These Things Are In No Way Related

Yet another random assortment of thoughts and stories. In an ideal world, this would be a coherently crafted literary masterpiece, I suppose. But at least by numbering my paragraphs, I'm acknowledging that there is no transition possible that will make them the slightest bit cohesive.

1. In a cruel move toward solidifying her "non-baby" status, we forced Lucy to give up the pacifier this weekend. For no other reason than the theory that if we waited longer, it would be harder. And so far, it is going swimmingly. She asked for it once, before nap time on Saturday (she said nothing on Friday night, when we began the venture). I explained that pacifiers are for babies only, and Lucy is a big girl. There was a lot of reiterating "Baby paci" from Lucy, and my affirming response "Yes, paci's are for babies, Lucy is a big girl, no more paci's for Lucy." She seemed to accept it, as she hasn't mentioned it since. She needed to be rocked to sleep the first few times, but last night managed to get herself to sleep. There has been shockingly little angst and zero panicky build-up, and yet again I thank my lucky stars for my go-with-the-flow child. Who, for the record, I still call "Baby" every day.

2. For those interested, a quick update on my progress with Weight Watchers. I've been a member for just over two weeks now, and I've managed to lose 5 pounds. I am cautiously optimistic; if my weight were a monster truck, it would likely be called The Fluctuator (reference best understood by those well-acquainted with small boy children). Regardless, I know that I could be up again next time I step on the scale, but it's a two-week trend in the right direction. We'll see if it holds. I'm finding the program easier to work with now that I'm familiar with it, and the success I've had makes it easier not to go overboard with cheating. In fact, the way the plan works, I haven't actually had to "cheat" once. This includes the bottles of wine M. and I have split on occasion, and the two cannolis the family shared this past Saturday. The plan allows you to splurge - I just try to keep those splurges to the first half of my week, and not near each fateful weigh-in appointment. I think it also helps that I have been extremely busy at work lately - I'm too busy typing or running from meeting to meeting to snack constantly or consider chewing my arm off from hunger. My weakness is eating in front of the computer, and so far I have been able to exert some control over this habit.

3. Friday I was rear-ended on my way in to work. It was sucky in some respects - I was delayed an hour getting in to work, and now I have to deal with the hassle of getting the car repaired and getting reimbursed by someone else's insurance. On the other hand, there is less damage to the car than the last time I was rear-ended - which, by the way, involved the same car (of mine, anyway - thank goodness for my plastic Saturn), and the exact same spot (exiting the highway by work), about three and a half years ago. This time, I didn't have any children with me (the first time, I had an 11-month-old Finn with me), and the car that hit me was able to drive away(not the case the first time). The other bonus was less tangible, but better. I spent much of Thursday evening with the kids screaming my head off. It was like a runaway train that couldn't be stopped. They both did things that aggravated the crap out of me (ran out into the parking lot without me - they are fast!; Finn lied; Lucy threw shit on the ground during dinner; etc). None of it was a new challenge, but I lost my head - once I started yelling, I couldn't stop. And it carried over into Friday morning, where I called Finn a jerk for the way he talked to me, among other things. Not nice, even if it was true. (On a side note: Oh, the whining. When does it fracking stop? Ever?) I felt like a horrible mother, and by 7:45 am on Friday, I was already having a horrible day. Getting into a car accident helped me reset. It was like the day had taken such a turn that I couldn't help but have more patience, especially with my kids. It led us right into a pretty darn good weekend, assisted in great part by my lack of yelling and reserved stores of tolerance for repeating the same instructions over and over again. Which, once Finn began to respond to my improved attitude, I really didn't have to trot out after a while.

4. M. has just informed me that he is still unable to tell which one is Bert, and which one is Ernie. WTF? Everyone knows that Bert is the long thin one with the eyebrows (and the pigeon fixation), while Ernie is the short round one with a duck fetish.

5. Pictures, for the family:
Blue eyes

Winter 2011's Snowman

Some serious Angry Bird-playing going on here.

Lucy has taken to stealing the camera, turning it on, and taking pictures. Here, a self portrait.

M. and Finn work on some literary skills at the chalkboard.

The kids just started swim lessons again (after a 10-month hiatus). This time, they have to wear swim caps. I'm sure the swim school meant that the caps should be worn in the water, but in our house, they're much more of an "everyday accessory."

For both kids.

M. and Finn made wheat bread on Sunday, dragging our breadmaker wedding gift out of hibernation from the top of the refrigerator, where it had been living untouched for several months.

Finn greatly enjoyed monitoring how high the dough rose before cooking.

Lucy mugs for the camera.

Finn eats the fruit of his labor (on the couch, to the dismay of the couch. And me.).

Lucy demonstrates her undying affection for our demon cat Macy.

A Slippery Slope?

M. and I are officially immersed in planning for our week-long beach vacation this summer. Once nearly a year away, we now have only about 6 weeks to go until the much anticipated trip arrives. You may think, "Oh, how relaxing, a week at the beach." And then I let you know that we are going to be taking this trip with 30 of my closest family members. And all of us are sharing two houses together (large though they may be).

So perhaps (or definitely) this trip will not be relaxing. I don't care, though, I'm super excited for it. For a number of reasons. First, my kids have never been to the beach. Which is just crazy in my mind, because with few exceptions, my family spent at least two weeks on Cape Cod every summer of my childhood. I think even when my sisters and I were only 3 months old (prematurely born triplets, fresh out of the NICU - crazy then? No. Crazy now? Maybe), we were likely schlepped to the beach for a couple of weeks. It's just how things were done (colic be damned! Which I apparently had, as my mother likes to remind me). Second, the trip is in honor of my maternal grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. SIXTY! YEARS! It's just so amazing and wonderful. Ten years ago we all got together for the same vacation - one week in the Outer Banks, NC - and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. And I'm so glad that we can all come together to do it all again, ten years later. It's crazy to think of how things have changed since then. My sisters and I, all unmarried at the time, have gotten married and started families. Between the three of us, an uncle and a cousin, eight new members of the family have been born. There are new husbands, wives, significant others. Numerous cousins have finished high school, started and finished college, started careers. Since I live far away from all of them, and rarely get to see everyone, I cannot wait to catch up and hang out.

Work has been stressful for longer than I can remember, and we had a HARD winter. I need a vacation in the worst way. Needless to say, I have been anticipating and pining for and planning for and looking forward to this vacation for what seems like forever. But now we are legitimately close to the trip, and I am justified in my preparations. It's OK if I buy the kids water shoes, they will likely still fit in to them by the time we hit the beach. Swim diaper coupons can be used before they expire. A detailed and ever-growing packing list has been started. Every weekend shopping trip to Target involves conversations like "Ooh, hey, $5 movies, maybe we should buy some for the car ride," or "Do you think we need a canopy for the beach?"

Most of our discussions have centered on our mode of transportation to the beach, however. We have long planned to purchase a new car just before this beach vacation. At a very manageable 5.5 hour predicted route, we will definitely be driving to the Outer Banks. However, given our two children (with two car seats), multiple suitcases, beach chairs, pack 'n play, booster seat, and various other planned trappings, there is no way we can actually drive to the beach in one of our fairly compact (now defunct) Saturn sedans. Our older car is nearly 11 years old, and we can safely justify purchasing a new car. A bigger car, in fact. But nothing crazy, nothing really big. And NOT a minivan. I, like many other women of my generation who spent many road hours in a minivan while growing up, have sworn an oath to NEVER own a one. Despite M.'s best arguments (he would love it if we got one), I am determined to keep this oath. With only two kids and no large pets that need to travel with us (I frequently forget that we even HAVE a cat, no way would she come on vacation with us), I cannot see any valid reason or excuse to actually own a minivan.

We went to the trouble of testing several small/mid-sized SUVs, and even selected the car we would like to buy - the Chevy Equinox. It has a little less cargo space than the Honda CRV, but at 32 mpg on the highway is very fuel efficient (yet not as expensive as a hybrid). Unfortunately, everyone and their brother apparently wants to buy an Equinox. As such, Chevy is a barren desert when it comes to incentives and deals to purchase this in-demand car. We have been watching and waiting, but with crappy financing rates and no cash back in the last 6 months, we have not been able to pull the trigger. And now it's too late. At this point, if we ordered a car (low inventory at all the Chevy dealerships due to popularity means we can't just walk up and buy one), it would take 8 weeks to get to us. Two weeks AFTER our beach vacation.

Our new strategy is to wait a bit longer on buying the new car, closer to the release of the new 2011 models (and keeping our fingers crossed that a 2010 model of the trim we want will still be available then) when there should be some good deals. And in the meantime, we are renting a car for our beach vacation. A much larger car than the ones we currently own. A minivan, in fact. Lord help me, I hope I don't like it.

I will end this nonsense post here, but put out a plea. For those of you that have undertaken beach vacations with young children, what did you bring that you didn't actually need? What was right on the money? What did you not bring with you that you wish you had? Your tips are welcome!

Four-Month Stats

I took Lucy to the doctor's office today for her 4-month well baby visit. I decided, for the first time, to leave her infant car seat in the car, and just carry Lucy and the diaper bag with me. Lucy alone = a little heavy. Lucy + 20-odd pound car seat = so heavy my arms may fall off. In fact, I have calluses on my palms, and black and blue marks from bumping the seat on my legs as I struggle to carry it every day. Yeah, the baby + car seat set up is either that heavy, or I'm that weak.

Turns out, it really is that heavy. For, as suspected, Lucy has officially surpassed the 15-pound mark. The numbers:

Weight: 15 lbs 5 oz (90%)
Height: 25 inches (75%)
Head: 16 inches (75%)

She may be a heavy-weight, but she's long, too. Crazy that short lil' ol' me birthed such a giraffe. Which I realize is not an appropriate analogy, as Lucy's neck with all it's scrumptious, hard-to-clean creases, is one of the shortest parts of her.

She's healthy as a horse (what is with it with my animal comparisons tonight?), and there are no concerns. The doc suggested we keep giving Lucy her reflux meds for the next two months, then maybe see if she can do without them at her 6-month appointment. I smiled and nodded, but inwardly snickered a "yeah, right" at that. If she's anything like Finn, she'll be dealing with reflux for many months to come. Sigh.

We've also, of course, been given the go-ahead to start solids whenever we want. But honestly, I don't want to go to the effort yet, so we will be holding off for at least another month. Having done the whole spoon-feeding thing with Finn, the novelty has worn off, and I'm in no rush to add one more duty to the whole post-work, pre-bedtime routine.

Other random updates/thoughts that are not worthy of their own blog posts:
- M. and I are reaching the point of deciding we need a bigger car for our bigger family. We've been holding steadfast to our two small Saturn sedans, with their excellent mileage and relatively low (one is 10 years old, so not THAT low) maintenance costs, but don't think we can hold out much longer. I am, as so many other young moms before me (can I call myself young? Is 32 young?) morally opposed to driving a minivan. Unlike so many of those other young moms, though, I am determined not to cave in. We are mostly interested in some of the smaller SUVs, like the Subaru Forester or the Honda CRV. What do you drive, and do you like it? Does it have enough room for you?

- We are planning a family vacation with my entire family next summer to celebrate my grandparents' 60th anniversary. An unimaginable number of us will descend upon 3 large beach-front houses in Nags Head, NC. It will be chaos, and lots of fun. We would like to drive to NC, thus we now have a goal of purchasing the above-mentioned new car before next July 17th.

- I made the mistake of telling Finn that a) we are going to the beach next summer, and b) we are going to buy a new car before we go to the beach next summer. He now talks everyday about how we're going to buy a new car and go to the beach tomorrow. He has, cutely, even told his friends at school about it. Time is apparently still an elusive concept for him. And I'm going to be talking about this trip ad nauseum for the next 11 months...

- Tomorrow our babysitter is coming to watch Lucy for a few hours while we take Finn to the county fair. Or at least, that's the plan, which I again stupidly told Finn about ahead of time. Good old Hurricane Bill or whatever it is that's causing all these torrential rainstorms right now may interfere with those plans. If so, I'm going to have one disappointed little boy on my hands. Maybe if we're feeling brave, and anything good is playing, we could take Finn to his first movie theater show instead. Am I that brave? I'll let you know.