Can't talk....coming down....

Well, not only did we all survive our vacation, but we all had a blast!!!! I have to thank my parents for that one....the kids are wonderful and all, but 24-7 with them in a foreign environment has some serious pitfalls. Handing them off to eager grandparents definitely makes for a happy family (and I'm pretty sure happy grandparents, too).

First of all, I have to say that the Great Wolf Lodge ROCKS!!!! What an amazing place.....definitely kid-oriented, and good for a wide age range. Anya (and George) loved the MagicQuest game... you buy your own wand that interacts with sensors on items throughout the lodge. THere are a bunch of quests and you have to figure out where to go next, etc. The nice thing is that the wand is yours to keep and it stores your info so you can pick up where you left off. In addition to that game, there's the waterpark. Oh.my.god....For a few minutes when we first arrived, I thought we were going to have a problem with Baz.....the water temp seemed a little chilly and the noise level in an enclosed waterpark took a little adjusting, so his first impression wasn't favorable. However, he changed his mind pretty readily after testing the waters. It turned out that I must have taken him into a colder part of the park because the rest of the pools, etc, were very comfortable. He also learned to LOVE the kiddie slides and practiced saying "again" over and over and over! There wasn't much he didn't like (except for the concrete stairs that he fell and banged his face on :( ), but even that wasn't too bad.

Anya needed no encouragement- she jumped right in....she moved on to the big body slides right away! After swimming a bit, we moved on to the tube slides. Another winner- she wanted to ride over and over! This was another time we were happy to have Gram-Pap-Pap along....each kid had fun being with either grandparent AND mom and dad got to ride the big rides! Pap-Pap loved the big kid rides too- we rode a bunch of them over and over. The nicest thing about the lodge was that it was a very slow time. We rarely had to wait for a ride, and when we did it was only for a minute or two. Sometimes we wanted to wait a bit to catch our breath- there were a lot of stairs to get to the top!

This trip helped to assuage any fears I had about our upcoming Disney trip. The biggest obstacle for us is bedtime/sleeping and we had no issues in that department at all. Anya was so tired by the end of each day that she hardly fought bedtime at all. And she's turned into a heavy sleeper- once she goes down, she wakes for NOTHING!!!! Baz happily ran to his PNP each time we offered it. He napped at least once per day, no matter where he was (well, where the PNP was- I don't think he'd have gone down in a stroller). I have to comment again on how amazed I am by his sleeping habits. Anya would NEVER nap during the day in a foreign environment and bedtime was such a struggle. I suppose I have to find something else to worry about...oh, what will it be???

Rater than upload 5784397987 pics to this site, I made a shutterfly album and emailed it out. If I missed anyone, email me or post a comment and I'll include you (sorry about that).

Vacation!!!!

So far, our vaca has been a blast! Very few meltdowns for either kid- woohoo!!! Our trip her was pretty good- the traffic reports were terrible, so we took a roundabout route and it paid off. Baz started getting a little restless by the end, but a little car bribery (ie candy) calmed him down for the remainder of the trip. Saturday evening was fine- some fun in the hot tub tired the kids out enough that bedtime wasn't even an issue. ANya has been a TERRIBLE sleeper when we travel anywhere, so this is a source of angst for me, but she has been wonderful every night, even for my parents. Baz has been an absolute DREAM....he goes up to his PNP and asks to go in!!! This is for naps and bed....I about fall over each time it happens. I've been so conditioned by 3 years of Anya's fighting sleep at any cost that I can't adjust to a kid who LIKES to sleep. He's still been on a 5am wakeup, but this morning I put him back in his PNP at 5:45 and he went back down until 8!!! Maybe this is a solution, but I'm not sure how it will affect his am nap, but I'll take it for now! I was hoping that skipping an afternoon nap would solve the early wakeup, but no such luck. I really hope this isn't his way of getting rid of the am nap and moving to just a pm nap- I do so love 2 naps!

Enough sleep talk....what have we been up to..... Sunday was a lovely day...had a couple of trips to the hot tub- I'm so glad the kids love it as much as I do! If we even get our own, we'll be a family with some pruny digits!!! Anya got adventurous and tried jumping in many times and Baz was happy to stand on the side and play with his toys. Uncle Donovan was there when we arrived on Sat and the kids had fun playing with him. Aunt Liza came up Sunday afternoon and joined in the festivities as well.

We headed over to our resort and went bowling. Luckily, the bowling lanes were next to the arcade, so when Anya "had enough bowling" after a few rounds, she and Baz were entertained there while the rest of us finished up. She did ask to go back the next day, but I think we'll wait until she's a little older for that! We then spent a little time in the kiddie pool upstairs- the kids wanted nothing to do with the regular pool after spending so much time in the hot tub, so that was a lost cause!

Sunday night was "date night" for mommy and daddy as both kids stayed with Grandma and Pap-Pap. It sounds like they behaved and Baz mostly slept all night (except for his 5am wakeup). We enjoyed a ful night's sleep (dreams and all!!!) and a quiet breaky out. We spent the afternoon with Pap-Pap (poor grandma had to work again) and visited one of the lakes in their development. The kids came to the condo with us that evening and once again had a prett smooth bedtime. Can you tell vacations revolve around getting the kids to bed?

Yesterday was a fun-packed day. We started out driving to central PA to pick up an ebay auction item for George. Given the number of variables (traffic/construction, getting lost, meltdowns, etc), it went perfectly. On the way back, we stopped at Bucknell and I had a chance to reminisce a bit. It was very cool showing Anya the Bison and giving her the quick tour- oh how I'd love for her to go to school there. Of course, she'd hate it because I'd be there all the time, but that's a long way away. After a trip to the bookstore and a few photo ops (I'll add pics later- they're still on the camera), we packed back up to go to the Stroudsburg Fair.

The Stroudsburg fair is THE county (might even be the state fair) of PA. It's nothing like the little carnivals we go to on Long Island. This on has a tremendously huge fairgrounds and more livestock and plants than you can imagine. We picked out the most interesting things for the kids and saw the barns and barns of goats, pigs, sheep, cows, and a few horses. Baz thoroughly enjoyed using his animal sounds and loved loved LOVED the tractors and trucks. In fact, they have tractor-pulled trams transporting people from the parking lot to the fair and he must have shouted tractor a hundred times!

Anya liked the animals as well, but her fave were the rides. They had 2 different areas of rides, so she had a lot of options. The only really new ride was the Tilt-A-Whirl. We've never checked the height requirement for that one (probably because it would involve a parent riding with her), and when we walked up to read the sign, the attendant just waved us on. Crap.....this meant that I had to get on with her. (Have you ever tried to tell a 3 year old that she can't ride something???). Luckily, it was a long time since lunch, but I felt mine trying to make a reappearance. I'll have to check the camera for the pics, but I saw George on the sidelines giggling at my situation and trying to capture my plight on disk. The last ride was the spinning dragons. We've ridden this ride at every carnival this year, so I wasn't too concerned since it was jsut Anya and I and I control the speed of the spinning. Well, that ended when Maya and Hannah joined us. They were 2 cute and chatty girls who were all about spinning. Cheered on by George and my dad, they had us going at some super-high rpm's. This time, I almost did toss my cookies, so that was the end of the rides! We had another tractor ride on the way out and Anya tried some homemade pumpkin ice cream- yummy!!!

Last night, Anya insisted on sleeping at Gram-Pap-pap's, so we packed her up and Baz stayed with us and we caught up after a busy day. Today we're heading to the Great Wolf Lodge- I think it will be a blast..I'm sure I'll have lots of pics to share later!

Slytherin

Anya's made up a new way of exiting the bathtub...slithering. It's cute because she doesn't take the time to pronounce her "th"s..she CAN do it when prompted, but usually she doesn't. SO when we tell her it's time to get out, she announces that she's going to "slizzer" out, and slither she does. I'm not sure how she manages it, but she lays down on the bottom of the tub and makes her way out on her belly. If she starts speaking parseltongue, I'm looking up the real Hogwarts!

Good day

Today I can truthfully say that I enjoyed being a mother all day long. I always love the kids and love that I have them, but I don't always enjoy mothering them. Even though Baz was up for good at 5:15 (ugh), after being up twice (maybe thrice -double ugh) during the night, he was so happy and giggly, I could hardly be upset with him. He stayed happy and adorable until naptime when
it became clear that he needed a rest and sleep he did! He even happily lays down (face down, of course), when I ask him if he wants a new diaper!

Anya woke up happy as a clam, too, and barely fought me all day. She did earn a couple of TO's for hitting Baz, but went right over to the chair and took her punishment quietly. The 3 of us made a trip to Wally World and BJs for some last minute travel items and it was completely enjoyable!!! Neither kid fought getting into the car. THey happily "drove' the kiddie car through BJ"s and of course said their hello's to the Halloween PIrate. They were captivated by the prelit outdoor christmas tree set that was playing showtune-type carols at ungodly decibels! It's a cute idea, but I can't imagine keeping your neighbors happy while displaying that!

Baz truly surprised me when we stopped for a hotdog lunch at BJ's and he walked right up to a highchair and asked to go up! I was wondering how I would manage corralling him while keeping an eye on Anya and our cart of stuff, but it wasn't even a question!

The rest of the day was spent doing fun things like watercolors, princesses, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and having parades, in addition to packing and cleaning to go! I really feel like I accomplished all my goals today, including having lots of playtime with the kids. In fact, I don't think I screamed like a lunatic at all! Bring on the vaca!!!!!

Getting ready for a vaca!!!!

Today was hectic because I was hell-bent on getting the house straightened up so I can pack on Friday and we can come home to a clean-ish house next week. Of course, with 2 toddlers, this was no small task! There were times when they were moving so fast to un-do what I had just done that I almost gave up! I did manage to organize Baz's closet and pack up his newborn-6mo clothes. THis was his cue to grab each item and toss it as far away as possible as I placed new ones in- ACK! He got distracted from this task by his drawers with even more clothes to throw around!
I did take a few breaks to play with the kids...first, we had a round of "what animal am I?". We took turns sitting/crawling, etc on the rug in the family room and acting out a different animal. Al 3 of us had fun with this one and there were no toys involved!!! Later, Anya became a conductor (this was inspired by the rubbermaid storage totes I was using for the outgrown clothes), and I had to perform as she conducted me. SHe was actually pretty good- now I have to figure out where (besides Fantasia), she's seen a conductor! I'm guessing there's been one on Little Einsteins at some point.

Fantasia rescued me this afternoon- when I finally got Baz down for a second nap and needed a little time to rush around and complete my goals for the day, I had to find something to keep Anya busy. She asked for Fantasia and was captivated for the WHOLE thing- even the little speech at the beginning! I managed to mop 2 floors, fold 3 loads of laundry and pick up 2378998 toys, while cooking up some arroz con pollo at the same time- yummy!

So now I sit here, relaxing in my semi-clean family room, packed up for tomorrow, hoping for a more restful night and knowing that in 3 days, we'll be on vaca!!!!

So what can I say about the kids today???? Baz decided to rudely awaken everyone around 6:30 this morning. George was none too pleased about this, but I think he should be happy that he had an extra hour of sleep beyond what I got, AND it was uninterrupted sleep. Baz is back to his regular "teething" pattern of several wakeups per night. I just can't give him boot camp when he's clearly cutting 4 molars at the least. He's talking more and more and even making a few 2 word phrases. He "helped" me pick Anya up today...I put him in the stroller to keep him contained and the entire time (we had to wait a few minutes for her class to finish), he sat forward and gripped the front of his stroller.

Anya seems to have had fun at preschool today, but I still don't really know what she did. SHe comes home with a few worksheets that she's done and/or colored and she told me they played on the playground, but other than that, the day is a mystery. I hope that as she gets used to it, I'll find out more, but I just have to imagine what she does for now!

They have a field trip in a few weeks- conveniently, the parents pick the kids up early (11:30) and meet at the field trip place at 12:30. OK- I'm all for doing fun things with my kids, but I work!!!! Sure, I can reschedule my patients and take the afternoon off (which is probably what will happen), but that's not easy. ANd of course it falls when both sets of gparents are away, so they can't even help out. Oh well- this should be the worst parenting situation we have, right?

Daddy took us to the zoo!

It was a perfect fall day- sunny and crisp, not too warm, not too cold.....so we went to visit the animals at the nearby zoo. It's more of a refuge for rescued animals, but it still has a good number of unusual animals. Both kids were excited to go, but Anya remembered too well the nip on her finger from an overzealous goat. Baz had no such memory and squealed with delight as the goats licked up the food from his hand. Here's a little clip:



He learned several animal sounds- "baa" as you already heard, "moo", and "tweet". He has "roar" down and kept repeating "pooh bear" at the brown bear named pooh.

We stopped to visit the turkey vulture and having been there numerous times, Anya remembered that he's missing a leg. We couldn't see today because he was sitting down, but she still asked why he was missing a leg. I told her that he was hit by a car when he crossed the road. Without missing a beat, she asked "Why didn't he look both ways before he walked?" Woo-hoo!!!! Now we just have to get her to slow down enough to remember that when it really counts!

We managed to get the pool 80% closed this weekend.....the pump, filter, and lines are drained and plugged, tons of shock thrown in, big balloon in the deep end, and the cover is on. The only thing left is to place and fill the water bags to hold it on. FIngers crossed that this happens before the week is over!

Happy Birthday Steven!!!!

Congrats to Kristen & Steve, Pat & Dennis! Their lovely babe entered the world today at a whopping 8lbs, 10 oz! Once again, I was wrong about the gender, but grandma was right on!

Sleep- I got some!!!!

I think I mentioned in yesterday's post that maybe Baz was going through a growth spurt and MAYBE that would get him to sleep through. Well, I was right- woohoo!!!! Of course, I had to wake up at 4am and have a mini panic attack about whether he was really OK or not, but I managed to convince myself to go back to sleep. When I woke up again at 6am to the alarm, I started again with the panic, but just as I was about to check on him, his music box came on- yep, he must be OK...off to the shower!!! I actually had some dreams last night...I don't think that's happened in a while- what a treat! I'm not going to comment on this sleep again until or unless it becomes a pattern- I've learned my lesson about that, but I had to comment on it today!

Relax????

I can't remember the last time this has happened (probably because it was prior to kids), but I actually had a fairly relaxing day today. There weren't too many pressing little jobs around the house (there are ALWAYS lots of big projects waiting) and I decided to not worry about those that were. Instead, I just tried to maintain the status quo and have fun with the kids. Guess what.... we had a fun-filled, tantrum-free day! I fit in a workout while Baz took his morning nap, them cleaned up the toy clutter in preparation for round 2! Anya and I played a bit before he woke up, then lunch and a trip to the new park. This turned into a little adventure since they're resurfacing the roads in our neighborhood and the ones on our way to the park were closed off, but we managed.

Because of the Jewish holidays, the playground was PACKED with moms and their kids, big and little. This made things challenging for me because both of mine wanted to go in different directions and it wasn't safe to let either go. So I had to drag one kid or the other to where the sib wanted to go, but it worked out OK. Anya was eager to have some ice cream, so I was able to steer them away from the park before I was completely exhausted!

Baskin Robbins was fresh out of "blue", so Anya settled on rainbow sherbet and I got some Munckins for Baz. OMG, did he clear through those fast! I thought he'd linger with the first one for a while as he does with every other edible thing, but it was gone before I blinked my eyes! He inhaled his dinner, too- I think he had at least 6 meatballs and 2 helpings of noodles! Could this be a growth spurt? Could the growth spurt extra sleep counteract the teething lack of sleep?

I actually was able to look inside his little mouth today and saw that the points I've been feeling and thinking were really poking through a lot are really just the tips of the iceberg. And these are only on the top. The bottom molars are still just swelling- nothing poking through yet. I'll keep buying Motrin!

It seems that Anya has inherited her daddy's mosquito-attracting phermones. My mom told me yesterday that she thought maybe Anya was getting some hives because she had several bumpy areas on her shoulder and arm. No biggie- they weren't getting bigger or spreading, so we didn't think about it. This morning, they were still there, but more defined and looking like bug bites. Poor kid- I feel for her. (I'm happy for me because this means that as long as I stay near her and George, the bugs will never notice me!!! I kid, I kid).

I don't think we have any plans for the weekend other than work tomorrow and hopefully covering the pool. It really isn't that big of a production- we just have to commit to doing it and follow through!

No tantrums!!!

OK- well, there may have been tantrums, but I was off at work for them. Really, Anya was very well-behaved today, but the majority of her time was spent with Grandma and Pap-pap and her tantrums are generally saved for me- woohoo- how lucky I am! She spent a good amount of time painting and coloring and refining her skills. She also collected several bugs and slugs (a really hugely gigantic one- ick!) to put in her new bughouse. Oh, how happy I am to have these creatures sharing our home!

Baz is continuing to pick up on most words we say to him. He's also giving so many hugs and kisses, it just melts my heart! He was a *little* better last night- only 3 wakeups, 2 of which were after I went to sleep. His reaction to my mom going to him was the same as when George tries to calm him down (crying even harder and reaching past them to where I am), but he calmed down immediately when I came in.

I love how much he loves his grandfathers.....he loves everyone else too, don't get me wrong, but when my parents pulled up yesterday, he squealed with glee and ran full-tilt to my dad. He also seems to be the only other person (besides daddy, of course) who Baz will turn to and ask to be picked up while standing next to me. In any other situation, mommy is the ONLY one who may pick him up! And whenever I tell him we're going to see Nana and Dada, he chants "dada, dada" over and over and over.

A tantrum-filled day

Forgive me if I'm a bit disorganized in my rambling....there have been so so so many tantrums lately and the sleep deprivation is really getting to me. Poor Baz is still cutting 4 teeth at once. I thought they must be close to through by now, but he started biting me today- ouch! He had no idea he was hurting me- apparently my knee looked like a good teether, but when I pulled away and yelped, he looked so surprised! The point of this is that boot camp is pointless if he's waking because of pain/discomfort rather than habit, so the wakings will continue.

Yesterday was just a gem of a day.....after getting up at 1,3,and 5am and up for good at 6, I was so proud of myself for getting all of us up, dressed, brushed, and packed for the day. Anya came with me to work before school and was very well behaved. I managed to drop her off on time and even pick her up early- go team!!! She wasn't the least bit tired or cranky on the way home, so I decded to stop at BJ's to pick up a new digital camera. She was happy to do so- she liked seeing all the Halloween decorations the last time we were there, so it seemed like a good idea. I loaded Baz into the stroller and let her walk and in we went. Found the camera and the memory card..checked out...no problem. THe trouble started as we waited for the clerk to bring us the items. Anya smacked Baz in the face.....I sternly warn her not to do it again or she won't get to back for an encore presetation of the halloween things. 10 seconds later, he gets smacked again, so I tell he we aren't going back into the store. Oh.my.god. I totally became that mom as she screamed and flailed around. I was kinda stuck because he was in the stroller and when I tried to pick her up, she turned into a wet fish and wiggled out of my grip in seconds. What to do? There's no way I could smack her hard enough to stop this one without doing some real damage, which wasn't an option anyway (ummmmm...don't hit your brother or I'll hit you harder? Weird logic by my figuring). So what's a mom to do?

Lucky for me, I had the middle-aged man selling home improvements to solve my woes. Rather than just give me the "I've been there and done that and it totally blows" look that the other parents gave me, he came right over and told me how his mother would toss him in a tub full of cold water to shut him up. Gee, thanks dude- that really helps me! I know he was probably just trying to be helpful, but I really didn't want to talk to anyone then- I wanted to get my screaming, wailing kid out the door and into the car. After a short stop on a bench by the food court, I finally did just pick her wiggling body up and essentially drag her out to the van. Once in the car, I could threaten to drive off without her being buckled in, which immediately settled her down. After about 2 minutes of complaining about he head hurting, the whole incident was a thing of the past and she was back to normal and happy again. WTF?????

CLearly, this was a tired toddler pushing her limits to get her way and learning that she can't. I'm fairly certain there were a couple of other episodes after that, but they're gone from my sleep-deprived brain by now. She did have another incident where she tried to write "bathroom" on the bathroom door. Of course, it came out more like annaanyaanna since those are the letters she's used to using. As a punishment, daddy went "Simpsons" on her and sentenced her to writing "BATHROOM' 20 times. SHe only made it to 10 after almost an hour, but it was really impressive how much her letters improved in that time.

This was all on Tuesday...today was much better- no hitting at all, so maybe it was worth it? I'm hoping for a better night tonight..c'mon Baz..sleep!!!

Happy Birthday C!!!

For those who don't know, Anya and C have been best buds since she started going to Colleen's.
They're just 3 months apart in age and their personalities click. This weekend, he turned 4 and we celebrated with him! The interesting part of the whole party was the dynamic change....his parents rented an 18-foot blowup slide and Anya was TERRIFIED. We had played on the same slide at a previous party, but she would only go down with me. Well, this one was only being used by the kids, so parents going on wasn't really an option. Funny thing was that C, who is usually incredibly timid, couldn't get up to the top fast enough. Anya was left down below playing with the other toys (not unhappily- she loved the bouncy house and his bajillion other toys!). C's parents were very lucky to have 2 13-year old boys in the adjacent yard who were willing to help the smaller kids navigate the slide. These kids were amazing- most 13 year old boys want nothing to do with 3 and 4 year-olds, let alone babies, but these guys were taking Baz up time after time and helping him get down safely! They eventually convinced Anya to give it a try, too and she actually enjoyed it. It was just interesting to see her afraid of something for once!

These were the only pics we could snap as Anya rushed out of the house this am. She was so excited to be wearing her new backpack! She had a good time at school and is gearing up to be a teenager already. Her response to "what did you do today?" was "nothing" without missing a beat. Great.... After some prodding, I found that she did in fact play on the playground and she may or may not have talked to any of the other kids. I've already become the irresponsible mommy- I was 7 (yes, 7!) minutes late to pick her up and she was the last kid sitting there and the school had already called George to make sure we were coming to get her! So we were late to drop her off and late to pick her up....for anyone who doesn't know me.... I HATE HATE HATE being late and I try to hard to avoid it. I'm not hung up on it, but I feel like started off poorly, but I don't think ANya was bothered in the least.

Here's a cute little video of Baz and a couple new words..he started repeating broccoli when we were in the store buying it and he sounds so cute. You can see from the action shots how difficult it is to get this kid to sit still for ANY length of time. I am so happy each time I finish changing a poopy diaper where I don't have to wash the changing table cover or anthing else that gets pooped on when he struggles!



And I'm proud to announce that I've been awarded a Nice Matters Award.....I'm a nice blogger! THanks Erika!!! I really don't have anyone else to tag since you tagged our friends already, so I hope that doesn't impact my internet karma!!!

First Day of Preschool!!!

Anya was greeted with her friends shouting her name as we entered Miss Kathy's room this morning. She was a little shy, but clearly excited to be there and happily went to her seat and joined the other kids. I really felt for the parents of the "cryers" who weren't so excited about being there. Of course, this was just in the first few minutes of the first day- hopefully, they;ve learned how much fun preschool is and are happy now! George took a couple of first day of school pics, but I'm at work, so I'll add them in this evening....he was able to meet us at school so Anya walked in holding Daddy's hand. We ha a bonus playdate with Kayci this morning before it was time for school, so Anya is having a fun-filled day!!!!!

My question for today is why the handrail on the front of a shopping cart is so tasty? I'm starting to think it's a marketing ploy by the floppy seat makers and they've coated all shopping carts with some sort of candy coating. I swear that I spend at least half of any shopping trip with Baz fighting him from licking/eating the handle. Maybe he's just pushing for the extra attention? It does get aggravating....I'm ordering at the deli as I gently push him away from the handle and try to avoid getting bitten by his sharp new teeth and arguing with Anya about sitting in the back of the cart so she doesn't fall out when I move. Then I remember why I try to take the extra few minutes after work to pick up what I need BEFORE I pick the kids up! Granted, this is nothing like the mom of 6 who had to sell some Pokemon cards on ebay, but it still is challenging.

1st Day of School Eve

So here we sit listening to Anya cry that she wants one of us to lay with her as she goes to sleep
....the price we pay for "letting" her have an afternoon nap. Sans a nap, she's asleep by or around 7pm. It's now almost 9 and she's raring to go...... I'm guessing tomorrow will be a different story after 6 hours of preschool! She'll have to spend an hour and a half with me at work prior to that, so it will be a very long day for her, but I'm sure she'll enjoy it. I've packed up her bookbag and her lunch- can she really be starting school? I feel like I was just watching my belly shift as she squirmed around inside me- now I have to give her to a teacher? She, on the other hand, couldn't be more excited to go to school. In fact, she woke up this morning screaming "is today preschool?" Where does the time go????

Less sleepless!!!

Baz: 2 wakeups
Anya: 0 wakeups
Up for good: 6:50!!!!!!!
Not a full night's sleep, but I'm a happy momma today! Let's see where this day goes!

Toldja I was tired.....

I forgot to add a pic and a video:

Where to begin.....the long weekend came and went and I'm actually kinda happy about that. My work days are long and tiring, but my "off' days from work are so much harder....

Saturday was a typical work day- laden with foot-related emergencies that kept me super busy until 1:30 or 2, then a trip to the indoor park and dinner at the Ground Round. I was a little nervous about that because we sat down early (just before 5pm) to avoid subjecting other diners to Baz's dinnertime antics, but the place was eerily deserted. I had visions of waiting eons for our food, but it actually went fairly smoothly and the kids mostly behaved. We even scored free desserts because they were cashing out the register prior to the dinner rush!

Sunday, we went north to hang out with our friend Jon at the Palisades mall. The kids enjoyed their first ferris wheel ride and even sat still. I was a little concerned about Baz, but he was so interested in looking around that he didn't try to escape from George's arms! You can see in these pics how much the kids enjoyed the carrousel! They had fun at Dave & Buster's, too....Baz had no interest in fries, but couldn't get enough of daddy's Cajun Chicken Pasta. I was just happy that we could all sit together and eat our meals like civilized human beings. Eating in shifts as one parent chases the monkey and the other shovels food in as fast as possible gets old really quickly. Both kids did incredibly well in the car ride each way, too- unbelievably, we had no meltdowns either way!

Monday was just nonstop action- I made the mistake of starting off with Turbo Sculpt- owie!!!! I followed that up with cutting the grass- not really that challenging, but not sitting restfully in my massage chair either. Tack on cleaning a few floors and I was hurting for the rest of the day.


The most notable change in the kids lately is their interest in playing together. They managed to both use the sandbox together and seemed to enjoy it! They are playing in their playhouse together and are chasing each other around more and more. I'll tag on a short video of them playing ball together- Anya intiated this one on her own!!!

I'm still coming to terms with Anya starting school this week. She's so incredibly excited that I know she'll have a ball, but I still have to get used to the idea of having a school-aged child!

Baz is still working on cutting about 4 teeth and he was up a million times last night- momma needs some sleep!!!!