Check out my work in progress That's Life v 2.0 - if you have managed to even get here...

 

Dash has never been much of a sports fan untill this summer.  Suddenly, just as he turned 7, he has become obsessed with sports.  His favorite sport to watch is baseball and his favorite team is the White Sox.  He is so obsessed that he wants to stay up to watch every game, every night.  This becomes a problem since many of the games don't start untill 7 pm or so.  Sometimes we TIVO them for him and he will finish watching the game in the morning.  He follows the team standings, is learning all the players and now owns two Sox shirts and his trusty hat that he even wears in his sleep.  He told us that if he takes his hat of the team might lose.  So, if the Sox go on a losing streak next week - it will be because Dash started back to school and he won't be allowed to wear the hat to school.

 

Dash has learned 7 years worth of baseball information in the past two months of the summer.  He is now learning the names of the the different baseball stadiums along with their locations.  Above is a picture of Dash at his last trip to "U.S. Cellular Field."  The Mr. and I realized the depth of Dash's obsession the other night.  Dash was in the living room watching the game and the Mr. and I were in the kitchen when the telephone rang. The Mr. took a look at the caller ID and saw that it said "U.S. Cellular."  The Mr. said to me "Why does the caller ID say US Cellular?"

 

And suddenly, from the other room Dash came sprinting into the kitchen with this question for us "The White Sox are calling?!"  It took the Mr. and I a moment to make the connection with US Cellular Field and our caller ID and then the Mr said "Yeah, they want you to help coach the team!"  I Love It!

Baby Jack Jack is going to be the death of me; or of himself.  Jack has the personality of a very persistant wanderer and explorer.  Indoors, he gets into all sorts of trouble.  Even though our house is as baby proofed as possible, he can still find the three things that we could not baby proof and he goes after them constantly. 

 

 - I have now rearragned the cabinet drawers, so that there are only child safe items in them.  I even have one drawer completely empty, because I finally put the plastic wrap and foil in the pantry after finding him sawing off little pieces of foil to eat. 

 

 - The Lazy susan, now only has cans and unbreakable items in it.  Yet, yesterday I picked up the baby to give him a kiss and he smelled like onions.  I knew I did not feed him onions...Ah ha!  It was the package of Lipton Onion Soup that he had stolen from the lazy susan and then chewed on until he could eat the contents.  Amazingly enough, he was enjoying his snack.

 

 - The laundry room door is now shut unless I am in there.  And even then, Baby Jack Jack pulled the lint screen out of the dryer (this he does all the time so I wasn't suprised) and then shoved a plastic frozen smiley face (that he was holding after he bumped his head just few minutes prior) into the lint vent. This was while I was standing right there! I am obviously not smart enough to think some of these things through.  I did not realize how far down this vent goes until I had to use the BBQ fork to try to pull the stinkin smiley face back out so it wouldn't melt in there.

 

- Baby Jack Jack can now scale small buildings with his Spiderman toes.  The Mr. caught him standing on top of the kitchen table, which is the same height as the counter tops.  Unfortunately the Mr. did not get to him before he fell off the table, doing a belly flop to the floor.  I do not know how he survived this one.  But, except for having the wind knocked out of him, he did not even have a bruise.  Thank goodness for the rug we have on top of our hardwood floors.

 

- This morning while I was making breakfast, Jack Jack found out that he can open the TV cabinet and I found him pulling the tape out of one of our home videos.

 

- Last Sunday, Jack Jack wacked his head above his eye and went to church that day with a black swollen eye.  This Sunday the eye was almost all better, but he was sporting his lastest look - a fat lip from trying to climb over the stair gate to follow Dash upstairs, but then falling and hitting his mouth on the wood part of the stair.  Someone is going to think we are abusing him, or at the very least, negligent in watching him.

 

- Sometimes it is so much work trying to keep him safe in a fairly safe environment that we take him outside. But, there again, the wandering instincts kick in, and just runs away from us, always going the opposite direction we are.  The little stinker is pretty fast too,  I have had to sprint to keep him out of the street countless times.

 

There are about two places that the kid is safe - strapped into his stroller or his carseat.  He can even wiggle out of the straps in his high chair.  Oddly enough, he hasn't made it out of his crib yet.   I know it can't be long.  And I am so dreading that day.  Nap time is our saving grace around here.  It is also the only reason I am able to blog (darn work filters are working to well at work again!).  It is certianly a good thing that Jack Jack was not twins or triplets (I don't know how Sue's sister does it).

I start work again this Wednesday.  My kids have two more weeks before they start school, however, since my time is short I have started my end of the summer organizational binge.  Pity my poor children.  I have this idea in my head that if we start the school year off with clean, organized rooms, that the year can't help but be a good one.  By clean organized rooms I don't just mean reorganizing the stuff that's in there and leaving all the bits of crayon wrappers and old papers stuck into corners.  By clean rooms, I mean a full-on purge of all things that are too small, not played with, broken, stuck into corners, you get the point.  So, for the last three days my children have been hard at work sorting through their stuff.

 

I have become a neat freak in my old age.  I know I did not recieve the neat genes from my mother...her clutter was driving me crazy for the last three weeks.  In a bit of self-analysis I decided that family life is chaotic and not always under my control.  But, I can control the clutter in my house if nothing else.  OK, so much for deep thoughts for today.

 

Anyway, I try to leave the kids rooms alone, but, we have lived in this house for a year and it is amazing the amount of "stuff" they have accumulated in the past year.  Time for deep cleaning.  We had boxes to keep, boxes to throw away, and boxes to give away to charity.  As we were going through Dash's room I decided that he needed a new organizational system for the masses of Legos.  All the the sets he gets are really cool and he spends hours putting them together.  Then the new Lego masterpiece will sit on his shelf where he can play with it until the fateful day in which it crashes down and breaks back into the thousands of pieces that it came in to begin with.  At this point the Legos get tossed into many boxes and the specialized pieces get lost, never to be built the same way again.  Really I think this is OK, because the creative process is much more engaged when he is creating his own masterpiece rather than a scripted one from the instructions.  But, still I thought the pieces could be organized in a way that would encourage Dash to put his Legos away better.

 

So, we discussed and decided that we would sort them by color.  I bought half a dozen bins from Target that we could label with chalk and we set out to sort thousands upon thousands of legos by color.  It was a monumental task and Dash wasn't sure we would ever get done.  But after three days, we did.  It really became very addicting.  Every time Jack Jack was napping I would sit down and start sorting.  Black & grey in one box, Red, Blue, Green & and Yellow...Over and over again.  There was something satisfying about watching each Lego go into a bin with similar colors and I hated to stop.  I wanted to keep going until they were all done.  And now they are.  I haven't yet figured out why that task was so satisfying to me.  I guess I will have to go have a few more deep thoughts tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Incredibles had a great three weeks in California.  But, it is so sweet to be home again.  Ahhhhh...

 

Yesterday was our full first day home and we did nothing.  Well, that is not really true. I unpacked all of our things right after we got home on Tuesday, so all I had to do yesterday was grocery shop.  But, after three weeks of not being home, filling up our pantry was a monumental task.  I spent almost $300 at the store and the shelves still look bare.  That is frightening. 

 

Now today we are again doing...Nothing! I need some days of nothing since I start back to work in less than a week.  But, we may try to get in some golf with Dash if the weather cooperates.  We had some big storms last night and this morning, so we will see.  I also have to start planning for back to school for the kids in about three weeks.  Shopping, room cleanin and organizing are all in the list coming up, so I guess I will enjoy my nothing days while I have them.

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I am still getting used to these Spaces changes.  I am not sure if I like them or not yet.  I will reserve judgement for a little while.  But, I don't like that I haven't figured out a way to add non-msn blogs to my friends lists.  I would like to just migrate my whole blog roll list over there, but that doesn't seem possible...or is it?

 

 

Well, we are sort of back.  We are out of the mountians and back at my parents'.  We spent another un-airconditioned night trying to sleep on the futon, with two more nights to go.  I am so looking forward to going home.  I have very much enjoyed our trip, but there is no place like home (hum...that sounds like a movie phrase).

 

While in California I have started a mental list of all the things I like about Indiana.  While I always miss my family and the mountians and the beach, there is actually a lot to like about Indiana (no joke, really!)

 

So, here is my list:

1. Air conditioning on hot humid summer nights - because I am in charge.

2. Having a baby proofed house - I am so tired of constantly having to keep Jack Jack out of trouble.

3. Neatness and order - The clutter here can drive me insane, plus it is just more for Jack Jack to get into trouble with.

4. Large parking lots with wide spaces - is it just me or do they make the parking spaces smaller here?

5. Knowing how long it takes to get somewhere based on how far it is, not on how much traffic there will be.

6. Not taking 5 freeways everytime I need to get somewhere.

7. Friendly people who say hello and make eye contact.

8. Open spaces where there are not houses, or shopping centers, or another dry cleaner.

9. Having to drive more than a mile to get to a Starbucks or coffe Bean and Tea Leaf - this saves me a lot of money.

10. Not feeling like I live in a slum because my house isn't worth more than $700,000.

11. Not hearing the traffic drive by my window all day long.

12. And the thing I am most looking forward too...my own bed and my own pillow that have just the right softness vs. hardness with my own bathroom nearby and no children sleeping in my room

 

Two more nights and one long plane flight to go...

But, first, Tomorrow night is Taco night with Grandma!  This is always one of my favorite things about California. 

My family and  I will be leaving tomorrow for a family church camp up in the mountians.  This is a camp I went to almost evey year of my childhood so it will be a little like coming home again after not being there for the last eight years.  Hopefully it will cool down a little bit from today's high of 99 degrees.  For the mountians that is ginormous.

 

I am so looking forward to the week.  However, it will mean a week without the internet.  The laptop has already been shut down and packed away for the week (I am in mourning).  So, until next week...the motto will be "survive the heat!"

The frentic actvity of our first few days in California have slowed down a bit.  But, Grandma is busy enjoying having her grandkids around.  We spent half a day at the LA zoo where it was VERY HOT (I guess it is that way everywhere), but there was some animal activity and the kids enjoyed it.  As always, Violet's favorite animal exhibit is the Reptile House.  Why?  I think there is some sort of facination with animals that normally would scare the bajeebees out of you, but are safely behind glass for the time being.  We also where able to see a mama kangaroo with a joey in her pouch.  Cool. 

 

After that hot day we spent some time in the pool cooling off.  Wednesday I had lunch with my brother's new wife, who I don't know very well.  It was really nice to be able to spend some time getting to know her.  She earned my stamp of approval.  Yeah!  I also got to visit with my best friend, who has been my friend since kindergarten.  She just had her first baby and I loved holding and smelling a new baby.  I hope the Mr.'s surgery worked, because my hormones were going crazy just holding that baby.  No more for me, thank you very much. 

 

The highlight of my week thus far, may have been yesterday, when the Mr. and I spent the afternoon and evening sans children at the Getty Art Museum.  AWESOME.  I am not really and artsy kind of person.  But, that place ROCKED!  We then went to dinner at Gladstones in Malibu, always a favorite, where I had swordfish and a Hurricane. 

 

We then took the long way back spending two hours driving down Sunset Bl.  We found the site where OJ Simpsons's house once was and took in all the clubs and crowds on the sunset strip.  That's not my scene, but an interresting drive.  The kids spent the day swimming with Grandma.

 

Today, we are relaxing a bit while Grandma took the older two to see Cars and to the mall so that Dash could pick out a B-Day present at the Lego Store.  Sunday is his birthday and tonight we are having a small celebration with my grandparents.

 

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OK, to change the topic...I have started posting some of my photo highlights on Flickr.  Check them out if you would like.  This is not an exhaustive collection.  I have a personal site where I post all of my pictures for my family and friends.  But, I decided that Flickr was a cool place to at least store my favorites.

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Speaking of pictures...Who can tell me how to get pictures in the middle of my blog, so that they don't end up as little thumbnails at the bottom?  Anyone?

 

At home, in Indiana, when it is hot, we run our air conditioning.  It is so humid in the summer and fall that we set the air conditioner for a comfortable tempurature and then we leave it there, day and night.  For the most part this actually costs less than it does to run the heater during the rest of the year (except for the two months of the year - one spring, one fall- that the temp outside actually makes it comfortable inside with maybe some windows open).

 

My mom, on the other hand, has some philosophical belief that the air conditioner SHOULD NOT be run at night, not even under dire circumstances.  Her belief is that if it is cooler outside then we should open all the windows and let the cool air in.  This works sometimes (not in Indiana where it doesn't really cool off at night), but most of the time it does not and we are left sweating in the evening and mornings.  She will not deviate from this belief even if my dad is busy mopping his head and neck and even chest and back with a small towel to keep some of the sweat off.  She will not deviate even as the rest of us complain of the heat. 

 

Last night, we sat down to play a game and the air conditioner turned off.  So mom jumped up to open all the windows.  I said "you are opening all the windows already?" 

 

"Well, the air turned off, so it must be cooler outside"

 

"But, mom, I was sweating before the air turned off"

 

No response from mom.  So I got up to get a cold beverage and took a look at the thermostat.  It was set at 85 DEGREES!  "Mom!  The air turned off because it is set for 85!"

 

"Yes, because it is cooler outside."

 

"But we are not outside.  We are inside and it is hot in here"

 

"Well, if we open all the windows it will cool down."

 

And on, and on, and on.  There is no reasoning that it is not going to cool down in the house for a long time beacause there is no breeze to blow cool air into the house.  There is no reasoning that when it is 80 degrees outside and it is 84 inside that the outside air is not going to help much.  There is no reasoning that people don't like to sleep in pools of their own sweat.  There is no reasoning that her daughter may have inherited her father's overactive sweat glands and so the two of us are now blind from the sweat running in our eyes and cannot see to play a simple game of Clue.

 

I told the Mr., as we lay in bed making sure not to touch because that would create more heat and then we would be stuck together, that maybe I should just give up making comments about the air conditioner at night, because mom obviously is not going to change her ways for us.   But, maybe it is more fun to be obnoxious and see how long she can ignore my pleas for relief.

 

So, we went to bed last night with the windows wide open, listening to the sounds of the busy street nearby and the sound of the very lound ceiling fan above us.  And, we awoke this morning to rain drops being blown through the window and hitting me in the head.  Nice.

Disneyland...Awesome!

 

Yesterday was a great, but HOT day, at Disneyland.  My uncle works in management for Disney and has his office at the park, so I have been may times before.  But, there is something very special about experiencing it with a (almost) 7 year old who is finally old enough to REALLY enjoy the whole park.  The very first ride we went on was Space Mountain.  The Mr. got the priviledge of sitting next to Dash on the ride.  But, when the ride stopped and I saw his face, it was awesome.  Dash had the biggest grin on his face and a look that told me that the day could end there and it would still be a great day.

 

We did all the major rides twice, except for Splash Mountain which we only did once with our Fast Pass since it proved to be the most poplular ride on a day where the temps where in the 90's.  When we asked Dash what his favorite ride was he basically listed them all (except for the Winney the Pooh Ride that we really just did while using up some time before we could use our Indiana Jones Fast Pass).

 

One thing I did learn was that my mother has to go to the bathroom ALL THE TIME!  In fact, we started taking a picture of her everytime she left a restroom and I created a photo journal of her day which I gave to her.  the Journal contains no less that 6 bathroom breaks while actually at the park.  She said that her favorite bathroom was the one near the Carnation Plaza because there was classical music playing in the restroom.

 

Today, my feet are still sore.  I think I am going to pass up a shopping trip to the mall and reschedule that for Monday.  Tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate my parents' 35 wedding anniversary at my mom's favorite family friendly So Cal resturaunt: Islands.  Other than that, I think I will go take a nap.

We haven't even been here 24 hours yet and I am exahusted.  I am barely keeping my eyelids pried open as I type this.

 

Last night our plane was scheduled to leave Chicago Midway airport at 7:40pm.  This was planned for, because it is Baby Jack Jack's bed time, so we were hoping for a sleeping baby on the flight.  We did get that, however, the flight was delayed and did not leave Chicago until almost 9 pm, making for a very cranky Jack Jack who just would not settled down in the airport.  He did fall asleep was the plane took off and he slept until the plane touched down at LAX.  This is where the whole family gets messed up...

 

The kids all slept on the plane.  I was very uncomfortable, trying to find a position to hold the baby that would not cause the whole left side of my body to cramp up.  When the plane landed it was 11 pm in California and 1 pm in Indiana.  Ouch.  We all woke up getting off the plane and getting our bags and getting into my parent's van.  By the time we arrived at their house it was 12:30 pm in California and basically my kids were up for almot two hours between 1 and 3 Indiana time.  Ouch.

 

It took a while to get eveyone settled into bed and by 5:30 am Jack Jack was up for the morning.  The Mr. took the baby downstairs allowing me to get a couple hours more of needed sleep (I paid him back and he got a nap in the middle of the day), but it really was not enough.

 

Luckily today was not a very busy day.  We did take the older kids to see Pirates of the Caribbean to get ourselves ready for our trip to Disneyland tomorrow.

 

Quck Movie Review:  Movie was ok.  Too long for a movie that just leaves you hanging with an obvious "get ready for the sequel" ending.  Fairly gory.  It was well deserving of a PG 13 rating and I was a little worried about my 7 year old during a few parts.  He liked it, but Violet at 7 would not have made it through a movie like that.  At almost 12 , she loved it.

 

Disneyland tomorrow!!! Both Violet and Dash have been before.  But it has been a while and this will be the first time that Dash will be tall enough, and brave enough for all the rides.  They have been looking forward to this for a while and Dash made a list of all the rides and the order he wants to ride them all.  Mr. Incredible is looking forward to it almost as much and he and Dash have been visiting the Disneyland website planning their trip.   The Mr. reminds me of a commercial for Disneyworld were it shows a kid in bed saying "I'm too excited to sleep."  and then it shows his dad is in his bed saying "I'm too excited to sleep."  It has been fun to see them excited together. 

 

We are leaving Baby Jack Jack with a baby sitter.  We decided that he would not really enjoy the day all that much and our older kids deserve some time where they get to have all the attention.  But, since Grandma and Grandpa are coming too (and my grandparents decided to go on vacation) we are having a friend of my mom's watch the baby.  It just makes me a little nervous having someone who has not spent that much time with Jack Jack watch him.  We call him our baby whilrwind.  I am sure he will be fine, but the babysitter might just be wiped out by the end of the day.

 

OK, now I need to go get some sleep to prepare for tomorrow.  I hope the babysitter is sleeping too :)

So, I have enjoyed my week and a half at home. Tomorrow night we are off again.  This time we are going west.  We will be spending 2 weeks at my parent's house in California and a week in the mountians at a family church camp.  We have plans to visit Disneyland and the zoo, I am sure we will plan a number of other trips as well.

 

I am looking forward to the vacation, but it seems like I just unpacked and got things organized and we are off again.  The part that is just really getting to me is that when we get back (on Aug. 1st) I will have only 8 days before I have to start working again.  All this traveling is making my summer seem WAY to short.  But, I guess I need to just enjoy every day that i do have and not worry about it ended so soon.  Sigh.

 

I will have internet accesss on this trip.  All the computer geek genes that I own I recieved from my father.  We had our first computer when I was in elementary school.  It was a portable computer called a Chameleon that was one of the first "portable" computers.  You can see a picture of it here.  Their house is wired and wireless to the hilt.  Between the 6 computers (4 desktop and 2 laptop) for my mother and father, and our laptop, I should be able to find a way onto the internet somehow; at least while we are staying at my parent's house.  This is a good thing because I really didn't think I was going to survive our week in SC without at least getting on the internet once.  Three weeks might just put me into cardiac arrest just thinking about it.

 

For some reason, I have this obsessive need to make sure that the house is clean when we leave.  So, not only will I be packing like a mad woman, but I will be cleaning the house at the same time tommorow.  It is a good thing that our flight doesn't leave until almost 8 pm.  Hopefully both Jack Jack and I will sleep on the plane.  See you on the flip side!

Violet and I had a day, a few weeks back, when Dash and Dad were at a Sox game and it was just us girls and Baby Jack Jack.  We took the opportunity to do some shopping for those girlie things that 11 year olds just don't want to buy with their 6 year-old brother and dad in tow.  We were at my favorite store, Target, perusing the girl's underwear section.

 

Violet was not really enjoying the process, and I probably was not helping by pointing out all the flowery bras and underwear that she could purchase.  As we were looking at the underwear Violet says "can we just get plain white ones?"

 

I was in shock!  Plain White!  Now some people believe that all undergarments must be of a neutral color so that they do not draw attention to themselves.  I believe, however, that undergarments should not take themselves so seriously.  As long as you are not wearing, for example, your new blue and orange striped underwear under white pants, who is going to know?  Have fun.  Wear those Santa Clause boxers year round if it makes you happy.  No one will see unless you choose to show them.

 

I realized, though, that really Violet was just reacting to the girlie flowers and frills that were in front of us.  Although she tends to be a girlie girl, she is not a flowers and frills girlie girl.  So, I found, on the other side of the rack, a package that was not plain white, but had different colors and stripes.  This seemed OK to violet so we purchased all of our stuff and started walking out to the car.  Along the way, Violet starts telling me a story.

 

One can never tell what exactly is going on in Violet's head and sometimes the connections she makes are a little random, but that is what makes her fun.  So I start listening to the story.  Think of this story as it would be told by an energetic 11 year old girl (a little fast, probably with run on sentences):

 

Violet - "Mom, you know what really bugs me?"

 

Mom - "Having to buy underwear with your mother?"

 

Violet - "Seriously, mom, have you ever seen when girls wear pants so that when they sit down you can see their underwear in the back?"

 

Mom - "Yeah, that bugs me too."

 

Violet - "Well, there is this girl in my class, Joyce, who you can see her underwear all the time and it really bugs me because she was sitting near me in a way that eveytime I had to look at the teacher or the board I could see her underwear.  Don't you think she would have noticed that he pants were too low?  Or maybe she likes to show off her underwear?  Well, we just bought the same underwear that Joyce wears all the time."

 

Mom - "Well, if Joyce is in your class again next year you can sit next to her and be the underwear showing twins!"

 

Violet - "MOM! No one is going to see my underwear!"

 

Mom - "Good, let's keep it that way until you are at least 30."

Here is a little tid bit from our vacation (or as my uncle once said in a Fruedian slip a "little bit of titty" - this is actually appriopriate, you will soon see why):

 

One morning I was on the beach with Baby Jack Jack, Violet, My Mother-In-Law (I think she needs a nickname, I will have to work on that one) and my aunt-in-law.  Anyway, Violet was out playing in the water and Jack Jack was wondering around in the sand near our chairs.  I was trying to get him interrested in digging a hole or filling a bucket, or really any activity that would keep us from having to wander the whole stretch of beach.

 

Baby Jack Jack started to wander away again and I bent over to pick him up when I heard a pop and suddenly felt a rush of air in front of me where my bathing suit top had once been.  I look down and sure enough I am free.  The clasp in the back, made of plastic had snapped leaving my suit flying.  Luckily it tied around my neck so it didn't just fly off in the wind.

 

I felt a little helpless so I called out "can someone grab the baby" as I reached behind me to grab the two loose ends of my suit strap.  The aunt grabbed Jack Jack for me and my mother in law turns around and says "what's the matter honey?"  just as I lose my grip on my suit straps and the wind picks up and she SEES just exactly what the matter is.  "OOOOOHHH"  She says is a funny high pitch voice, and then hands me a towel. 

 

Since the suit is not fixable I grab a shirt and head back to the house for a replacement.  As I do, I look around to see how many people might have just gotten a free show.  I didn't see anyone qawking in amazement, but then there really isn't all that much to see anyway.   Stand Back!  There's nothing to see here folks!

We made it back from South Carolina last night.  It took us two days of driving to get there.  By the time we got there my back and neck were sore from turning around to give things to baby Jack Jack.  But, we survived.  Our time in SC was great.  We spent a lot of time on the beach.  And the Mr. spent a lot of time on the golf course.  We went down there with bunch of the Mr.'s family.  There were 16 of us staying in one house together and another cousin and her family staying in a nearby hotel.  Needless to say, the kids had a blast.  In the next few days I will work on getting some pictures posted. 

 

The one downside was that BJJ started running a fever thursday afternoon.  By friday it was going up to 102 and he was just not himself.  I called his dr. back in Indiana and he said that since there really were not any other symptoms that it was probably just a virus and that we should just give him tylenol to keep him comfortable.  So, this brought about us decideding to make the trip home in only one day.

 

We thought that this trip home might be a nightmare.  But the thought of just getting home and not having a sick baby on the road any longer than we had to sounded VERY appealing.  Plus, we had been sharing a room with him for the last week and he wasn't sleeping well, which ment that all three of of us were not sleeping well.  So, we packed up the car Friday night and by 6:15 am Sat. we were on the road.  We made great time and even with two short stops for gas and snacks we were in our own house by 8:00 pm.  The most amazing part was that our kids were wonderful!  Really.  I am not being sarcastic.  The baby took a lot of little cat naps and Violet and Dash spent time watching movies and reading and they even slept some.  The Mr. even thanked them when we got home for being so great.  That doesn't happen very often.

 

Although, the vacation was very nice, every time I return home I realize the things that I love about being home and one of my favorite is my own bed and my own room.  I had one great night of sleep last night. 

We leave tomorrow AM for the beaches of South Carolina.  It will take our SUV two days of driving and it is sure to be an adventure with Baby Jack Jack strapped in the back with his brother and sister sitting next to each other.  They will have to actually sit within inches of each other since we put down the last row of seats to make room for the gobs of stuff we have to take.  Can't wait to report back in just over a week as to whether or not our return trip finds one of the children strapped to the roof.

 

Have a great week and keep your fingers crossed for sunny, warm weather for us!

When I first moved to Indiana from Southern California I was shocked at how friendly people were.  This was especially noticiable when I was out running.  Everyone I ran by would say "hello", or "good morning" or something along those lines.  At first it was a little strange to have so many strangers speak to me.  But, it was very easy to get used to.   Now on my trips back to California, I often find that I forget and "accidently" say hello to someone when I am out running.  The first time I slipped up the person gave me a look like they thought I was about to attack them.  I found this to be the most common response to me speaking to strangers in California, but, back in Indiana things were friendlier, at least they were.

 

The other morning I was out for a run and I noticed I was catching up to another runner.  This always bothers me anyway, because I never want anyone to feel like I am showing off by passing them.  But, it wasn't time for me to turn around and there was no where else to go so I went by her.  On my way past, I slowed down a little bit and said "good morning!"  There was absolutely no response.  OK, this was kind of like being back in California, but weirder, because she did not even look at me.  I figured it really wasn't a big deal, maybe she was wearing headphones or something (BTW - wearing headphones while running is even less safe than saying hello to strangers). 

 

At about 23 minutes it was time for me to turn around and run back the way I came from.  On my way back, the same lady was going the same way, and now I was running the opposite.  I noticed that she was not wearing headphones, was not talking on a cell phone, and did not have ear plugs in.  So, I decided to try it again..."Good morning" I said as cheerfully and non-threatening as possible.  Again there was not even the beginning of a response.  So, I just kept running and wondering to myself: Do I look threatening?  Do I look like a seriel killer?  Is it the baby I am pushing in the stroller that makes me look so scarey?  Could she be deaf?  But even if she was deaf, wouldn't she at least nod or something when she saw be coming?  I finally decided that she must be from California, or at the very least, downtown Chicago...

 

Cheap toilet paper on rolls that don't roll.  Every time you try to pull to get a decent length of TP, you end up with just and inch or two of worthless single-ply.  To actually get the job done you have to spend lots of time pulling very carefully and then it still rips too soon.  And lots of little pieces of TP are not effective - just messy.

 

Does buying cheap TP really save anyone money?  I proably wasted more than I used.  Someone should really research this.

This morning I woke up at 5:15 for my morning run.  My kids and my husband are done with school for the summer.  But, I have to report to work until this Thursday, to make sure that we have all of our schedules in order for the upcoming school year.  I did get to sleep in an extra 20 minutes, though, because I did not have to get the kids ready to go, or drop anyone of at Grandma's.  So, I got up, woke the Mr. up enough that he knew I was leaving, in case the baby woke up, and then snuck through the house as quietly as possible.  Just as I was putting my shoes on and getting ready to go out the door I heard Baby Jack Jack waking up.

 

This put me in a conundrom.  I sat on the stairs waiting a few minutes to see if he would put himself back to sleep.  But, unfortunately, Jack Jack has gotten himself into the bad habit of waking up every morning around between 5 and 5:30 and it was 5:27.  So, as I listened I tried to decide what to do. 

 

Should I:

A: Scrap running this morning and play with the baby, hoping that I could get a run in later? (this never works, but I have tried it many times)

 

B: Continue out the door, pretending that I did not hear him and hope that the Mr. would hear him soon?  (This just stuck me as wrong- mommy guilt)

 

C:  Go get him and take him to the Mr. who would be ever so grateful to have a squirmy active one-year-old in bed with him at 5:30 am on his first day of summer vacation?

 

D: Get the baby and some blankets (it was only 48 degrees out) and put him in the jogging stroller for a run?

 

As you can tell by the title, I chose option D.  We have had a jogging stroller for ages, but it has been mostly just used for walks since winter was too cold to take the baby out with me and not all of my runs are stroller friendly.  Also, running tends to be my one time to be alone, and I am not always so crazy about not having that time to myself.   I ran more with my Violet, because she was the only one.  But as you add kids, it gets harder to take them all with you and easier to just leave them with daddy or grandma and enjoy some peace.

 

Baby Jack Jack, loved the run.  He couldn't figure out, at first, why in the world mommy was putting him in the stroller so early in the morning.  But, as soon as we walked out of the garage he was excited to be outside.  We ran down a paved trail that used to be a railroad track and BJJ pointed out all of the birdies and bunnies that he saw.  We even saw a few deer bound across the trail.  I ran for 45 minutes and around minute 40 he started to get a little restless, but then a cat ran by us and he was ok again.

 

It was a good morning run and when we got home daddy was already up watching TV, not even noticing that the baby was gone (this might be a bad thing, good thing the doors were locked).  We will have to do it again (but hopefully BJJ gets out of this early morning waking habit), after I take a look at the stroller and adjust it so it rolls straight and not to the right.  My arms are already sore from pulling and pushing the stroller to keep it on a a straight path.

 

But, I can say that Baby Jack Jack had his first official run and he is well on his way to enjoying running through at least his toddlerhood.