Monday, August 30, 2010

Habitat and the Beach: Oh my

A team of my colleagues and I dry walled the second floor of a home in East Trenton this weekend.

It was wonderful. And exhausting. Inspiring! I loved it.

Sunday we went to the beach as a family. And it was wonderful. And exhausting. I loved it!

Win! Win!

Pics and real blog post to follow!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Wise Words

This morning was one of the more hectic Morning Scrambles. Even with my husband at home, I play a large role in getting everyone ready in the morning. Sam and I have some combination of dressing them, feeding them, doing hair, etc. Seren was moaning about her hair this morning. And to be honest, I was ignoring her. She and I can have epic hair battles. (It has been better though than it used to be!)

Anyway, she was in the front room by herself complaining about the fact that life is unfair. I have no idea what she was complaining about.

Then I hear her say a few little words that stopped me in my tracks.

"Oh! I just want someone to come in here and make me feel better."

My little momma heart stopped.

Yes.

Exactly.

Don't we all need that? How often during the day do I feel that way. "I just want someone to come over and help me feel better."

So of course I went in. And hugged her. And talked about the fact that sometimes we all just do need everything and everyone to stop and look at us and say "it is ok. You wil be ok." And sitting there with her I met that need.

It was a short moment. A nothing moment for her before Cheerios were consumed and shoes were found and picnic lunches packed.

But it is sticking around for me. Because there is wisdom in those words. There is a sense that each of us has- at age 2, 4, 33, 64, 70 that we just would like to have friends and family come around us. To cry with us. To laugh with us. To have community. Ya know, to make us feel better.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Three more good things!

1. Seeing a minor league baseball game with Seren during date night= classic experience. Since Seren is verbal and tall and the older sister, I often feel that she is 'older' than she is. But sometimes when I look at her holding my hand or when her face crumbles in tears over some injustice or when she looks wide eyed at a baseball field, I remember. She is only four. She is still really little.

2. Second good thing is a maybe thing but I'm excited anyway: Blogging Beth is coming! She is on a family vacation to our area! And we hope, hope, hope they can stop by. But we also certainly understand family crankiness and exhaustion from road trips! We hope to host them tonight. Sam made a fresh made apple pie. But if it doesn't work out, I hope to see Beth in October!

3. A lovely chat with a dear friend from elementary school who is expecting her first! There is so much excitement and unknown when pregnant with your first baby. Can't wait to meet him/her

Monday, August 23, 2010

Update: A Series

I am long overdue on an update. So tonight begins a series. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Update 1: The good

* Reading aloud to my children. I don't care how tired I am or how much I just want to crash myself, when they snuggle up to read books every night? It is awesome. I always loved doing this when I babysat and love it 10 times more now that they are my own children I'm snuggling. Wyeth walks backward, aims his butt in your lap and just gets cozy. And Seren is a champion story listener. I love, love, love these moments.

* Getting free donuts. I seriously love dunkin donuts coffee. And I also love chocolate frosted donuts. Last week, after a crap work week, I went to get a treat of a small decaf. And the man hooked me up with three free donuts! Score

* Seeing friends over the summer! This summer we have hung out with an insane number of friends. I love it! Last week Andy and her family were in town, we met up with our local buds Tina and Brian for a music fest and we had dinner out with an old colleague. It is wonderful to connect with so many people. I also have had coffee in the evenings with a number of good buds. Doing this makes me happy. Very happy. Connecting with people rocks

* Goals being realized. This year I stated in January that I'd like to find more community. And I'm doing that. Slowly. I am still waiting for the all clear to volunteer with moms on bed rest. But I did manage to pull together a Habitat for Humanity day through my office! 14 of us head out this Saturday! I'm thrilled that my company was also able to make a corporate donation. Wish us luck! We are dry walling!

* Good health. My family has been blessed with good health. With a number of close friends passing in 2010, I am trying not to take this for granted. My little family as well as my extended family. As far as we know, are healthy. That is huge!

* Sam and I are making slow but steady progress on the house! This Sunday was officially 'errands' day (Don't all of you have at least some days where everyone just has to buckle down and do cores?) We went to Lowes and purchased an 8 foot pegboard to hang our pots and pans. Pictures to come soon

* My mom and Dad return to the Philly area after 3.5 weeks in Cape Cod

* My inlaws are coming in September! We can't wait to see them!

* Preschool is beginning again! Seren is SO excited. She has the same teacher this upcoming year which is really wonderful. And four of her classmates will be joining her from last year. School doesn't start until September 13 but we are ready.

* Good too are preschool questions. Constant questions. Questions that just really don't have answers which apparently frustrates the hell out of our preschooler. TOday's burning question is this, "But MOM! I know what bird poop looks like but what does bird PEE look like?" When I told her I had "no idea" she replied that Dad said the same thing!

* Weekend adventures. I haven't spent a lot of the summer blogging about summer adventures but we have had some great day trips. This past weekend we went to Fort Mifflin and learned about pirates! People were dressed up as pirates and the kids loved looking for treasure! Two weekends ago we went on a hike to Palmyra Takoma (sp?) Nature Cove! We hiked around. It was sweaty but great! We also have been to several out door concerts with friends! Picnics and music=score



* We have dressed up! Dress up is always great!

{Cinderella meets Madeline meets Hawaiian beach princess}


{Taking cell phone calls in heels is tough!}



When I started this post, I could only think of the 'bad and ugly' parts of my life. But now that I just off the top of my head thought of many things that have made me smile in the last two weeks, I feel much better! I may still continue the series, however!

For now and truthfully, overall, it has been a great summer! (And it ain't over yet!)



Monday, August 16, 2010

Milestones

There are the expected milestones when raising chidren:

First time he/she sits up
First tooth
First night he/she sleeps through the night
First time eating solids
First steps

But then there are the OTHER milestones:
First ER trip
First family puke a thon
First time the mom cries louder than the baby when learning to nurse
First time you get peed on
First poop in the tub

It took us over 4 years but last night marked the first poop in the tub!!

NASTY!

Wyeth was being VERY uncharacteristically QUIET.

Seren then started to say it smelled in the tub.

Yuck. Double yuck.

Check that milestone off the list!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Daddy Camp

As all six of you readers know, Sam is home all summer with the kids full time. We fretted a bit about how many weeks of solo care that would be. And while Seren really enjoyed the one week camp at the local Nature Center, for the most part, Seren and Wyeth have been really happy at home during Daddy Camp.

Sam decided to take a page from our preschool and have a 'theme' per week. He loves this. Seren loves this. And Wyeth? He loves everything.

The first week they did a unit on planets and the solar system. Each day, they created a planet. They read about the planet on line and Seren has now memorized the order the planets. (That part took a few weeks).

Here is the solar system:
(The dots in the middle are the 'asteroid belt')





The second week was a unit on the Rain Forest:
Seren learned a song about the four layers of the Rain Forest, they 'read' on line stories from children whose families live in the Rain Forest and they created HUGE trees. Wyeth really got into this art project. They also colored in pages of pictures of rain forest animals.







Week three involved learning about the Fourth of July and National Independence:

I forgot to take pics of the statue of liberty, etc. Here is one of the Red White and Blue paintings.



Week four Seren went to camp and did lots of Nature Arts and Crafts.

Week five was unit on trains. For this unit, the kids helped Sam make Seren's bed into a train! The cow catcher is my favorite.









Week six was a bust because it was 'prep for vacation' week.

Week seven was VACATION AND FAMILY TIME.

Week eight was regroup and reorganize life.

And now week nine is Safari week! Yesterday they went on Safari around the block. They each had binoculars, a big broad hat and Sam wore a backpack. They also set up our camping tent in the backyard and spent a night on the Savannah. The pics were sent to me via phone.





What a summer! Add in some brutally hot days, some errand running, grocery shopping, and pool time and you have got a busy, busy summer! Go Sam! Go Daddy Camp!

Monday, August 9, 2010

A Day at the Salon

Saturday morning I had a MUCH needed haircut appointment scheduled. Seren's wonderfully curly hair has been ignored for several months so I thought to myself "Let's kill two birds with one stone and see if they have an appointment."

Let me premise this story with the fact that I myself am very low maintenance. Lipstick is about as fancy as I get. I shower and blow dry daily but I'm not all about to spend a lot of time and money on presenting myself to the world.

Seren, at age 4, of course has had many haircuts. All involving hair cuttery for $12.00.

But this Saturday with a long list of errands in hand, I decided to make it 'easy' for myself.

Big mistake. I mean, whatever, it is hair. It will grow. But holy expensive and holy WEIRD.

The woman who cut Seren's hair wanted to know what I wanted done. I said that I wanted two inches off because her hair got INCREDIBLY long this summer. And I say a little 'light' layering would be fine.

Seren was SO excited to get her hair washed in the special sink. She held my hand as I got my hair washed because she was a little nervous but she hung in there. So with my instructions to the stylist stated, I got my haircut and Seren got her new do.

When we both turned around I was shocked at the little face looking back at me. They had put in several INSANE layers. Like something a 25 year old would want. And they blew it dry STRAIGHT!

My little curly head girl had STRAIGHT hair.

I felt mixed emotions. One, she looked gorgeous. Two, she always looks goregous and where was the mop of curls? Three, who in the hell thought that several layers would be 'easy' for me to maintain?

They topped off the experience by putting glitter in her hair. She was over the moon with excitement. She even got her first lollipop out of the experience!

She always looks gorgeous to me but this is how the stylist interrupted 'two inches off the bottom and a little light layering'.









Sam, unaware of how hair works, thought the straightness was PERMANENT! He was relieved to know that it would BOING right back up after a shower.

Lesson learned: Go to hair cuttery. Spend the 12.00. Do Salons when she is 16.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Cape 2010 Pics

I am still going through hundreds of pictures that I took, that my best friend took, that my mom took. And I love them all. But here are some of my favorite ones.

One of the hardest and most wonderful aspects about our trip was that Wyeth got up not as his usual 6:30 but at 5:00 or 5:15. This resulted in many early mornings and not gettng any extra rest for the parents. Which was hard. But once I got over it, I began to look forward to it. Sam and I switched off getting up. When it was my morning, I took Wy guy to Dunkin Donuts in our PJs and then we'd head to the beach to see the sun rise! It was awesome! So he would march around in his 'Chomper' pjs and I would love looking and playing at my little boy who is much less a baby and more a toddler. It was an awesome tradition!





This early wake up meant he couldn't possibly make it to his usual nap time. So he napped on one of us every day for the first five days. He was exhausted and would fall asleep on the beach. On our shoulders. See?





We spent the whole week with my best friend from elementary school: Andy. She has two adorable kiddos! And the 3.5 year old and Seren hit it off! They always do which is just wonderful considering how little they see of each other. This year Andy's family rented a home and we got together daily for beach time and evening beach fun. It was awesome! If you told me when I was ten when I first met Andy at Merion Elementary that I'd be 33 and spending my vacation with her, her husband and our four kids, I would have not believed it for one second. But it was a blast!

The girls:


Moms and littles:




The house on the Cape has an outdoor shower. Guess who was my shower mate for the entire week?



Other favorites:





(What you don't pack your own purple attenae when you go on vacation?)





Vacation. It does a body good.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

What I did on my Summer Vacation- By Megan

We just returned last night from 10 GLORIOUS days in Cape Cod.

Today is also my 8 year anniversary with my husband.

Today is also the day Wyeth turns 20 months!

There is much to catch my blog up on. As usual.

What I did on my Summer Vacation:
* I played in the sand.
* I laughed.
* I snuggled my family members.
* I ate well.
* I got very tan.
* I had a complete blast with friends and family.
* I relaxed.
* I spent 90% of my days outside.


What I did not do on my summer vacation:
* I did not sleep in. I did make it to 6:45 once.
* I did not read a single page of my book.

But MAN did we have FUN! I forgot how FUN life can be! So it was very, very refreshing! I have a lot to catch up on. Emails. Blogs. Laundry. Bills. But I can't wait to post some pics.

Yay for vacation!!