Summer Vacation Diary Day 10

Oh boy we are in the double digits!   

Today was also pretty mellow because I only had Autumn until later in the day.  I had been planning to take Alex to Rutland in the evening but when I realized that its 2 freaking hours of driving one way and it would be in the evening AND it was happening at a time that I would have to take all three kids with me, I nixed the idea.  Instead Alex and I drove to Burlington (20 min away!) and met up with a fellow hobbyist photographer for a mini-photowalk around the waterfront.  It was yet again a gorgeous sunset.
Here are a few pics from that walk:

The next three photos are of a teenager (my guess is 17) and his buddy trying desperately to think of stunts to do involving a skateboard and the fishing pier.  The jumper was actually a really nice guy and not a punk like I'm used to dealing with when I see people his age.

In the first photo he has ridden his skateboard (which he told us he found in the Lake so if he lost it in the Lake it would be OK) the short 6 foot-ish distance across the width of the pier, then grabbing the railing he heaves himself over and goes into the drink.

Next is a photo of his second attempt, where he did an accidental 360.  I wish it was not blurry but he was doing it on the darker side of the pier.  You still can get the picture that he was a wee bit surprised lol

The rest of the photos are just pretty sunset pics:

Alex and I got home around 9:45.  It would have been earlier but he twisted my arm and we had to get creemees.  I really enjoy spending time with him alone, which I rarely get to do, especially now that he is of the age where we can do stuff together and he isn't whiny.  Actually each kid is great alone.  Its when you mix them all together and add in 80% humidity and nothing to do that really cooks my pot roast.

Summer Vacation Diary Day 9

A mostly quiet day.

• Got up early like I wanted to at 5:15am and took a walk.  It was a nice walk and it came back to me why I used to do that every day.  Because its nice!!!  
• Took a shower before 7am.  Earth shattering, but slowly becoming a common occurrence! 
• Saw coolest rainbow ever at 7:11am, and took pictures of it.
• Autumn slept until 9:30am which totally threw my day off but oh well. 
• Picked up a butterfly pavilion that my friend grabbed for me at Goodwill.  Can't wait to catch some caterpillars!
• Went to my parents' house and weeded for an hour.  My garden is actually coming along!  My corn is knee high to a fisher cat!  Might get some mini cobs off it one day.  
• Went to waterfront to watch sunset with Kris and Autumn.  Was amazing, got amazing pics, the end. 

Wait, where is all the whining and desire to slam my head into a brick wall?  OHHHH the kids went to their Dad's for two days!  They are most certainly having much more fun over there.  He has a yard and a pool.  I am very happy for them all.  I'm hoping when they come back that they will have gotten whatever it was out of their systems. 

Pics from today:

Huge rainbow at sunrise

Me and my favorite book and my other baby

Autumn trying to shake a seagull off a lamp post.  She wanted to step on it and it just wasn't cooperating!

Salsify puff at sunset.  These look like giant dandelion puffs but they are not! :)

Autumn on the fishing pier

Probably the prettiest sunset photo I have ever taken so far.

Summer Vacation Diary Days 6-8

Yes, I skipped a few days there.  Trust me: those entries would have been full of nothing but wah wah wah.

I will sum up Saturday through Wednesday here:

• Saturday morning:  Kris' bike was stolen off our front porch.  I got up at some ungodly hour, like 7:15am or something, and when I went out to take my walk I was first floored by how clean the front porch looked.  Then I remembered, I certainly didn't clean it!  One thing led to another and then I realized what had happened.  First our mail, now his bike.  Poo.
• Sunday: Woke up with such a stiff neck that I had to have Kris teach Sunday School at church because I was about as friendly as a cat getting it's temperature taken.  Advil wasn't helping so I just wanted to sit in the back and relax.  
• We went to my parents' house and I tried to weed my garden but the dang horsefly up there I SWEAR it waits for me!!  Blargh!  I dealt with it as long as I could.  Garden is actually growing which is shocking to me since I'm not doing anything right.  Maybe my Dad is secretly going up there and doing stuff to it that you are supposed to do when I'm not around?
• Monday:  Oh boy its raining.  That means I don't have to worry about watering my garden (its 20 min away from my house), but also means I get to hear "I'm bored" and "Can we play Wii all day?" It held off in the afternoon for a while so I took them all to the waterfront to walk around and go to the play ground.  Someone looked at Alicia sideways and she started crying and was then miserable the rest of the time.  We picked up Kris after waiting 25 min in traffic to go about 1.5 miles (I HATE DOWNTOWN DRIVING) and the kids wanted ice cream.  First we were going to get creemees, then McDonald's ice cream, then it devolved into going to the Dollar General and getting popsicles.  Hey when you are broke you gotta do what you gotta do.  Alicia was pissed.
• Tuesday:  Raining still.  Kids would sit on couch all day long glued to whatever screen they have in front of them if I let them.  I did do some water color painting with Alicia.  I forgot how fun that is.  Might have to do that again sometime when the kids aren't around.  Had a dentist appointment that left my gums feeling miserable even though the hygienist said I "only bled a little".  Pretty sure when you can taste the iron in your blood that it is not a little.  Blech.  
• Wednesday:  Alicia's 8th birthday.  I wish I could say it was awesome but by 8:30am she declared it was the worst birthday ever because Autumn sat on her and wouldn't get up.  Proceeded to cry for 15 minutes.  I ended up crying because I felt like the worst mom ever seeing that I cannot seem to make these kids happy no matter what I do and I'm starting to lose interest in trying.  I never cry in front of them so it freaked Alicia out enough that she stopped crying and turned to comforting me.  Might have to use that one again, sparingly.  
• Signed the two older kids up for Wednesday summer camp at Milton Rec.  They go do something not boring for 4 hours every Wednesday afternoon and I get to clean the house.  Or think about cleaning it.  When they got back they went with their Dad and Aunt to see "Brave" and are staying with him till Friday.
• While lying on my bed sinking into depression and wishing something would happen to pull me back up I got a phone call from my best friend asking if I wanted to ride along with her to Underhill.  Hellllllllls yeah I did!  I suddenly had some energy and jumped up off'n my Tempurpedic and ran down the stairs.  Finally human contact with someone who wasn't bored!!!  

All in all its been a pretty crappy week, but I'm determined to turn it around.  What's getting me down most is the fact that my main form of exercise/entertainment is to walk around Milton, and because of several different construction projects I am unable to access many of my routes on foot especially with the kids.  Too dangerous.  I have to go 2 miles out of my way to get to the picnic area/river bank that I like to go to, and walking with three kids that is just too much.  Therefore I am just going to have to get my sorry butt out of bed early and go for a walk before it starts.

Pictures from the past few days:

Summer Vacation Diary Day 5

Today's highlights:

• Alex had a friend over at 8am (no problem since the construction rarely lets me sleep past 7am).  Not even close to as hot as it was the previous two days.  They played with their DS's and Wii happily. 
• Went to bathroom, came out, and 2 more children were in my house!  My daughter, who had been with her dad, and their 10 yr old cousin, who has the same name as the boy that was already over!  
• I started a real SmugMug acount in hopes of selling some of my photos without having to do the hardest part: print and mail!  They do it for you!  Here's hoping.
• I decided to get some things done while the kids were occupied with each other.  I needed to mail out two checks for our condo association, of which I am now treasurer.  I had one all set to go but was waiting on an address for the other one.  I put the first one in the mail just to make sure that I did it.  It was about 9:00am.  When I got the other one all set about an hour later I went out to the mail box and when I opened it I did not see the first envelope in there.  Mail comes at 2pm so this was a head scratcher.  I shrugged my shoulders assuming that mail had come early for the first time in 8 years.  I put the new envelope in the mailbox and went inside, completely forgetting about it 5 seconds later.
• About an hour from that time there was a knock on my door.  "There's a hairy shirtless guy out there mom!" one kid says.  Yay.  OF course they open the door before I can even get to it so I have to deal with it.  Luckily its one of my neighbors.  "This yours?" he says, holding the first check I had written, no envelope just the check.  "Why, yes, yes it is!  How on earth did you get it??" I said, completely confused.  Its not in my nature to assume the worst of most situations, unless they involve complete silence from wherever the children are. "Little girl out back went to each of our mailboxes and took out the mail and opened it.  Her mom found it and made her bring them back.  She came to my house first and asked me to give it to you."  Wow.  What?? That girl is 9 years old if its the one I think it is.  The hairy shirtless guy has no kids so he had no clue which of the three little girls that live behind us it might be.  The one that lives closest to us just moved here from Burlington and we have never had a problem before she lived there so I am assuming its her.  I could be wrong.  What really grinds my gears is that I am now out two stamps, since she didn't bring the first one back.  Ugh.
• When I was left with just one child, the 2 year old, I decided to go to the Waterfront in Burlington since I had not been there for a bit.  Perfect temps, beautiful clouds, and amazing sunset.  Here are a few pics:

Summer Vacation Diary: Day 4

Today was Alicia's birthday party.  Her actual birthday is next Wednesday but she specifically picked today for her party.  Not sure why but why argue during summer vacation!

Now, if I had been smart, I would have made her cake 2 days ago and frozen it or at least refrigerated it in preparation for dealing with the mini heatwave that we all knew was coming.  However I do not work like that.  Therefore at 9:00am there I was, in 85F heat, with the oven set to 350 trying to make the cake as fast as I could.  Then I was impatient trying to get it out of the pan (which said non-stick but it LIED!!) so of course it cracked in half.  And not exactly in half either.  That's why I bought 2 cans of frosting.  One to frost the cake, and one to glue it together!

The finished product:  hey, it tasted good.

Today's highlights:

• If you didn't think it could get any freaking hotter than yesterday, you were wrong.
• Driving 6 kids in a minivan for 15 minutes with zero air conditioning and only front seat windows in 92 degrees.
• Finding out a state park punch card is one punch per person, not per vehicle.  Ugh.  At least it saved me a few dollars.  Also, the library's state park pass is unfortunately more famous than I had hoped it was. 
• 3.5 hours at the beach with a zillion kids there, trying to keep track of my own kids, and feeling my heart stop everytime I couldn't find one right off.  My friend brought her daycare on a field trip to join us and she was dizzy by the time we were ready to leave.  The kids all had so much fun though so it was worth it.
• Driving back home with 5 kids in the hot minivan.  The three girls in the back, all under age 8, were enthralled with a dude on a crotch rocket who was driving up my butt most of the way, thinking he was watching them and wanted to be their boyfriend.  Then when he blew past us and two other cars when a car was coming towards him (of course, to show how cool he was to these girls) they screeched with glee and couldn't stop laughing for about 15 minutes.  Oh, to be a young girl again.  
• The biggest highlight of the day:  stepping into my friend's air conditioned house and getting to breathe. 

Beach photos:

Tomorrow:  Alex is having a friend over, but other than that NO PLANS!  At least, I don't think so.  I could totally be forgetting something important.

Summer Vacation Diary Day 3

Two words sum up today:  Freaking Hot.

We are having a mini heat wave today, tomorrow, and a little bit on Friday.  My thermometer registered 100*F at 6:30pm on the side of the house facing the sun.

Today's highlights:

• Last night my husband decided it would be a good idea to start a Pulled Pork recipe in the crock pot. It had to be cooked on Low for 12 hours with 2 hugenormous vidalia onions overnight.  I hate onions.  Then as a sidebar he said "Hon, all you have to do tomorrow morning is take the meat out, strain the onions, save them, put them back in, dump a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's on it, and leave it for the day on Low".  Gee, schnookums, that's all?  Oh, and I had to take the BONES out YECH I hate that stuff.  
• The construction dust was SO bad today that I couldn't open ANY of my windows on the West side of my house.  Here's what I was dealing with:

• I also brought my car in to get an oil change and an inspection.  I take it to Halford Motors on Sandy Birch Road in Georgia and the poor guy did it all with no air conditioning!!!  I felt so bad that of all the weeks I had to notice my inspection was 2 months overdue and my oil change was 2000 miles over it had to be during the heat wave.  He is supernice though and let me wait in the shade in his backyard so Autumn could play with their swingset and sand box.  Luckily it hadn't reached peak hotness yet as it was 9am.  Still, I wouldn't want to be under a car in this.  If you do live in the area I HIGHLY recommend this mechanic as he is very honest and doesn't hide anything from you or try to milk you dry.  This is a very important person to have in your life!!
• Thanks to Facebook we got an invite to my friend Nancy's house who has a pretty large pool.  This really saved the day. The older kids got to go in the pool and I filled up the kiddie pool for Autumn to splash in.  That reminds me I never emptied it before I left.  Oops sorry Nancy!  Anyway the kids had an awesome time.  However somehow even though I spent the whole time sitting under a huge umbrella, I managed to burn the crap out of my upper back.  The sun was THAT hot.  

Back home we re-entered the oven.  Under Nancy's advice I put the crock pot outside on the porch!  I probably didn't even need to plug it in hahaha  Autumn fell asleep as soon as we had gotten in the car and continued to sleep on the couch for 2 hours.  

Tomorrow:  the beach for Alicia's birthday party!  And its going to be hotter!

Summer Vacation Diary Day 2

Today was action packed and fun filled!  I only lost my temper like, 5 times!

• I showered.  This is worth mentioning.
• I discovered I only have 2 k-cups of Chocolate Glazed Donut coffee left.  This is not good.
• We went to see the Magic Show at the library performed by Tom Joyce.  He was SO good!  Great with the kids and there were lots of them there.  The Milton library actually has some killer stuff going on this summer.  Of course its all going on at 10:00am, coinciding with Dr. Phil...
• My Dad met us for lunch at the new restaurant in town.  A burger joint called Legends, which everytime I hear someone say "I'm going to Legends" I have visions of Dolly Parton and Elvis impersonators.  Very good burgers though I must say.  Of course Alicia wouldn't eat hers because of "I don't know" and Autumn's grilled cheese sandwich was bigger than her head so she couldn't eat much, but Alex ate an entire bacon cheeseburger with a side of fries. 
• I let Alicia play Animal Crossing on the Wii for a really long time.  It was just easier.  Then at 3:30 we had "Literacy" class.  Pretty sure I popped a vein somewhere after listening to her whine for 10 minutes about how the word search was too hard.  I asked her what her teacher did when she started whining in class and she said, "Well, I don't whine at school"  THIS IS WHY I DO NOT HOMESCHOOL!!
• And, drum roll please....the highlight of the day was....the kids got a new toilet seat to replace the one that broke in their bathroom probably 8 months ago!  And its not just any toilet seat, its acrylic (see through) blue with dolphins and sea shells in it!  Autumn wanted to use it immediately, but when Kris tried to get her dress off so she could go she tripped over the stool in the bathroom and whacked her head.  That was the end of that. 

Photo of the day:

My milkweed is blossoming!

  

Summer Vacation Diary Day 1

The kids got done last week on Tuesday, but because we went to Boston for the rest of the work week I decided to call today the first official day of summer vacation, or FODOSV.  I also thought it would be...interesting...to try to make brief posts of what happens each day as being home with all three kids all day long usually produces some kind of story that might be worth sharing.

Today's Quote of the Day:  "Gee, well, I kind of thought it would be a little more exciting...."
Look, kid, we are just trying to make it through till bedtime.

Highlights:

• Ran errands. Off to the library to return books that were due in April, which because of the construction it has been hard to walk the .1 mile to the library and I just can't bring myself to drive that short of a distance.  Next the bank to deposit checks for our condo association because I stupidly volunteered to take over the treasurer position.  I should have realized it sucked by the gleeful glint in the former treasurer's eyes.  Finally to the Post Office to mail out a disc of photos to a customer and buy a book of stamps.  The best part of doing bills this month was realizing that we ran out of checks and had to order more, costing us $20.  
• Went to my parents' house for the afternoon.  Pulled weeds in my garden which of course sunburned that patch of skin that appears when one bends over in low rise jeans.  Kids played Wii inside while my Dad watched.  Alex, who got a nice new camera, was buzzing all over the place taking pics.  Hoping he didn't get any involving my buttcrack.
• Upon returning home around 2:30 Alicia decided she wants me to homeschool her all summer.  As a friend said, I'd better ride that pony cuz it won't last long.  I spent an hour printing out homeschool worksheets for math and science, cringing when I see that the one about clouds had several misspellings.  Yikes.  
• Alex went to Chess Night because he really is a nerd and fully embraces that. 
• Kids went to bed by 9 progressively.  Drank 1 Blackbeary Wheat in bed while watching CSI with Kris.  

Photo of the Day:

Argiope at my parents house

Kryptonite

I finally have a decent computer with which to blog on, and now I have something actually interesting pertaining to motherhood to write about.

Autumn is now 30 months old.  She is what a great book calls an "SWC".  This is an acronym that breaks down to meaning one stubborn little $#%#$%!!  However, she is also one of the sweetest little girls, and that is a recipe for mommy disaster.  Mommy breakdown.  Mommy needs a vacation.  Alone.

The biggest hurdle by far I have encountered with her is EATING.  If you are my mom or dad reading this you know that the time you said "I hope when you grow up you have a kid just like you!!" actually came true and are probably snickering to yourself about this.  Well let me tell you, I wouldn't wish a stubborn eater on ANYONE!!  She so far has refused to consume:

Milk, unless its mixed with Carnation Instant Breakfast in chocolate
Any vegetable
Any meat, and I mean ANY meat except for McDonald's Chicken McNuggets.  She wouldn't even try a hot dog or rotisserie chicken or anything.
Berries
Mashed potatoes

That means her diet is mostly cereal, rice, pasta, and whatever sweets she can get her hands on.  I have been at my wit's end lately.  One night a couple of weeks ago we had hamburger helper.  She wouldn't touch it.  I decided that enough was enough and gave her time out.  Each time the time out was over I would have her choose between dinner and another time out.  She had 30 time outs in a row.  I ended up drinking 2 glasses of Cabernet.  I rarely drink.  The only thing that ended up working that night was to tell my husband to take our other daughter Alicia to the park since she had eaten all her dinner.  Autumn promptly ate 4 bites of her dinner (which was all I wanted her to eat) and put her shoes on.  You see what I am up against.

Yesterday we had our 30 month check up.  I switched doctors in-practice because of two reasons.  One, the office I was going to was extremely out of the way and very stressful to get to since I had to go through downtown Burlington coming from Milton.  Second, while my pediatrician has always been great, she has no kids and I felt that she didn't really understand in the way I needed her to.  For my other two kids who were not so challenging it was fine, but now that I am raising an SWC I need someone who has some battle scars.

I was delighted to find out that our new doctor has a 4.5 year old and a 2.5 year old both girls.  Going in Autumn was fine.  Then the dreaded weight and height measurement session came.  Ever since she was a tiny infant she has HATED getting on the scale.  And it always took 2-3 people to hold her down to measure her length.  I don't really know why, and I can't wait until the day she explains it to me.  Even if I am holding her she still freaks.  Weird.

We managed to get her on the scale and got a rough weight of 27.13 lb.  Her height however was not so accurate.  They had to put down 36".  Close enough.  But when the doctor herself came in she wanted to try again.  She brought Autumn down to the chart in the hallway and had me stay in the room, thinking that probably if I wasn't there she would be more cooperative.

This is what I heard from the exam room:  "Ok Autumn, please stand against the wall.  Autumn.  Against the wall.  Autumn.  AUTUMN.  AUTUMN.  You need to stand against the wall.  Autumn.  OK."
When she came back in she said, "Well, 36 inches it is.  I think she's taller than that but its just not going to happen."  I admit I was laughing on the inside.

Next she tried to check in her diaper to make sure there was nothing wrong in there.
"OK Autumn, I need you to either lay down or stand up.  That is the choice you need to make."
Autumn shakes her head and glares straight ahead.  Priceless.
"Alright then, I am going to lay you down.  Lay down.  Autumn.  Lay down.  (turns to me) How did you get her to lay down for the other doctor?"
"I usually had to lay on her upper body while the doctor held her legs down."
"Oh."  Pause.  "Ok then, stand up please Autumn."  More glaring and not budging.
"Do you want me to pin her down for you?" I asked.
"No that's ok I will just try while she's....sitting?"  Autumn at this point had her abs locked (I am pretty sure no grown up can do this) so that she was in a half sitting, half laying position which was basically impossible to work around.  The doctor pulled her diaper out in the front and looked fast which was apparently good enough.

Next we talked about the eating issue.  I explained that I felt I had tried what other doctors and books have suggested and that nothing has worked.  She said that while I can't control how much she eats, I can control what she is given.  Duh, I knew that, but the way she put it made more sense.  She also said NO more gummies, period.  If a kid is so obsessed with gummies that it is the first thing she asks me for every single morning for the past 1.5 years (since she could talk) that I needed to steer her away completely.  She also said to start by giving her just 2 peas and telling her she had to eat just those.  Same with meat.  Just small bits.  I had tried this before but now that she's a little older I figured I would try again.

The appointment ended with her offering to set me up with a nutritionist.  I know that's the vogue thing to do: see a specialist for everything.  However I don't really need someone to tell me a bunch of stuff I already know just so I can have Autumn reject it all because she's 2.  The doctor agreed.  I knew it.

That night at dinner I placed 2 peas on Autumn's plate.  "Remember what the doctor said?  You have to eat 2 peas."
"OK." and in the mouth they went.  Then she took 2 more and ate those as well.  "I'm all set now Mommy."
She wouldn't try the meat even when I offered her a dessert after.  baby steps.

Today I got her to eat 5 pieces of a hot dog by bribing her with 2 miniature marshmallows.  "Hot dog is pretty yummy, Mommy!"

I smell victory, and it smells like marshmallows.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is her kryptonite.