Our week

Our weekly magnetic calendar on the fridge has really cleared up.  Everything has been cancelled for Monday and Tuesday.

But we are really hopeful that come Wednesday, there will be more of this:

Although with more robot (Andrew's actual costume), and less of the scary, dumpy-looking witch.

At least we had fun at a Halloween party before the end of the world storm hits.  Best wishes folks!  Here's to hoping that we won't lose power for too long.  And it looks like the eye of the storm may pass right over us (we're right next to Trenton, NJ).  That sounds like a cool experience.  I reserve the right to change my mind.

Why, yes, he IS tall for his age

His whole life, when Andrew has entered a room, we get comments on his size.  It started the day he was born, and will probably continue until he reaches adulthood.  We get it.  He's big.

It doesn't bother me at all.  It's mildly amusing at the most.  It's just the first thing to say about him, I guess.  Like when I meet new people and the conversation goes like this...almost every time:

"Hi!  Nice to meet you.  My name is Jen.  What's yours?"
"Giselle"
"What?"
"Giselle"
"Oh..heh...heh...erm...okay."  And they nervously refuse to attempt my name ever again.

Last night were basketball tryouts for the 3rd grade travel team.  In talking to other parents, it always goes,

"Which one is your son?"
"Andrew, in the red shirt."
"Oh.  Wow.  Is he really tall?"
"Why, yes, he IS tall for his age."


But the funniest conversation regarding this was one I overheard between Andrew and another boy on his soccer team during a game last weekend.  Keep in mind that Andrew is in the 8&9 year old league...so he is right in the middle age wise.

Sam: "Where do you go to school, Andrew?"
Andrew: "I'm at G. Elementary."
S: "Oh!  No wonder I don't recognize you from school.  And you are in 4th grade?"
A: "No, I'm in 3rd."
S: "REALLY?  You are really tall.  I mean, I'm the tallest boy in 4th grade at S. Elementary and you are taller than me.  WOW.  Are you just really old for 3rd grade?"
A: -shrugging- "Nah, I'm only 8."
S: "That's amazing.  Hey, I'm part Hungarian, English, and German.  How about you?"


And on and on their conversation went.  While a game was going on.  It was so hilarious.  At least they weren't talking about bodily functions.  Right then, anyway.

Birthday quandries

Andrew's birthday is coming up.  He is going to be 9.  NINE.  And as my "helpful" friend Pamela pointed out, that is the halfway point to adulthood.  Now that's all I can think about.  I'm halfway done with him being MINE.  Realistically less...since what 16 year old boy wants to belong to his mother.  :)

Anyway, we're back to the problem of what to get Andrew for his birthday.

Problems:

1)  He is a 9 year old boy who doesn't like to build with Legos or make gross stuff in an experiment kit.  Those are pretty much your options in the toy store for a 9 year old boy.

2)  Andrew doesn't really play with toys anymore.  He'll play while his brother and sister play...but just for a minute or two.  Action figures, model cars, etc., are really a thing of the past for him.

3) His birthday is basically in the winter, so getting him outdoor sports things is a mean mean tease of a gift.

4) He doesn't enjoy crafty/artsy things very much.  Occasionally he will sit down and paint/sketch/craft...but it is mostly a struggle to make him do these things.  He gets that gene quite strongly from me.

5)  He loves computer/video games, but I feel like he already has so many with so little time to actually play them.

6) He would love to get an iPad or an iPod touch...but come on.  Have we met?


Andrew is everything I want a kid to be...he isn't materialistic or needy, he doesn't want for much.  He is content with what he has.  He almost never asks for "stuff".  In fact, he much more frequently will out of the blue say, "Mom?  I really like our life.  We are really lucky."  Which is GRAND...except for 2 times a year when I wish he would be a little more greedy so I could get ideas for birthday and Christmas.

So.  What to get him.  Last Christmas when faced with this quandary, I ended up getting him a tadpole kit.  Which was a HUGE HIT.  And he did a really good job taking care of it.   I just hated going to the pet store each week to get live crickets...and then keeping the crickets alive in a separate cage with separate food.  Ugh.  I wish there was some "Future Actuarial" kit filled with graph paper and charts and books filled with statistics.  He would LOVE that.

***I realize that I paint a picture here of Andrew that makes him seem like a pocket-protector using nerdlinger.  He really is quite well socialized...and will play with whatever other kids are playing with when he is with them.  But when he is on his own...he just doesn't have much that he likes to do.  I mean, right now, he is going through a book of the presidents and making a chart of when their birthdays are.  He wanted to know which month had the most.  He thought of this all on his own.  Okay...maybe he IS a nerdlinger.

Future diaper-free and future mommy

Michael is getting really really close to being dry at night.  He potty trained in July of 2011, but he's just never been dry at night.  The other 2 kids were night trained within a month of being day trained.  But not my hard sleeper.  I've not been worried about it.  It's one diaper a day...not breaking the bank.

The last month or so, he's started coming into my bedroom at night with some lame-o excuse.

"I had a nightmare"
"I can't sleep"
"I need to sleep in your bed"

All strange for him.  So I always asked him to try and go potty...and lo and behold, he had to pee like a racehorse.  So his body was starting to wake him up, but he had no freakin' clue why.  Also?  He is scared to be alone...ever...so I think he just needs someone to be awake with him when he is wandering the upstairs.

In the last week, he has woken me up almost every night.  For no reason than to go to the bathroom.  This is real progress!  He's been dry almost every morning.  We're reaching the homestretch people!  And last night I opened a new bag of pull-ups, and Michael started crying and saying, "I don't want to wear diapers.  I am done with diapers!"  So we now have a chart, and if he stays dry for a certain number of nights, we will forgo the diapers.

Look for next week's blog entitled:  Changing the sheets twice a night!  Hooray!

As a side note, when we were gone this past weekend, Michael had to wake up his grandmother instead of me in the middle of the night for potty company.  All visitors stay in Lily's room, since we have crammed the queen sized bed into her room, and she sleeps on the floor of Andrew's room.  So Michael visited Lily's room for a few nights in order to get Grandma.

Monday night, my in-laws were back in Ohio, and Lily was back in her bed.  At 1am, I bolt upright as I hear Michael enter Lily's room and start talking.  I heard him tell her that he needed to go potty.  By the time I got to the door, Lily was sleepily getting out of bed to walk him to the bathroom...no protests or questions.  Isn't that sweet?  Just getting up in the middle of the night to watch a kid pee.  Her future mothering skills are already deep in place.  I, of course, sent her back to bed quickly and accompanied him myself.

Race weekend

Jeff and I lived it up again this weekend.  Jeff's parents came up to watch the kiddos and we headed up to Newport, RI for a race weekend.

Friday, after a 5 hour (or so) drive, we arrived in this quaint New England coastal town.  It felt a lot like the town we live in...except 10 times bigger and our town is neither in New England nor is it coastal.  But the old buildings, small shops and restaurants, seeping with history...that part felt the same.

The first thing we did was the Cliff Walk.  This is a historical trail right along the ocean.  Richy rich RICH people built their mansions along the coast, but rather than gobble up all the property to the water's edge, left this trail for peons like us to saunter through.  It was gorgeous and gave us an idea of the glorious homes built in this area.

We thought this place was one of the Vanderbuilt mansions.  Turns out it was part of the Salve Regina college campus.  Nice campus.

This is what part of the trail was like.  

We walked past this one and were so excited to see people inside touring.  We took the tour on Saturday and learned that it was a private residence until 1993.  Amazing.

We finished off Friday by stopping by registration for our races, wandering around town, and eating dinner at a very good Italian place.

Saturday morning, my race was at 7:30, but we had to be there at 7.  It was 37 degrees out.  But sunny and not at all windy (something we would appreciate once Sunday/Jeff's race rolled around).

Here I am, all bundled up at the start point of the race.  Pretty nice place to run, eh?  Too bad my feet were so numb.  And I didn't get to wear my funny race day shirt ("If it weren't for people like me you'd have no one to pass")  That was kind of a bummer, but at least I was warm (ish)

Lining up.  Also...I am not good at smiling for the camera.

After I left, Jeff got a bit bored waiting for me.  This race was no where near anything, and yet was too short to leave and fill the time.  So he just had to stand in the freezing cold and play with his camera while he waited for me to come back around.

Race way.  Nice, right?

Here I come!  

Determined to not look like I'm dying as I cross the finish line.  I ended up finishing in 32:50 minutes...which is 3 full minutes faster than last year.  I was pleased with that time...but I didn't feel nearly as victorious as I did last year.  I knew I could finish this time...I run 3 miles every time I go out to run.  Still a really fun place to run, though.

After I got showered up and changed, we toured a few houses.  This one belonged to the Dukes...as in Duke University.  

Standing in their backyard.  No pictures were allowed inside the house.

Then we went to the most famous one, The Breakers.  It was impressive.  Fantastic.  Ridiculous.  But beautiful.

Sunday morning was Jeff's race.  It was 20 degrees warmer...but the wind was AWFUL.  Just awful.  Sand spitting in your face, steady wind offering a constant resistance to run against.  Poor guy.  Especially since he was running the half marathon (13.1 miles).  That's 2 hours of running with wind and sand smacking you in the face.  Ugh.  Just...ugh.

Waiting for the race to start.  

Lining up.  My race had 250 runners.  Jeff's had 4000.  

And they're off!

I didn't play around with the camera while I waited for him.  Our hotel was right across the street, so I went and finished my book.  I did show up a few hours later when Jeff crossed the finish line.  He finished in 1 hour 53 minutes.  Not what he was hoping for...but the WIND, my GOD, THE WIND!

Jeff limped around for a few hours and then we headed back to PA.  We stopped to visit some friends in Stamford, CT and had a very nice dinner with them and their girls.  Got back home around 10:30, and found out that while we were gone, our van battery had died, stranding my in-laws at the gym, a deer had hit the front of our car on their way home from soccer practice, the bathtub sliding door had wrenched clear off it's base, and I'm sure a few other things.  They also had to maneuver through school drop off and pick ups, soccer practices, soccer games, lacrosse practices, Sunday school.   We owe them BIG TIME for this wonderful weekend we had.  Of course they were nothing but gracious, pretending that it was US that did them the favor by letting them watch the children.  Ha-HA.  But it is nice to be so loved that they want us to be able to have time alone like this.  I will pay it forward when my own children need some time to enjoy their own marriages.  But I might skip a soccer practice or two with my grandkids.

Before and After

We just did a major makeover for our little blue house.  We are now the proud (poor) owners of a little green house.  These pictures aren't very good...but trust me.  We needed some new siding.  When the wasps were able to easily creep through the siding that was pulled out...it was time.  I was worried about water getting in those same gaps and giving us some major mold issues.  

The kids like it.  They don't like it so much when they ask to go to Disney World (we've never been), and we take them outside and show them the siding.  "Look, kids!  There's your Disney trip!  Enjoy!"

Before

And after...(on a much sunnier day, so it looks different anyway)

Halloween conversations

Halloween is kind of a struggle around these parts.  We desperately need our Halloween Fairy, Aunt Kate, to come visit us during this season.  I've never gotten particularly excited about this holiday...except for the candy, of course.  My kids have never liked playing dress up.  We have big imaginations, but we don't use props.  We are not crafty.  And on and on and on.

But they want the candy, and the experience of wandering the streets at night talking to strangers, so we will dress the children up.

Andrew has no idea what he wants to be.  But be certain that any suggestions we make are bad.  No good.  Can't be done.  Aunt Sara has talked him into being a robot.  Aunt Sara is hopefully sending instructions on how to make a robot costume soon.  Or else we'll just be raiding the back of stores in search of a box Andrew can fit in.

Michael thought for the longest time that he had to choose from the costumes we already have in the basement...Spiderman and a skeleton.  I was not going to tell him otherwise.  Then he started saying that he was thinking about what he wanted to be.  Finally we had this conversation:

Me:  Michael?  What do you want to be for Halloween this year?
Michael:  Something really really scary.
Me:  What is it?
Michael: (spoken in a hushed whisper)  The vacuum.

Cut to my mom and I cracking up laughing.  Michael is TERRIFIED of the vacuum.  If it is parked in the hallway, he will not walk down the hall until I move it.  Even if it isn't plugged in, he won't get NEAR it.  So to think that a vacuum is the scariest Halloween costume he can think of it pretty funny.  And now that he got such a good reaction from it, I'm pretty sure he'll want to be that.  Looks like I'll be trolling the backs of stores for another big box.  Come to think of it, Andrew and Michael's costumes will probably end up looking exactly alike.  Sucks to have a non-crafty mom :)

Lily and I were driving somewhere and we had this conversation:

Me:  Lily?  What do you want to be for Halloween this year?
Lily:  Ariel
Me:  Again?  You've been her twice already...at least.
Lily:  Well...I could be Tiana...I like her too, but I just don't want to be her this year.
Me:  You don't have to be a princess.
Lily: (face lighting up) I don't have to be a princess?  Really?  REALLY?  What else could I be?
Me:  Of course you don't have to be a princess.  You can be whatever you want.  A doctor, a ballerina, a witch...whatever.
Lily:  I want to be a black cat.  Can I be a black cat?
Me:  Of course.

Silly girl.  I wonder where she got it in her head that princess was the only option.  Unless she also thought she had to choose from the limited costumes we have in the basement.

Finally, at the American Girl Store, Lily and I had the cutest conversation ever about Halloween costumes.

Lily:  Mom!  You know how these girls got dolls that look just like them?
Me:  Yes.  Do you wish you'd gotten one that looked like you?
Lily:  No.  But Mom!  I could be YOUR American Girl Doll.  Because I look just like you!  For Halloween! I could be your American Girl Doll.

She is my American Girl Doll.  Except that her clothes are WAY WAY cheaper than the actual doll's clothes.

Thank heavens for little girls

Once upon a time, there was a woman who was frightened of having a little girl.  She had a boy...what on earth would she do with a little girl?

Go to New York City and shop and play with dolls, that's what.

Lily turned 6 (S-I-X?!?!?) on Saturday.  Since I really hate birthday parties and since she is right in the middle of the limited age to love dolls and since we live very close to a very cool city that has an American Girl Store...I called the grandmas and got them here on Lily's birthday and we went to New York City.

It was awesome in every way.  Lily was exuberant the whole day.  She kept exclaiming, "This is the best. birthday. EVER!"  Literally all day long.  Although it was her first time in a big city, she wasn't intimidated at all.  She pulled our hands and dragged us along.  She walked...a ton.  I was amazed how much she walked.  She shopped and browsed and didn't beg for things or whine when she didn't get something.  Delightfully delighted to just get to look at everything there was to offer.  She was completely and totally adorable and enjoyable.  

Here she is on the train going to NYC.  She was very excited to take the train.  She had brought a purse and put some Strawberry Shortcake lipstick in it, a plastic princess phone, a fake credit card from Chuck-e-cheese, and some coins.  All day she would touch up her make-up, make a phone call on her phone, or offer to pay at restaurants.  She has the best imagination ever (or we need to see a psychologist ASAP) 

 Lily occasionally got control of my camera.  I have spared you from most of the pictures, as they are extreme close-ups of things adults wouldn't find interesting.  Such as this doll in a random shop window we walked past:

 We took Andrew into the 4 story Toys R Us in Times Square a few years ago.  It was a totally different experience with Lily, of course.  I didn't even notice the huge Barbie house last time.  It is 2 stories full of Barbies and Barbie accessories.  Lily was in pink heaven.

 Lily also posed without being asked.  Here she shows us her muscles next to the Lego Hulk.  There were lots of Lego creations...like one of the Empire State Building.  I showed Lily and said, "Look!  They even put Godzilla on top."  This man in his twenties was walking past and shook his head, embarrassed for me as he pointed out that it was King Kong.  Of course it was!  I knew that!  I was just testing her!

 She took 5,000,000,000 pictures in the Angry Birds area.  Lordy.  To her credit, when she would ask for things in Toys R Us, we would remind her we were going to American Girl later and she would just clam up and not ask any more.  Also?  When we were getting ready to leave the toy store, she said, "I think we should get something for Andrew and Michael.  They might be sad they didn't get to come." 

 Sweet little thing.

 Lily dragged us into the 2 story Disney Store.  Here she is in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse thingy.  I believe she explained the pose to me as, "I'm just so surprised to be popping out of the clubhouse into a giant store."

 She also enjoyed the giant castle filled with dress-up clothes and magic mirrors.  They were actually going to do a "practice trick or treat" just as we were looking around.  Lily said, "We can't.  We have too much to do."  Indeed.

 After lunch at Roxy's deli, we were waiting for Grandma and Memere to come out of the bathroom.  M&M World was right across the street, and Lily really enjoyed the screen outside their store.  We never made it over there...because Hershey's was right across the street and we went there first.  After buying her body weight in chocolate there, we wouldn't let her cross the street.

 Chocolate.  A whole store of chocolate.  Lily's Mecca.

 "Take a picture of me with the giant Kiss!"

 At the back of the store, Lily got to be a Hershey's worker.  She picked out a tin and the chose what kind of chocolates she liked.

 She was instructed to push this button over and over.

 Suddenly we heard a rumbling from overhead, and suddenly chocolate started pouring down these chutes and into the bucket.  Lily was shocked...although the face looks really fake in this shot.  She really did gasp in surprise.

 The employee helping her was amazing.  She was packaging it all up and talking really sweet to Lily.  She said, "Did you know that at Christmas time I get to dress up as an elf and help Santa out?  In fact, I just had lunch with Santa to start planning the Christmas season yesterday.  And...wait a minute.  What was your name?  Lily?  Yes, he told me that you would be coming to my store to pick out chocolates on your birthday.  Isn't Santa amazing?  You'll have to come visit him at Christmas."  

So nice.

 Next we went to the Top of the Rock...the top of Rockefeller Center.  Amazing views.  Amazing crowds.  Really cool, but I wish we'd had more time there.

 Then came the main event.  We had reservations for tea at 4:00, but we got there at 3.  So since Lily was there with her mother, grandmother, and Memere...she got a doll.  Lily was very consistent with which doll she wanted.  She did not want a doll that looked like her...she wanted THIS doll.  She named it Violet.  The entire meal, Lily was talking to Violet and feeding Violet and helping her drink from her little doll cup.  It was exactly the experience I hoped she would have at this restaurant.

Oh, yes.  And Memere and Grandma were there too.  I'm sorry I don't have more pictures of them from this day.  I'm pretty sure they had a good time.  Although their wallets were quite a bit lighter at the end.

There she is with her grandmothers!

Offering Violet some tea.

Lily and Violet

Overall, I felt a little financially date raped by American Girl.  Just like I did when we took Michael to the Thomas the Train thing for his birthday.  Things were WAY too expensive for what you got.  But I'd do it all over again even knowing that.  However.  We will NOT be going back ;)

I did so well navigating NYC.  I was really and truly proud of myself.  And then I got lost driving home from the train station.  I should have known that in NEW JERSEY (insert shaking fist), you would have to take the ramp to 295 North in order to go south.  Of course.  Anyway, we got back home late that night and had cake with the boys. Everyone was tired and grouchy the next day.  But it was totally worth it.  A lifetime of memories were made on Saturday.  Even if Lily forgets it someday...I never will.

I love this girl.