lots of rocks. Fun for the whole family! (Hey! I was there too.)
Then tonight, JJ came over hung out and cooked dinner. I ate an artichoke. It's the first time i've ever tried one. I'm a bit proud of myself for trying it. I can't say it's my favorite food ever, but it was ... interesting. I saved what i didn't eat, because i want to try to get to the heart. I hear that's the best part, after all.
+ 1 - 5 | § ¶Kentucky: Day 3
Today is the day that Houston became a reader. I mean, yes, he's been able to read for ages, but today was the first time that he began reading in earnest. The two of us finished reading Harry Potter book 1, and i bought him his own copy (so that he wouldn't unintentionally destroy mine) (because i'm REALLY anal about keeping my books in good condition), so he has started re-reading it on his own. But instead of simply skimming through it as he does with MOST books he has read, he is reading it. He walked around the house with his nose stuck in his book. Juanito saw him doing that and immediately declared, "He is YOUR son!" He flopped on one couch and read. He flopped on another couch and read. He lay on the floor and read. He moved to another spot on the floor and read. He was consumed. It was awesome.
Today was really the perfect day for him to spend with his nose in a book. We woke up to small flakes of snow falling, and by noon it was practically a blizzard. We stayed inside all morning, took naps, and generally bummed around. By about 5:00...it was lovely out. Not exactly warm, but we could wear a sweater and no coat and be perfectly comfortable. Let's say around 40 or 45 degrees. The snow was melted and everything was bright and happy again. Hopefully tomorrow will be warmer yet.
Katrina, who is not yet reading and cannot be distracted by books quite as much, spent the day following the chihuahua Chichi around the house. She is a wee bit obsessed with the dog, begging to hold and pet and hold and carry her around. Poor little dog.
+ 1 - 4 | § ¶Kentucky: Day 2
All night long, i could hear the wind blowing, rattling the windows, and this morning we woke up to a very cold and rainy day. It was kind of the polar opposite of yesterday. Of course, i hadn't brought any winter coats with, since it was warm in Michigan when we left and we were heading south, so we had to improvise a little bit.
We didn't really go out much today, except for a short visit to Juanito's mum's friends' mushroom farm. (Woo! Three possessive apostrophes in a row!) We got to pick some mushrooms, a couple of lunch bags full, and we'll likely eat them tomorrow. Yum! And those of us who are a bit more prone to eating things fresh (you know who i'm talking about) ate a mushroom or two straight out of the, uh, wood shavings. Because they grow the mushrooms in blocks of wood shavings. Katrina had a moment of extreme bravery and ate a raw mushroom as well.
And then we drove around a bit, looking at scenery stopping to say hi to some cows and searching for Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock is supposedly quite close by, although Juanito's mum had never heard anything about it until we read about it yesterday at High Bridge. She called around, and people acted like she was crazy, and eventually we learned that a dam had been built and Chimney Rock is now partly under water. We're not sure how much, though, because we never did find it.
+ 4 - 0 | § ¶Kentucky: Day 1
Today was lovely - sunny, in the 60's, barely any clouds in the sky. Kind of perfect, really.
We took advantage of the weather, and headed to "High Bridge," which is, um, a high bridge. We read all about it, and the making of it was pretty cool, but the best part is standing on the flat rocks on the edge of a steep hill, looking out over the river and houses waaaaay down below, and then still having to look up to see the the top of the bridge. The kids went crazy every time a train went across the bridge.
While we were there, we ate a picnic lunch in High Bridge park and let the kids play on the playground for a while, until they were all dying of thirst because we'd forgotten to bring any water and we really had to come back home. Not before we found this really awesome OLD bench that had been there so long it had become part of the trees. And also not before we let the kids run through the big pavilion that seems to have been built mostly for dancing, but where there was a couple trying to share a quiet moment of dancing and kissing until our kids unceremoniously ran through at full speed.
Back at the parents' house, the kids played outside on the swing set for a good long time. They made friends with the next door neighbors, to whom, i assume, the swing set belongs. They freaked out only nominally about the twenty gazillion wasps that seem to have swarmed into Kentucky. They stayed outside until the wind started blowing like crazy and threated to blow them over or at least rain on them. Katrina got a little sunburn on her cheeks, which is remarkably cute.
+ 3 - 2 | § ¶We have arrived
We made the 8-hour drive down to Kentucky tonight. I spent the morning running around, finishing the things i needed to do before we left, loaded up the car, and then waited for Juanito to get home from work so we could leave.
I was a wee bit worried about the trip, what with three small children in a car for 8 hours and all, but it went quite amazingly smoothly. The kids ate pretzels and granola bars and little carrots and stuff like that in lieu of an actual dinner, which suited them just fine. And then they each got a candy bar, which Zane devoured with glee before yelling, "Mama! Help!" I turned around to find him covered in chocolate. Before leaping to the back seat to clean him up a bit ("Mama! That is SO DANGEROUS!"), i grabbed my camera and said, "Zane! Say cheese!" He looked at me seriously and said, "No. It's chocolate." He was pretty thrilled with himself when everyone in the car laughed. I don't think he knows why we were laughing, though.
Houston was pretty amazing the entire trip. He never once complained or asked how far it was, he kept himself nicely entertained, and he was incredibly helpful in handing things back and forth between me and the littler kids in the back. I was, and still am, completely impressed with him from the moment we got into the car.
Katrina was mostly awesome as well, although she was a little bit less patient. When i couldn't stand the thought of one more, "Are we almost there now?" which started about half an hour into the trip, i put Monster's Inc into the laptop, set it up where they could all see it, and that kept them entertained until about 8:30.
While we were watching the movie, Houston suddenly yelled, "My tooth!" And sure enough, that tooth that had been threatening to fall out for a week had finally wiggled its way free.
All three kids fell asleep (Zane, after lots of crying and declarations of, "I don't LIKE it!"), and kept me amused the rest of the way with their cute positions and Houston's random noises and murmuring.
+ 4 - 2 | § ¶Errand day
Today was a day filled with errands and running around. Houston had a half day, and so i decided to skip naps. That may have been a bad decision on my part.
I brought my good SLR fancy camera to a camera repair shop, one that i'm pretty sure was owned and staffed by the one cute old German man who talked to me. He looked at it, obsessed over how tightly the memory card fitted in the camera, looked at the pins to see if that was the problem, and then told me that it would probably cost about $125 to fix. So that's sad. Juanito's going to look it over, and then we'll decide what to do about it.
We brought Graham over to my parents' house. He whined loudly the entire way there, which made me REALLY glad that we are not bringing him to Kentucky with us. If i had to listen to THAT for 8 hours, i'd probably sell him when we got there. Or give him away. Or tie him to the roof to get back. Something drastic, anyhow. The kids and left him in the car for about half an hour while we ran in to the grocery store, and when we came back he was happily sitting on the driver's seat, quietly people watching. So i guess that sitting in the car is ok, as long as it's not moving.
I was down to exactly one pair of jeans that didn't have huge holes in it, so the kids and i ran to the mall to see if i could get some new jeans before our trip. Because going on vacation with one pair of pants is just unacceptable. But, um, you know what else is kind of unacceptable? Going shopping for jeans in a mall with three small children. I ended up buying some jeans, but i can't even really tell you if they look decent, because i was all, "Oh my giddy aunt, get me out of this dressing room!" Zane was crawling under the partitions, peeking in at other women. Houston and Katrina were being loud and silly and making faces in the mirrors and pestering each other and pushing the door open as i was changing. Not fun. Oh, and we saw the Easter Bunny, but i didn't bring my camera into the mall, so i couldn't take a picture of the kids with him.
And then we went back to my parents' house, where Graham acted as though he hadn't seen us in weeks, and where my lovely mom fed us all sorts of yummy food. We hung out for a couple of hours, until it was nearly bedtime, and then headed home. Zane started falling asleep in the car, so his head drooped down to his chest, which caused the bunny ears he was wearing to slide down over his face. It was super-cute and funny enough that the other two kids laughed loudly enough to wake him up. Poor kid.
And finally, after being gone for about 7 or 8 hours, we got home, where i found spaghetti sauce happily simmering away and burning on the stove. I'm not sure what happened after we left, but Juanito was either in a major hurry and forgot that he was cooking before he left for work or he was just being forgetful.
I'm kind of tired now.
+ 3 - 3 | § ¶Probably more about clothes than you really care about.
I didn't take any pictures today, because ... i didn't, so i thought, "Hey! I'll just look at what i took pictures of a year ago today and see how much things have changed!" And then i started looking at the picture closely and realized that, um, CRAP. My kids have been wearing the same shoes for a YEAR. All three of them. I mean, i just recently stopped putting those shoes on Zane because they seem to be getting little bit tight, but until about 2 weeks ago, he was wearing them regularly. So either my kids' shoes were really big when they started wearing them, OR they are way too small now, OR my kids have magical feet that don't grow at all. Additionally, Zane still wears that coat, Katrina still wears all of those clothes except the coat, and Houston still wears the shirt under that sweater. And Juanito still wears all of those clothes too. The thing in that picture that hasn't been used in the longest is actually the CAR.
Coincidentally, this ties in very nicely with what i actually did today, which is to go through my kids' clothes, sort out what will fit them for summer (although i'm not actually optimistic enough to take the summer clothes out of the bins yet), and start getting rid of the stuff that is too small. Katrina is heartbroken over every single thing she has outgrown. Nevermind that she can barely fit into something, she wants to keep it. And if even she can tell it's too small, then she wants to save it for her children. Even if what we're talking about is a pair of socks. She might have gotten my family's genes a little bit.