From the Mouths of Babes in July

Linus:  When is Jesus going to come back? I keep waiting for him every day and he never comes.

Eileen:  I love my brother.

Eileen: Eileen. Ride. Pony.

While eating pomegranate seeds....
Linus:  I'm eating (something indecipherable).
Dave: You're eating what?
Linus: Pieces of a broken heart.

While playing soccer with Uncle Tim and bragging about how good he is...
Linus: My skills are mad at you!  (We think Linus meant he had mad skills)

Mercury in Retrograde

Recently life has been one big stressball.  From home break-ins to car accidents to other stuff, I am ready to throw in the towel.  I am so anxious at this point that my stomach is in knots.

I wrote about the break-in this past weekend in my last post.  I called a guy, Eric, who did some work on our house a few years ago.  He came out Wednesday afternoon, fixed it in 45 minutes, and then said, "Merry Christmas, no charge."  I thought life was looking up and felt grateful for the goodness of humanity.  I was singing a different tune one hour later.

Wednesday night after dinner I decided to take the kids over to the Ballard Commons Spray Park.  It was 78 degrees and Dave was working late.  I loaded the kids in the car and proceeded down the street.  As I neared the end of the block, a white sedan pulled onto the street.  Seeing me, he pulled to the side so I could continue through.  Right as I was moving forward two cars of teenage boys came rearing around the corner, cut in front of the car that was pulled a little to the side and tried to drive through.  I attempted to move out of the way and in the process hit a parked car.  The boys stopped, called me a few names, laughed, said, "Sorry, we tried to leave you some room," and then drove off.  Luckily, two witnesses were there, including the owner of the car I hit.  No one was hurt and I barely did any damage to the other car.  Not so lucky was my car, I dented and scraped the side of my car and tore off half the bumper.  Awesome.

Thursday.  Driving back from swim lessons (we were able to remount the bumper), a semi drove by me on the freeway.  My bumper fell back off and started dragging on the ground.  I pulled to the side of the freeway.  I tried calling Dave.  No answer.  I call my insurance company, they say call 911.  911 puts me in touch with the highway patrol who says they'll send an incident response vehicle.  Call insurance company back.  They say I don't have towing coverage, can't help me call a tow but can give me some numbers.  At this point, my cell phone decides to de-activate itself.  I burst into tears.  Linus from the backseat tries to comfort me.  "It's okay Mommy.  Take a deep breath.  It will help.  Just take a deep breath.  You'll feel better.  It's going to be okay."  A few deep breaths later, my cell phone decides to turn back on, I google towing companies.  The first doesn't answer, the second says they'll send a tow in 3 minutes.  At this point, incident response shows up and he is really nice.  He tells me to cancel the tow. He's got some duct tape and thinks it'll hold.  Ten minutes later I'm back on the road and headed home, where my parents are waiting because I had a hair appointment and they were going to babysit.  Luckily, the hair people didn't charge me for the last minute cancellation and let me reschedule.

The car is going to cost $5200 to fix.  The witnesses back up my story so we just have to pay a deductible.  The insurance companies are considering it a case of phantom driver.  The body shop has to order parts (5 working days) and then it will take 12 business days to fix.  In the meantime, my swagger wagon has a little more swagger as a result of the large amounts of duct tape holding it together.

There are other stressors going on in my life right now.  As someone who likes to be in control, I don't do well fuctioning in the unknown.  My older sister told me that Mercury is in retrograde right now.  I don't follow astrology, but decided to look it up. Here's what astrologyzone.com had to say:

What happens when Mercury retrogrades? You miss appointments, your computer equipment crashes, checks get lost, you find the car you just purchased during Mercury retrograde is a lemon. (Or, you hate your haircut, the lamp you bought shorts out, your sister hates her birthday gift.) There will be countless delays, cancellations and postponements--but know these will benefit you in the long run. Don't fight them, although your frustration level and feeling of restlessness will be hard to cope with at times.

All machinery and things with moving parts--such as computers, VCRs, camera equipment, garbage disposals, and so forth, will reveal any weak links now. It is critical that you back up your data system and be more careful and vigilant than ever. Projects will demand more time and money than anticipated this month.

In matters of the heart, if your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you or says something hurtful, take a wait-and-see attitude. Since Mercury rules speech, they may not mean what you think they are saying now. Let them have some space, and wait to see if they mean in October what they said in September.

When traveling, leave early and allow for extra travel time. Have all bags double-taped closed, count your belongings, double-check addresses and reconfirm appointments. Things get lost when Mercury messes us up. Take NOTHING for granted. The sector of your chart that Mercury happens to be skating through will be effected most dramatically, so check your forecast!

Why would the Universe give us Mercury retrograde? Because to move forward it is sometimes necessary to backtrack and reconfigure our paths in life. It is important to reconsider, repair, reflect, and reconnect. Mercury forces us to slow down and fix what's broken, and in so doing, rethink things. It also gives us time to get to projects we have put on the back-burner. 

Yup.  That sounds about right.  Life is CRAZY right now.  I just need a break.  We are taking a vacation to San Diego soon.  Hopefully, Mercury will be out of retrograde by then.  In the meantime, here is a brief note to the Universe.

Dear Universe,

      Thank you helping me to reconsider, repair, reflect, and reconnect.  I recognize the benefit that this can bring from time to time and I am trying to listen to what you are telling me.  However, I would appreciate you giving some extra special attention to someone else.  I am anxious to move forward with my life path and would greatly appreciate your cooperation in this matter.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Charlotte

Family Genetics in Play

Those who knew me when I was small may recall I had a horrible speech impediment.  I could not pronounce my R's, S's, L's, or Th's.  I was incoherent.  Six years of speech therapy and you would never know unless you are with me and I am under the influence.  My speech problems were due to recurrent ear infections.
I knew there was a chance that one of my children would inherit compromised Eustachian tubes.  Dave's ears were fine as a kid, but unfortunately his siblings and parents were not so lucky.  My mother-in-law made sure to inform me about what I was getting myself into by marrying Dave.  So far two cousins have gotten tubes. In perhaps a strange case of sibling rivalry and trying to prove she could handle surgery better than her brother, Eileen had surgery this morning to get ear tubes.

Eileen went to the doctor seven times for ear infections between Christmas and mid-June.  The June ear infection also turned up an allergy to amoxicillin.  Fun times.  Tell tales signs of ear infection for Eileen include waking up screaming during nap multiple times, muffled crying during nighttime sleep, and putting things in her ears.

I wasn't too worried about Eileen getting tubes.  I know they have come a long way since the early 1980s.  The kids' ENT told me that most kids only get tubes once and that my two times are a rare exception.  I feel special.  Our ENT is definitely a surgeon--not warm and fuzzy and likes to cut.  I'm pretty sure that if I told her I had a cough, she would offer to take out my lung next week.  With both Linus and Eileen, they had surgery scheduled for than less than two weeks after their initial consults.  In a way I guess it's nice we don't ever seem to do a wait and see....

Surgery was a breeze.  Eileen and I arrived at the day surgery center at 7 am.  Linus spent the night at Uncle Tim's house. 

Waiting to be taken into the operating room.

 I got to go in with Eileen.  She didn't shed a single tear or fuss when I put her on the table.  I sang her "Eileen Goodnight" (Goodnight Irene with name changed) until she fell asleep.  The anesthesiologist complimented me on my singing.  Ten minutes later she was out of surgery.  Fourteen minutes later I was being taken back to recovery to get her.

Watching Linus come out of anesthesia after tonsils and adenoids was hard.  He was so miserable and it took a long time for him to wake up completely.  The nurses told me that they turned on the tv in the recovery room and there was a McDonalds commercial. As soon as Eileen saw the coffee cup on the tv she said, "Coffee. Mama."  Again, there were no tears.  She gladly accepted apple juice and animal crackers.  There was no IV to take out and we were walking out the door in ten minutes.

Having just had her first surgery, I couldn't deny her coffee (apple juice in her cup). We celebrated at Starbucks.

It's been a simple day.  She took a 2.5 hour nap this morning and another 2.5 hour nap in the afternoon.  In between we ate lunch and went for a walk to the new park by our house.  Should my children ever need surgery again, I hope they go as smoothly as this one.  I'm looking forward to fewer trips to the doctor, but I think Eileen is going to miss taking all those antibiotics.  She really loves taking them. Seriously.

Family Camp

I worked for 7 summers and 1 spring as a camp counselor for the CYO.  I always loved working family camp.  Dave and I started dating at family camp.  As much as I enjoyed working at family camp, I never thought I would be an attendee.  I mean, who wants to go to camp with their family!?!  Besides, who wants to ride horses, swim in the pool, do arts and crafts, and other program activities?  Apparently, becoming a parent changes you in more ways than one because now all those things sound great.

We spent the weekend at Camp Don Bosco.  Linus was the one who talked me into going.  It's kind of like going to a very rustic all-inclusive resort with almost all programming geared towards kids.  I dragged my feet registering because recently it just feels like we have constant new expenses popping up and the idea of forking over another $200 was less than appealing.  Luckily, it was money well spent.

Words cannot describe how much fun the kids had (Dave and I had fun too).  They only thing we didn't seem to get a lot of was sleep.  I convinced another staff alum family to go which definitely added to the fun.

Outside Starbucks.  The goal was to hike along the Snoqualmie trail to Starbucks and then berry pick at Remlinger.  We were a bit overly optimistic in terms of time and never quite made it to Remlinger.

The highlight of the weekend for both kids was riding horses.  They each got to ride around the arena. You have to be at least eight to go on a trail ride.

so excited

Linus rode Ghost.

Eileen rode Hi-Jack.  She repeatedly said pretty pony as she road.  When she saw Sam the Wrangler (pictured) the next day, Eileen exclaimed, "Ride Pony!!"

Heading to the pool

I refused to swim after getting in up to my knees.  I don't do cold.

Linus and another little boy created a game that involved setting up lots of large orange cones and then competing to knock them over with paddles as fast as possible.  Linus had excellent form.

Eileen and Ben Hutchinson performing a balancing act.

Making a strong fashion statement for campfire.

Campfire was another favorite part for the kids.  Linus led Jimmy Brown both nights, as well as Boogie Woogie Washer Woman the second night.  Both kids beamed from ear to ear.  As we walked back to the cabin the second night, Eileen unprompted stated, "Campfire fun." 

We tried out those new OFF! bug repellent fans.  They definitely worked and we were all glad to not smell like bug spray.

We made s'mores, played with other kids and families, did arts and crafts.  It was fun.  Everything flowed so nicely time-wise and the staff was really accommodating to special requests.  I loved sharing camp with my kids.  Despite a lack of sleep, the kids were really well behaved which I think just improved everyone's experience.

Sporting our new CYO summer camp knit hats.

Neither kid wanted to leave.  As we tried to load Eileen in her carseat, she screamed, "CAMPFIRE!" 

Family Camp was great and we are already looking forward to going again next year. Hopefully, we will get the chance to visit camp again this summer.

Epilogue:  We arrived home dirty and tired.  As I brought bags into the house I thought it was funny that the cabinet doors in the dining room were open.  Then Linus brought Dave a piece of metal.  Dave asked him where he got it and Linus took him to the back door.  It was then that we discovered that while we were away, someone kicked in our back door and rummaged through the house.  Every door, cabinet, and closet was opened.  Our file cabinet was open.  It doesn't look like they took anything.  It took a long time for the police to show up to take our report (a little over 7 hours).  We found out our next door neighbors got hit too.  They weren't so lucky and had jewelery and a passport taken. Hearing what they lost makes me feel a little better that we only lost our sense of security.  The whole ordeal definitely put a damper on the weekend.  Tomorrow I need to find someone to fix the door ASAP.

Swimming

"Swimming, swimming in my swimming-pool. 

When days are hot when days are cold, in my swimming pool  

Breast-stroke, side-stroke, fancy diving too.  

Don't you wish you never had anything else to do, but..."

I hate to admit it, but I have found myself going back on my word.  When this summer started, I proudly stated that the kids were not enrolled in any classes or camps, it was going to be a summer of adventure.  Then Linus started telling everyone that he was taking swimming classes.  

I tried to ignore him, but I found myself looking into it.  At first we got wait listed and then at the last minute we got the call, Linus was officially enrolled in daily swim classes in the tadpoles group.  Did I mention that class starts at 9:10 am so we leave the house at 8:40 every morning? 

I can swim to save my life.  I hate putting my face in the water.  I have taken not one, but two, adult swim classes and still cannot master the whole blowing bubbles skill.  It is important to me that my kids can swim proficiently. 

It has been pretty cool watching Linus progress.  Three weeks ago he didn't know how to blow bubbles,couldn't float, and definitely couldn't swim.  Now he swims underwater and floats on his back.  Linus' first instructor was not very good and didn't appear to enjoy his job very much.  One day with his current instructor and Linus was improving leaps and bounds.  There are only 3 kids in the class so he gets lots of one on one attention.

Today I got the exciting news that Linus is being promoted to Seahorses.  I am so proud of him.  When all is said and done, after 6 weeks of daily swim class this summer, he will have had as many lessons as if we tried to do Saturday morning lessons for the entire school year.  I'm pretty sure we are seeing so much growth due to the daily aspect.

All in all, Linus LOVES swim class.  Eileen doesn't mind hanging out at the side of the pool every day for 30 minutes.  I am enjoying the long naps in the afternoon that Linus takes as a result of swim class.  Nothing like a child asking to go to bed :) We still have daily adventures.  They just don't start until 10 am.

so happy to be in the pool

Still in a hurry

Eileen is now 19 almost 20 months old and is still trying to grow up as fast as possible.

As mentioned in a previous post, at 18 months Eileen not so subtly informed us that she would like to be potty trained.  I was less than enthusiastic and have been pretty lazy with it and have been using pull-ups.  About a week ago I put Eileen in underwear on a whim.  She wet herself and was so upset about it that she basically hasn't wet herself since and started telling us when she needed to go potty.  She even tells us when we are out in public or in the middle of crazy happenings.  Yesterday, she told us she need to poop for the first time (she usually informs us during it).  I really can't complain and appreciate her making it easy on me so far.

Potty trained? Check.

In other news, Eileen has started getting dangerously close to escaping her crib.  It's a little extra scary since the floor is hardwood.  Since the crib converts to a toddler bed, last night Dave took off the front rail.  We had Eileen and Linus swap beds since his toddler bed has a side rail.  For the first 45 minutes, Eileen kept saying she had to go the the bathroom and then tried to get more books to read.  Then there were tears.  Many many songs later she settled down. Two hours later, she was asleep. Tonight was better.  Only out of bed twice, one extra trip to the potty, and one hour later both kids were asleep.

Big girl bed? Check.

Eileen decided she no longer likes her rear facing car seat or being helped into the car for that matter.  She recently started insisting on getting in herself and then makes a beeline for the spare carseat in the back and proceeds to attempt to buckle herself.  The tantrum that ensues when we move her, complete with flailing body, is not fun.

Big girl carseat? Check.

Eileen impresses us every day with her vocabulary. She is now becoming quite the songstress.  I often catch Eileen off in a corner singing to herself--twinkle twinkle, rock a bye baby, ring around the rosy, etc.  Whenever I start to walk upstairs with her for nap, she immediately begins singing, "Goodnight Eileen." During our Whidbey Island drive, she sang along to Caspar Babypants.

Aspiring solo artist? Check.

Today while at the park Eileen said to Linus, "Hug?"  Then with her arms wrapped around Linus, gently patting him, she said for the very first time, "Love you."  She's never told Dave or I that she loved us.  I think it's so sweet her brother was the recipient.  It was a certified lovefest between the two of them the rest of the day.

Making declarations of love to an older boy? Check. Check.

It's odd to think how when Linus was this age I was so excited for him to grow up, to experience new things.  I wanted him to feel like a big boy so he wouldn't be upset when when the new baby came.  Now with Eileen, all I want is for her to slow down.  I want to savor those last remnants of babiness.

Weekend on Whidbey

Some parts of my childhood were quite idyllic.  My grandparents lived on the beach on Bainbridge Island.  The 4th of July celebrations of my childhood consisted of the island parade, afternoons of beach combing and exploring Fort Ward, hand cranking ice cream on the back porch, and building bonfires to roast marshmallows while we set off fireworks.  I miss those days on Bainbridge Island with every fiber of my being.

Luckily, I married into a family that has a monthly get together, and each summer one of those gathering takes place on the beach on Whidbey Island (my sister-in-law's husband's parents are gracious enough to open their home to our large brood).  I look forward to it every year as a chance to share something special with my children that I had as a child, a simpler version of summer.

Linus was excited for a day of adventure.

"I'm a tourist!"

 Knowing ferry traffic would be bad, Dave and I decided to drive all the way up to Deception Pass and have an adventure at Fort Casey before driving down to the south island for the gathering.  I always forget how beautiful Deception Pass is and am now making plans to take a camping trip there.

Linus liked the idea of the Fort Casey--guns, soldiers, armies, and battles.  I think he was a little disappointed that everything wasn't in working order.  I made sure to bring a headlamp to explore the long dark hallways and rooms.

Park Ranger Linus giving us a guided tour.

Lots of nooks and crannies for crawling into

We spent the afternoon on south Whidbey with the family.  By the time I got out of the car and into the house, Linus was already headed down to the beach to explore low tide.  Eileen and I hung out, watched swarms of blue herons, and relaxed in the hammock.

beachwear

Eileen adores her cousin Avery.  I think the feeling is mutual.

Ice cream on a hot sunny day.

We all swam at the pool. Eileen even swam with water wings unassisted! She was very proud of herself.  I was proud of myself for actually getting in the pool. After swimming, the men took the kids out rafting.  Linus told everyone, "My mom pukes on boats."  It's true, but needless to say, I wasn't invited.

On the way home that night I asked Linus what his favorite part of the day was and he said there were too many.  I agree.  My heart feels so much lighter having spent just an afternoon at the beach house.  I could have stared out at the water for hours.  Maybe someday we'll have our own family place on the Puget Sound.  Nothing big or fancy, it just needs to be right on the water with room to build a bonfire and set off fireworks. In the meantime, I remain grateful for the one special weekend every summer on Whidbey Island and am already looking forward to next year.