the last weekend

Well, well, here we are. The last weekend of summer vacation. The last weekend before Dylan becomes a kindergartener. The last weekend before new routines, more structure to our weeks, and a whole new chapter in our family.


The end of summer always makes me a little sad. And maybe this year, a little more so. Because from this point forward, the end of each summer will mean school is beginning and I'll have to give up these days of adventures with my boys. We've done so much this summer. From Dylan passing his swim test, to Logan going hog wild in the pool (at the beginning of the pool season, he would barely step into the water!), from spending long, lazy days at the lake, to bbqs, parties, days at the park, a bazillion walks in our neighborhood, field trips to Baltimore and Pennsylvania, many, many playdates and good times with family and friends. Its been a fun, fun summer.


But fall! Fall is coming! I love fall. There are Halloween costumes to create, farms to visit, mums to buy, pumpkin patches to explore and wine festivals to attend. I'm already looking foward to lots of baking projects this fall, and of course, our trip to Florida for Thanksgiving.


So summer, while I'm sad to see you go, I know that you'll be back. And next summer, maybe Logan will be old enough for us to try some new adventures - camping? hiking? river tubing?


Last night, we attended Dylan's back to school night. We met his teacher, Mrs. M:

We got to spend time in his classroom (did you know they don't have chalkboards anymore?! Its all LCD electronic gizmo stuff, and his classroom alone has more computers that my entire high school did when I was a senior!).

So when we put you on the bus Tuesday morning, Dylan, I can't promise that I won't cry when the bus pulls away. Because I still see you as my little baby. And I still have this crazy idea that you need me so much. But the truth is, you'll do just fine. You're going to meet new friends, and learn so much that I'll have a hard time catching up with you. I'm so proud of you.

PS - The school already hit us up for some fundraising. Anyone wanna buy some $10 wrapping paper?

the little things are so big

We are having some crazy August weather. This last week of summer vacation, I envisioned many long final days at the pool, splashing and sweating and frollicking in the water. Instead, the weather lately has been too cool to swim and we've spent our days on walks and at parks.

Its been challenging week so far. I had to take my car into the auto body shop because a few weeks ago, I backed into someone at the farmers market and put a dent in my rear door. I now have a rental car until sometime next week. Call me spoiled, but its a total pain in the ass to now have a minivan without automatic sliding doors and no DVD player. I've also still been dealing with Verizon since we're having all kinds of issues with our internet service. We've had technicians here three times this week trying to fix us up. Today, my garage door opener stopped working. Yes, in the grand scheme, these are small, fixable problems.

Still, we've tried to fit in some fun to keep our days busy and the boys active.

In five days, Dylan starts kindergarten and the structure of our days will completely change forever. Today we had no plans and I decided we'd do something totally different. Even though the rain clouds loomed overhead, we headed to a local park for a little hike. The boys loved it, and I love watching them interact and explore together. We only hiked a mile, and Logan did so well, walking almost the entire way himself, stopping to explore tree roots and leaves and throw sticks into the bushes. At the end of the trail, we came to a steep cliff overlooking a beautiful panaramic view of the Potomac River. And my boys giggled and waved hello to two men fishing in a boat way down below and I just watched them and felt my heart swell with love for their innocence and wonder.

You just can't have too bad of a week when you have two little guys like this, holding your hand and offering you the prettiest leaves they can find.

so sweet I could just burst

D: "Mommy I love you."

Me: "I love you too. Very much."

D: "That always makes me happy."

Wonderland?

Dutch Wonderland. We wanted to love you. Really, we did. On a scale of 1 - 10, you get a five. Okay, maybe a six. You had your moments. Like the oh-so-cute frog princess diving show, and the super nice cashier who filled our water jugs with ice and water for free. The nice ride operators who let our kids stay on the same ride more than once. And the leisurely Sky Ride with views of the park.



But good grief. The crowd. It didn't help that it was one of the nicest days we've had all month. Or that it was a Friday at the end of summer before school begins. The place was packed. The waterpark side was a frenzy and so hard to keep track of our boys. The ride lines were painfully long. We never made it down the big waterslide, for fear of dehydrating in the 45 minute wait to go down. You can't reason with a two year old about waiting in line, especially when he has missed his nap. And the food was mediocre at best. I've never seen french fries quite that shade before. The 40 minute wait for the bath house to change into bathing suits forced me to strip my two year old naked in the midst of the crowd, and there was no A/C for me when I finally got in to wrangle out of my wet suit. I may have been better off hiding behind the Amish playhouse and getting nude.







Let me just add, we were probably on crack when we decided to do this trip up and back in one day. We did it once before this summer, unsuccessful as you'll recall, and still had our tickets to use before school starts. So rather than springing for the hotel room again, we toughed it out and did a day trip. Too, too far Dutch Wonderland. Three plus hours of driving one way does not make for an energetic pair of parents, ready to deal with theme park crowds with patience and grace.


We hung in there though, we made it through. We had some laughs. The kids were troopers and the drive home was better. The boys wanted to rock out to The Police with Logan playing air drums and singing Da doo doo doo, Da da da.... and Dylan asking repeatedly for Spirits in a Material World.



And although we awoke today with a theme park hangover, we'll forgive you Dutch Wonderland. Through the crowds and the bad food and the traffic jams, we could see your true intentions. Just remind us to come back at the beginning of June, when school is still in session.

cousins

My brother took this photo of my boys and his twins at the lake last week. We hardly ever get a shot of all four kids together - they never sit still long enough!

We're heading to Dutch Wonderland tomorrow. Hope to share photos over the weekend!

Playdate with Grandma Lynn

As the summer is coming to a close, the boys and I wanted to spend a fun day with Grandma Lynn - just the four of us for some quality Grandma time. And boy did we today! The cool weather today lent itself to a great park morning, and off we went to a park near Grandma's house where we rode a train and the boys rode the carousel. Why does Dylan have the same goofy expression in every photo? He kills me with that sideways squinty thing.










Next, it was off to Ledo's for a pizza lunch. Then back to Grandma's for Logan's nap. Grandma and Dylan made homemade chocolate chip cookies and played games. Then we all went to the pool, where Dylan jumped off the diving board a hundred times, and Logan kept Grandma busy throwing balls in the pool for her to chase.

A great, fun, beautiful summer day. Thanks Mom!

We missed Daddy while we was at work but we'll have lots of fun with him this Friday when we re-trip to Dutch Wonderland together. Fingers crossed for no puking this time!

boys of summer

We're back from the lake, and so begins the two week countdown til kindergarten, the new fall routine and saying goodbye to summer. But first, a look at our Lake Anna family vacation week...

Pigging out lake house style...




Ready to race...



Mmmmmmmm ice cream



Me and my cousins!
Joshua and Maya


In the "boom bounce"


Crab feast night with Mom and Robby, Uncle Chris and Aunt Jessica and gang...



beach bubbles



family boat ride



We like to go fast!


giant flying beach pizza
sharing snacks



I'm chill like that.

bon voyage

We're heading out tomorrow morning to the family lake house for a little R&R for the next eight days. We'll be spending time with family, lounging on the beach, swimming, boating, tubing, jet skiing, fishing and eating lots of junk, and having many adult beverages.

See you peeps when we return!

questions and answers

It used to be that I could count on a car ride to provide a little mental down time. The kids tucked into their car seats, Ziplocs of Goldfish crackers, watching The Incredibles for the bazillionth time. I used to use drive time making mental grocery lists and daydreaming of exotic vacations. But for about the past two years, Dylan has morphed into Question Boy, and there is no such thing as tuning out during a drive anymore.

His thoughts are so random, you just have to wonder what sparks them. Today on the way to Target, he drilled me on these two gems.....

"Mommy, what are animals made of?"

"Mommy, how do octopus' know where they are going?"

I always try to be as simple and honest as I can when he asks things, because the very next second he's onto another crucial subject...."Who would win in a battle, Hulk or Spiderman?" or "How does Gatorade give you power?". Maybe by the time he's seven he'll have more staying power and I'll have to delve a little deeper into each subject. But for now a simple one sentence reply usually satisfies him before his brain flutters onto the next question.

He's growing up so fast. Right now he still thinks we know everything. And I will happily give him answers. Happily entertain his ponderings and nonsensical logic.

Because someday, when he has facial hair and his feet are bigger than mine, the questions will stop when he knows everything and we're just the parents who don't understand anything.

These days, when I find myself in the car alone it just seems too quiet.

its working

Logan has slept thru the night for the past two nights in a row. Those were nights 5 & 6 of our new Sleep Plan. No crying, no banging on the door. Hopefully this is the new trend. Hopefully the first four nights of no response from us have taught him its not worth his energy. We'll see.

Surgery went fine yesterday, and it looks like it will be a pretty easy recovery. There's nothing easy about filling up the days with my two boys, but Mom is still here today to help. We've done Playdough, Moonsand and craft time so far And its not even lunch time yet. Hooray for Grandma's!

Right now, Logan is taking a movie break and is mesmerized by this. He, who won't sit still for anything else, will watch that thing from beginning to end. I hear they have another one out about numbers so we might have to check it out.

Next up - getting us packed for vacation. We leave Sunday.

next time I'll go alone

Tomorrow I am having an outpatient procedure on my girly parts. I won't go into the details (Dad, this is for you in case you are reading), but lets just say having children has not been easy on my body. This little procedure should, hopefully, help get things back to normal.

Today I had a pre-surgical OB appointment, just to complete some paperwork and get a prescription for Percocet (yee-haw!) and have some bloodwork. Out of desperation - Andrew had a meeting and is taking tomorrow off to be with the boys, and all of my nearby neighbors and friends are on vacation right now - I took both boys with me. I used to take Dylan to all of my appointments when he was younger - he'd play, eat snacks, and ask no questions.

But now there are two of them. Dylan is Question Boy, Logan is Loud Boy, and I'm sure that office staff is still talking about us.

Dylan spies graphic poster of feminine reproductive system on wall in exam room:

"Mommy, how did that baby get in there? Why doesn't it have any clothes on? Why is it upside down? What are these for (stirrups)? clang clang clang. Mommy, what's that (fertilized egg), it looks like an eyeball! Ewwwwwwwwww."

Dylan dumps over entire magazine display. Logan smashes light against wall repeatedly, then discovers light switch and switches it on and off, on and off, on and off with sticky fruit leather fingers...

Dylan sees flip chart of full color photography of uterine disorders.

"Mommy is that a stomach?"

"No, its a uterus."

"A uuuuutaaaarus?" Uterus! Uterus! Uterus! Uterus! Uuuuuuteruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuusssss! Then Logan chimes in "UUUUUUUUUU!!!!

In fact, the only time during the entire appointment they were both quiet is when the nurse drew my blood. Mommy in pain must equal pure entertainment worthy of silence.

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Sleep Update

Last night was Night Four of Cry it Out for Logan. Its getting slightly better each night. Give us a few more weeks, he'll get it.

Operation Sleep Through the Night

After all of my ranting and raving about Logan being so challenging, it should come as no surprise that he isn't a good sleeper. He has probably slept through the night 30 times in his entire life. For reasons we can't determine, he's up several times a night screaming and banging on his door to get out of his room. He's been in a toddler bed since 18 months when he began diving out of his crib. Believe me, we have experimented with with adjusting bedtimes, music, fan or no fan, etc. etc. but little man just can't seem to go an entire night without waking and pitching a fit.

We had two great appointments yesterday at Kennedy Krieger for him - still working on some behavioral stuff. But the lack of sleep - his and ours - has really become a concern. Now that he is two, we've decided to go hardcore. He's not snoring and there doesn't appear to be a physiological issue. We feel this whole thing is a behavioral issue, and he's used to getting our attention at night even if its just go to into his room and tell him to go back to bed. So, no more. No more going in there, no more helping him find his binky, no more nothing. He's on his own. The therapists even suggested we reverse out his baby monitor so we can actually talk to him from other rooms in the house and tell him to go back to bed. (Remember in Real Genius when they hook up the speaker and God talks to Kent from above?) They also suggested we put padding up on his door where he bangs so that it isn't so loud, and he can't hurt himself. We think he does full body rams because it sounds like the door is coming down. There's no sleeping through that.

Last night, on our way to Target to buy supplies to launch Operation Sleep, we couldn't help but realize we were running an errand to pad our childs' room. Ahhhh, parenting.

So, up went the padding. We bought a bazillion binkies and put them in a basket next to his bed so he can suck on a new one each hour if he desires. He was up screaming at 2 a.m. for 45 minutes. Then again at 3:15 for 30 minutes. Then again at 4 a.m. for a little less. I think I eventually tuned him out after cranking our fan onto high and closing our door.

We heard him rip the padding off the door, but we did not go in. And this morning his rocking chair and stuffed animals were strewn about his room. Tonight we'll try it again. And again, and again. Until we finally get that boy to sleep all night, every night.

And ultimately, the hope is to see a vast improvement in behavior. I know I'm nuts when I don't get enough sleep, so it has to affect him too. Dylan somehow sleeps through it all. But Andrew and I are going on no sleep for two years now and it has to end.

I'll keep you posted.