Vacation Gratitude

My good friend, casinoqueen, has been posting some "I am grateful fors" lately, which got me to thinking, if every day we jotted down one thing we're grateful for, wouldn't it be pretty telling? It'd be a simple journal entry that effectively sums up the day in a few words without a lot of extraneous text. And boy, wouldn't that save time on the blogging! :)

I thought of this often over the past week, while I was off work and home with the kids. So, here's my Vacation Gratitude list, though probably incomplete since I didn't jot notes as the week was happening, so I'm sure there are things I've forgotten.

I'm grateful for:
Monday: sleeping past 6, Orange Dream, super ice-crushing blenders, Swedish-designed storage solutions
Tuesday: plastic bins, naptime, Sponge Bob, organized closets
Wednesday: libraries...just that they exist
Thursday: laughter, bike rides, trail mix
Friday: our Zoo Pass, sea lions, spring bulb sprouts, time for a cup of coffee at the hair salon
Saturday: my husband, Clarks shoes, the simple joy of kicking a ball, iPod playlists, Netflix
Sunday: warm pancakes, the Zoo's fish exhibit
All days: my kids

Yah, about that last one.

Before last week -- and maybe even a few times during it -- I was a little grumpy about using up a week of vacation just to stay home. This was a vacation determined by the school schedule, not by us, and I thought it was a bit disappointing that I wasn't doing anything "fun." But it wasn't until this morning, when Nora let out a huge giggle as I leaned in for a nuzzle, that I truly realized how great it was to spend a normal week with my kids. What a gift.

I have long since come to terms with the fact that I'm a working mom, and my kids are in daycare (and now school). After Owen was born and I returned to work, it was hard. I dreamed of ways that I could stay home with him rather than work, but it just wasn't in the cards. And, eventually, that was OK. By the time Nora came along, I was used to the routine and didn't go through the same daily emotional struggle. That's not to say that I don't have days where I long to spend more time with them or experience that "working mommy" guilt. Of course I do, but for the most part, I'm content enough. Then this morning, mid-giggle, I had a huge pang of "boy, am I going to miss this."

Turns out, I did do something fun on my vacation. I reconnected with my kids. And how great is that?!

Day Five

The sky was blue and the sun was shining, so off to the zoo we went -- each bundled up in an extra sweatshirt under our coats, cuz it was still only in the 30s. That's what I love about having a Zoo Pass, though. We could have stayed one hour, we could have stayed 6 hours (yah, right), it's already paid for.

As we drove there, Owen asserted that the one animal he wanted to see was a jaguar, while Nora voted for a baa-baa, so we cut through the farm on our way to the rest of the zoo. Apparently, zoo livestock are winter wimps because there was no baa-baaing or neigh-neighs or even a moo-moo to be had. Which is funny, considering the African elephants and tigers are out in the cold.

Then, on our way to the big cat house, I noticed that both elephants were outside, so we went left instead of right, and ended up seeing way more animals than Owen had in mind. He'd said earlier we could see three animals and then it would be time for lunch.

We had a nice couple of hours, even with drill sergeant Owen and having to break out the threats to keep Nora in line (if you want to walk, you have to wear your hat, I'd tell her...or, if you want to hold your blanket, you have to ride in the stroller...all totally unrelated threats to their rewards, but hey, it works). There are no crowds this time of year, so I could let both kids walk most of the time (while Owen's stuffed turtle, Matthew, got to ride -- properly secured as he insisted -- in the stroller).

In this photo, we were looking at the polar bears, but Nora was yelling "lion" because she had overheard Owen and I talking about the sea lions, which are right next door. She also refused to get her picture properly taken today. A couple of times, I'd say "Owen and Nora, look at me" and Owen would turn and flash a smile, but Nora would yell "no!" and run away.


And I thought this was cute. It's like she's trying to get the thumb sucking action through her mitten, or maybe her face was just cold. (And doesn't Owen's old Dash hat look cute on her?)


We did end up seeing the jaguar, and the camels and the giraffes and the penguins, before all was said and done. Then we heading off for lunch at McDonald's, where I indulged in a Shamrock shake, something I haven't had in probably at least 5 years. Hey, I'm still on vacation. :)

Day Four

Ho, hum, lazy day. Stayed in my pjs until 3:30...ate popcorn for two meals...had over an hour of blissful solo shopping while my kids happily concocted trail mix with my friend Stacy...went for a quick walk to the park for some swinging and sliding...and yah, that's about it. Oh, and today's MORE snow, while annoying, was quite beautiful, especially when it tapered off around 8:30 and was falling in that slow motion, wonderfully pre-Christmas sort of way. (And I can say this without my husband being mad at me for yet another "the snow isn't so bad" comment since it also melted upon contact with all paved surfaces, so no shoveling.)

Day Three

Today, I infiltrated enemy lines -- storytime at the public library. This usually is the territory of stay-at-home moms, given the Wednesday at 10 a.m. timing. I saw a couple of women who seemed nice, but since next week Owen will be back at school and I'll be back at work, I didn't put too much effort into making small talk. So, beyond comparing that Mom A had a son Rowan to my Owen, that was about it. Though I did want to compliment Mom B on her t-shirt, emblazoned with the logo of the new independent radio station here in Milwaukee. Seriously, are all stay-at-home moms this cool? Or just the ones who hang out at the Milwaukee Public Library?

After spending a couple of hours in the children's section of the library (which, by the way, was wonderfully furnished with a climbing castle, puppet theater, train set and Lego table), we walked down the front steps to meet Jon for lunch, since he works only a few blocks from there. So, a nice morning, though I had to chase mischievous Nora around the book shelves a little more than I would have liked, and remind Owen that yelling at his sister to be quiet in the library kinda misses the point.

And, as an aside, it has been a long while since I last set foot in that library. The parking is atrocious, so I tend to frequent the suburban libraries, but the building is just spectacular. Stepping into the library's main foyer is like being somewhere in the state Capitol building, what with the columns and molding and lighted dome. They really knew how to build shrines to books 100 years ago.

Day Two

Ahhhhhh, spring break! Slept until noon, woke up and painted my toenails, then grabbed a bagel before slathering myself with sunscreen and heading to the beach to pretend I can tan. No, wait, sorry. That was a flashback to Spring Break 1992 there. Let's just say today involved a much different set of activities, and that I now have another cleaned out and organized closet.

Day One of Vacation

Grocery store trip. Cleaned playroom closet and purged toys. Nora sat down among purged toys and played. Set up lovely new storage system from IKEA. Wished we'd purchased two. Caught a 20-minute nap during Sponge Bob. Made lasagna and garlic bread for supper and consumed my share of a bottle of Spanish red wine that I'd labeled "pasta" after purchasing it at Trader Joe's.

I Can Only Be Hopeful

I have the next week off and I choose to ignore any bad signs I'm seeing today, such as...

- It's the second day of spring and it's currently snowing. There's already a good 3-4 inches out there and cold weather is predicted for the next few days. But, I can only be hopeful that the 40s forecast for Tuesday will be the start of a warmer week so we can get outside and have some fun.

- The kids started fighting almost as soon as Nora woke up. They both wanted the coveted singing Nemo book. I took it away to restore order. I can only be hopeful that they won't be at each other's throats all week.

- They're both coughing this morning. I can only be hopeful that it won't get worse and I won't have two sick kids.

- I ate about a dozen pieces of Easter candy last night. I can only be hopeful that I develop a sudden allergy to chocolate so I don't have to rely on my weak willpower to stick to my diet. :)

I guess I really don't have much I can complain about. I'm on vacation with my kids for 10 days, we're seeing family tomorrow, coloring eggs today (and shoveling snow, apparently) and I have a whole week of no morning alarm to look forward to. Sounds pretty hopeful.

The Pictures Tell the Story

Whew. It's done. The week of birthday cakes and birthday parties and birthday dinners and birthday presents is done. Although I've always liked that Owen's and my birthdays are a mere 1 day apart, it does make for one heck of a busy week. In fact, I'm still a little wiped out. And, for that reason, I'm going to let the pictures tell the story.

On Friday, Owen was off from school, so I took a vacation day and we did some of his favorite things. You know, like going to the grocery store and the mall. Of course, because it was his birthday, we did some extra special things at those places, like buy a 3-foot tall balloon at Pick n' Save.


And select a deflated turtle to bring to life with stuffing at the mall's Build a Bear. (Ours now sports a kickin' black solar system T-shirt, that, unfortunately, is minus Pluto. Poor Pluto!)


Then it was off to a classmate's birthday party at a big, indoor playground of inflatable play equipment. And, after a few turns through the obstacle course and down the big slide, I can attest that those thing are a lot harder to climb and maneuver on than they look. A few hours later, we were home again, and it was time for his big birthday present, a new bike.

Followed by an appropriate 5-year-old supper of mac-n-cheese and hot dogs, and using the same small piece of cake to sing two Happy Birthdays. (Notice Jon's clever redecoration of the top of the cake for me. Hey, I wasn't baking a cake for Friday and then another one for Sunday!)



On Saturday, Jon and Owen took the train to Chicago to visit Jon's mom, who was in the hospital for a few days of treatment. It was Owen's first trip on a train. When I asked him what he saw, he said "fields and cross-its."


They walked to Navy Pier, where there were St. Patrick's Parade activities going on, so the great big Ferris wheel was running. Both Jon and Owen took a pass on that one. (And see the turtle? His name is Matthew.)


Sunday was party day. We'd decided on a bowling party -- less crazy than Chuck E. Cheese's and less work than in our house -- and picked an alley near my former place of employment, because really, I just haven't been to a lot of bowling alleys. We'd invited a handful of kids from Owen's class, plus the grandparents. (By the way, the real Matthew is Owen's friend in the blue shirt).


It was a blast. Watching those kids propel their 8-pound bowling balls down the lane was priceless. They threw them between their legs, overhand (thud!), sideways, you name it. A couple of the balls didn't make it all the way, running out of momentum before they reached the pins. And the kids got a kick out of watching everyone's balls slowly, slowly roll down the lane. Fun.

Then we retreated to another room for pizza, cake and such. And yes, I made a bowling-themed cake, though the "bowling ball" part turned out a little lumpy. I was just happy it didn't slide off.


It was all over so quickly. But it was nice to meet a few of the kids I hear about but haven't met before, and nice to talk to the other parents, too. And, since 1-2 parents came with every child, my little bungalow would have been overflowing. This definitely was a lower-stress option.

Nora spent the afternoon looking cute and being really good at staying off the lanes, though when we were done, she quickly walked right up to Owen and sat down next to him, which resulted in my favorite picture of the day.


Sigh. Man, I love those kids.

Five!

Today, Owen turns 5. Sometime around 2 a.m. 5 years ago, he entered our lives and Jon and I became, forevermore, parents. The past year has brought about some amazing changes. He is learning and growing by leaps and bounds -- so quickly I can hardly believe it. We had parent-teacher conferences this week and his teacher showed me Owen's book where he draws a picture of himself every month. Back in September, it was a circle head with a smiley face and five sticks of hair coming out one side. His most recent one was complete from the ears to the shoes and featured red hair and one blue eye and one green eye (his eyes are bluish-green, he says). Amazing. Then there's all the reading and writing (not much arithmetic yet). Turns out, school really does work.

It's also been fun over the past year to watch his relationship with his sister grow and change. A year ago, she was still quite young, crawling around and not that interesting to him. Now, they're great playmates (or bitter rivals, varying from second to second). One of my favorite things to overhear is "hey, Nora, want to ______ with me?" shortly followed by her little "yah." They've fallen into that natural ebb and flow of a sibling relationship.

He's still so young in so many ways -- spends the first 5-10 minutes of the day huddled on the kitchen floor whining about the bright light, gets upset over seemingly mundane things and isn't a fan of going into dark rooms solo -- but he's getting so much more mature, too. I remember, over the summer, watching him dangle his way from one end of the monkey bars to the other and thinking, wow, when did that happen? And this past weekend, seeing him so comfortably cruising around on a big bike at the Toys R Us store. But even more importantly, it has gotten so much easier to communicate with him. We have real back-and-forth conversations and he tells us stories, and we tell him things and he reacts.

We've had a fun birthday day together so far. Got a great big helium balloon at the grocery store, built a stuffed turtle at the mall and had lunch. In about an hour, we're heading to a classmate's birthday party, and then it's home for his cake and presents, so it's definitely a packed day.

Happy birthday, kiddo!

Miscellaneous Somethings on a Sunday Night

Nora is learning new words at a fast and furious pace lately. Some of her latest include "sah-we" (sorry), "bay" (bread) and juice (er, juice). She calls my dad, "bakka," but looks at you like you're crazy if you repeat the word back to her. Must sound like grandpa in her head. Add these to her current repertoire that includes such old favorites as boots, milk, walk, okay, hot and no, and she's quickly becoming a petite master communicator. Owen often quizzes her by asking her to repeat words after him, and though I'm amazed by some of the ones she gets right, it's also funny to hear something like "lion" come out a "shiz ne ma."

Tonight, about an hour after bedtime, I went upstairs and noticed Owen's bedroom light on. As I got to the top stair, it quickly turned off and when I went into his room, I discovered him laying in bed with stickers all over his face, which he pleaded with me to leave on. Oh-kay...

It's a landmark weekend in our household. For the first time, we have a brand new couch in our living room. As in, it's our first new couch ever. It's weird to think that, a week before my 36th birthday, I'm just now getting a new couch, but first we were poor and then we had a baby who threw up on everything, and then another baby, and suddenly it's a decade later and we still have a hand-me-down in our living room. They were fine hand-me-downs, but it was time (especially considering our son's recent foray into couch arm art with a black marker, a transgression that resulted in his first real punishment ever -- no art supplies for a week. The fact that he's in school all day with access to a limitless supply of taxpayer-funded crayons and markers probably dampened the verdict's impact somewhat, but hey, we did our part.)

Today, we went bike shopping for Owen's first two-wheel bicycle (with training wheels). He was riding them around the store like he's been doing it for years. Then he wanted to try out the four-wheeler in the display nearby. Ah, no. Nora had four-wheelers on the brain, too, and hopped right up onto the Barbie four-wheeler on display. Seriously, a Barbie four-wheeler?! (and for the non-parents out there who may have never witnessed these things, they are $300-400 electric, pint-sized four-wheelers...you know, because kids need these kinds of things).

Watched the movie Once, which I would recommend to anyone. What an unassumingly beautiful and wonderful picture.

We have a busy week ahead. Parent-teacher conferences, two birthdays, two birthday parties (one for Owen and one for his classmate who was born the day before him, and at the same hospital. That they ended up in the same class at a southside school is just one of those weird coincidences that makes Milwaukee seem not really that big), cookies and cupcakes to make and a whole crapload of work-related shenanigans. I'll be happy for Friday, which I'm taking off to spend with my birthday boy, who has the day off of school.

Oh, the Reality!

I don't know if there are any other Biggest Loser watchers out there, but I just want to go on record as saying that Danny is a cocky little shyt and I'm so ready for him to go home.

That, and I'm excited about the Project Runway finale tomorrow night. I've been really good at avoiding on-line pictures of the final collections, so I'm looking forward to seeing them. Even if Entertainment Weekly keeps ruining things every year by publishing photos before the finale.

And how sad is it that two of the three shows I'm Tivoing right now are reality series? I'll just blame it on the writer's strike and then mumble something about how I'd rather be watching Liz Lemon.

In Defense of March

This morning, as rain turned to sleet turned to snow outside my window, I felt the need to come to the defense of March. This month that is the transition, for those of us in the Midwest, between winter and spring. In like a lion, out like a lamb, as they say. Though our driveway could have doubled as an ice rink today, I was glad for the sound of rain sprinting down the gutters, for the shrinking snow piles, and yes, even for the now faceless snowmen in the front yard.

March is one of my favorite months. That shouldn't be surprising, really, since it's also my birthday month. But there are other reasons.

It's the month of baseball's return to the radio.

It's spring break and Guinness on St. Patrick's Day.

It's the start of spring, officially, at least.

It's the month where the occasional 50-degree day feels like summer.

It's when Trivia preparation really swings into action.

It's the month I became a mother, to an almost 5-year-old boy who's absolutely wonderful and frustrating all at the same time.

March is a preview. March is hope and anticipation. March is unpredictable. And I love it.