SV 15: Improvise, Be Spontaneous, & Get Ready for Fun!

Today we tried to go to the library. No such luck - it was closed. Perhaps if I ever watched the news I would have known that travelling to downtown Racine today would be difficult. I don't watch the news so I didn't know that President Obama was coming for a visit. When we got downtown and the roads were all blocked off, and there were people standing around everywhere and police officers at every intersection I still didn't catch on. Someone told me, I felt dumb for not knowing and then the kids and I walked off. Crying. The kids were crying, not me. Because when the president comes to town and the library is closed the disappointment of no story time outweighs any interest in seeing someone important. Quick Mom, think of something fun to do to make up for missing story time. Quick! "Beach!" I blurted out.
The tears quickly dried at the mention of a trip to the beach and the rest of the morning was focused on nothing but the beach. Beach, beach beach... "Can we go to the beach yet? Is it time to go yet? Are we being good? Can we go?" After a small detour to see if we could catch a glimpse of the president's entourage (no luck) we finally arrived at The Beach. The Sand. The Water. The Sunshine. The Fun!

I'm so glad I didn't take a book to read, I would have missed out on the fun. We built towers and dug holes, buried our feet and then our hands and then a bunch of rocks. Raced each other, built paths and roads and walls. Then we played in the water and I was really surprised that Shelly had as much fun as she did, I kept waiting for her to cry when the waves splashed in her face but she and Archer both just squealed and screamed and laughed. I was cold with the water up to my knees and then I realized that my knees equal Archer's thighs and Shelly's waist. My hips equal his shoulders and her chin. They were in quite deep and still having fun in the chilly water. We got out for a little break to warm up and then they wanted to go back in but I said we couldn't because Shelly was still shivering. "No I not shivering!" she exclaimed and then stood as perfectly still as she could. Archer claimed "we never get cold, remember?" I admired the sheer effort required to willfully stop shivering so we tried the water again but it was just too icy. Time to get dried off, warmed up and head home. And once we were in the car he said, "we're always hungry, remember Mom?" That means snack time, of course!

I was surprised at how upset the kids were about missing story time but we sure made up for it with the fun later on. The weather was nice and the kids played so well that I didn't have to referee any disputes the entire time we were there.  Thanks kids, you guys sure know how to have a great time and I love getting to tag along with you!

Hugs & Kisses

Whenever Shelly sees that I'm upset about something she wants to give me hugs and kisses to make me feel better. She calls them "happy kisses." "Mom, I give you happy kisses and hugs and then you will feel better. Ok, Mom?" Isn't it amazing how a child can simplify a problem and make an adult realize that it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that? It challenges me to let go of whatever my big problem is and just focus on the moment right now with my children, not let other things get in the way of my family. There's time enough to face the troubles in life, what we'll regret later is letting the trouble interfere with our time together.

SV 13 & 14: Sleepover & Camping & Fishing, Oh My!

Last night the kids had a sleepover with Grandma Shell. I didn't get many details out of them, but the summary is that they visited two libraries, stayed up till midnight and spent a lot of time in the pool. Archer's review of his time was "why do we have to go home? Its more fun here. I wish we could live here." So that's definitely positive feedback! The party's over - on the way home tonight, they both fell asleep in the car around 7:00, didn't wake when we brought them into the house, and are still sleeping soundly. They're worn out now but I expect them to be back on schedule around 7:30 tomorrow morning, ready for yet another day of non-stop action!

Oh yeah, while they were partying in Hales Corners, Grandpa Craig and I went camping at Lake Kegonsa and fishing at Mendota. No fish, but lots of time playing cribbage and talking, and a nice morning spent with Nana and Papa today.

 Tonight we're all back together in Racine. Again I had that feeling that travelling was nice and visiting family was great, but we belong together as a family and I never feel completely content when we're separated. The strings that hold our family together continually tug at my heart when we're apart, and I'm glad we're all home again.

SV 12: Party at Monkey Joe's

Archer and Shelly were invited to a friend's birthday party at Monkey Joe's and my first question is: why aren't adults allowed to play? I mean, I understand that we're too big and the equipment is for the kids but really, the kids have all the fun. I wanna play! (Imagine me stomping my foot and crossing my arms and sulking away.) Oh well, that's why the parents have no choice but to live vicariously through their children. And today the children sure had a great time! Archer's head was soaked with sweat by the time we left. There'd been so much running and bouncing that Shelly was sleeping by the time we got home. I'm surprised they managed to stay awake until 9:30 tonight, but then again cake and ice cream will keep the batteries charged! While we were there, Archer said "This is the best day EVER!" Happy Birthday Jada, thanks for inviting us to the party, we had lots of fun!

SV 11: Pool Time

Today we finally spent some quality time in the pool at Grandma & Grandpa's. How have we gotten this far into summer vacation without spending more time in the pool? Who knows. Anyway, we gooped on the sunscreen and I tried to get Archer to swim a little but he didn't cooperate much. I tried to get him to jump into the water but he wouldn't do that either. Things he did last year are now off the table. Oh well. A little bit of splashing and wading around went a long way, thanks for playing, Grandma!

SV 10: Monsters!

One of the kids' favorite games is pretending they're monsters. Beware.

They hide in closets and around corners and usually make too much noise to be stealthy, but sometimes... You walk around a corner or past a closet door and RRRROOAARRRRR!!! They only feel successful if you jump out of your socks at the attack.Usually I can fake a good reaction to give them the satisfaction. Sometimes Shelly is the victim of this type of attack and she's not so tolerant of a screaming older brother jumping at her from around a corner. Sometimes its not even from around a corner, sometimes its in broad daylight. The game then escalates to Shelly crying a genuine "afraid of the monster" cry while Big Brother continues the growling and prowling. So here's the question - is she ACTUALLY scared or is she just that good of an actress? She sounds actually scared. Terrified.

Today I considered the options - either I tell Archer to calm down and back off (can you see that Shelly's scared? Well then give her some space.) Or I tell Shelly to get over it (can you see its just Archer fooling around? He won't hurt you, just ignore him.) I chose the second one, I held her hand but didn't pick her up and told her its just a game and if she doesn't like it then ignore him. I think Archer should be sensitive to Shelly's feelings but today's pressing concern was Shelly being Miss Drama. Perhaps tomorrow the focus will shift back to Archer. Always the balance, back and forth. In the mean time, be careful when you walk around that corner, you can't be sure its safe...

SV 9: Recovery & Reunion

Shelly was supposed to spend today recovering. Instead she spent today playing with her dolls and stuffed animals, playing tag with me and asking me what she could have to eat. I asked her many times if anything was hurting and she kept saying no. She seems to be fine. Her biggest problem was when I took a band-aid off her hand tonight. Now she's sleeping peacefully, I can hardly hear her breathing. What a huge change from a few days ago when we could hear her snoring across the house.
The highlight of our day was the reunion between Arch and Shell. We picked him up and within five minutes they were laughing together. Shelly and Arch haven't been together since Saturday. Three days of being apart made me value the one-on-one time we had with each of them but also realize how great they are together. Today Shelly kept asking me what we could play together and I had trouble coming up wih new ideas to keep her entertained. When she's with her brother there's never a shortage of entertainment. They come up with constant variations on the previous scenario and play for hours without running out of things to talk about. Often they're playing a game and completely understand the rules and when we (the ignorant parents) join the game we ruin it by our inability to figure out what they're doing. I can't wait to see how our youngest one fits into the complicated and wonderful puzzle of our family!

SV Day 8: Surgery

Today my tiny little girl had her tonsils and adnoids removed. Ugh. We had two doctors tell us that it needed to be done. We had our own experience telling us something needed to be done. She snores terribly, she has trouble swallowing her food, and even someone who's not a doctor could look into her mouth and see how huge her tonsils were. Still, last night I was wondering if we're doing the right thing. Maybe she'll outgrow the problem. Maybe we should have gotten another opinion. Let's just cancel, I told David. And this morning on the way to the hospital I was busy thinking that it wasn't too late to back out. I tried to be as normal as I could for Shelly but she must have sensed something was going on because after we got to the hospital she threw up twice. Poor girl. There was some question about whether she'd be able to have surgery. I was hugely relieved - let's just wait, procrastinate, maybe never do the surgery. And then the anesthesiologist said it would be fine. Darn. Change her into the hospital gown, give her the medicine, wheel her away. And I cried. She looked so tiny in that bed. The nurses were so nice to us and we only had to wait 20 minutes before the doctor came out to tell us it was over, everything went well and we could go upstairs to see her when she woke up. An hour later she was in my arms and I was thanking God for keeping her safe, and I was wondering how other parents deal with it - parents whose kids are sick and have to be hospitalized. I thanked the Lord for healthy children, that this is the first time we've had to face this. We're so blessed.

We're home now, Shelly's biggest fear was being poked (getting a shot) and it didn't happen. So she's happy. While we were waiting to leave the hospital she asked David when she was going to have her tonsils taken out. Thankfully she didn't even know it had already happened. Now the goal is to keep her calm for a couple days, no "strenuous activity." Is that even possible with a three year old?

P.S. We have Grandma Sue to thank for taking care of Archer - he's enjoying a two-night sleepover with her so he didn't have to sit around in the hospital with us. Thanks so much Grandma!

SV Days 5-7: Farm Fun

We can always count on having a great time when we visit the farm, thanks to our family who accomodate us (Thanks Grandpa!) and the adventures that are waiting to be explored. I love seeing all our family and its so great to see Grandpa's great-grandchildren playing with each other. Archer and Shelly enjoyed bike riding, swinging, bike riding, going for a walk with Grandma, bike riding, playing with cousins, fishing, and bike riding some more. The kids piled out of the truck on Wednesday afternoon, hit the ground running, and there was no slowing down until bedtime. We got an early start on Thursday and again there was no slowing down until it was time to go home. The kids didn't sleep on the way home but Shelly finally fell asleep between Hales Corners and Racine and didn't stir again until Friday morning. Between visiting with all the grandparents and family, and keeping up with Archer and Shelly, I was completely drained. When Friday rolled around we had a "jet-lag recovery" day, cleaning up and getting back to our normal routine. Its amazing how much fun we crammed into two days, now we're just counting down the days until we can go back for more!

SV Day 4: Painting & Playground

School stuff followed by painting, the kids did an amazing job of spilling only a couple drops of paint and we had almost no mess to clean up, thanks kids!! They had almost as much fun painting their plates as painting the pictures. Just goes to show I never can anticipate what's going to entertain them. We visited the Village Green playground just as it started drizzling and I wasn't hopeful about the amount of playtime we'd get, but the kids wanted to try it and the rain held off long enough for us to get some running in before heading home. Now we're enjoying a little down time before jumping back into high gear. Deep breath, get ready, set, go!

SV Day 3: Its a Boy!

Today's adventure was seeing our baby boy on the ultrasound picture, awesome! Yes, we found out its a boy. And we saw him moving around and sucking his finger. There's a beautiful little person that's been kicking me and squirming around, and I'm reminded of what a miracle children are. Thank you Lord for our son and daughter and for the baby that we haven't held in our arms yet but already love so much.

SV Day 2: Were we good?

The kids seem to like the idea of working on school stuff as long as they get to put stickers on the pages they've finished. I wonder how long that will last? I guess it'll be until the school work interrupts the play time. But if we can keep it fun then maybe they won't notice! So far so good!
We had a little shopping trip in the afternoon with Grandma Sue and Archer and Shelly were both not so great in the store, running and shouting. This was after a long talk on the way to the store about the right way to act. I was disappointed and frustrated. And then I could hardly keep from laughing when Archer innocently asked me, as we were getting into the car to go home, "Were we good, Mom?" No Arch, not so good. Guess we'll try to do better next time...

Summer Vacation Day 1

Fishing with Grandpa at Potter's Lake near East Troy. Both kids got a lesson in driving the boat and reading the fish finder to locate prey. Neither kid learned how to bait a hook. (Based on the fact that I'm 30 and still won't bait a hook, I'm not holding my breath for my kids to do it any time soon!!) Archer learned that "A bad day of fishing is still better than a day at school." Hotdogs and coke on the way home, a great kickoff to the summer!

Adventures in Kindergarten and Beyond

Last week I took a trip to Mexico with Archer's class, I never thought I'd have the opportunity to try out so many different jobs in such a short amount of time! First I passed out airplane tickets to the passengers as they arrived at the airport, they went through the metal detector before boarding the plane to Mexico. I then joined the passengers as a flight attendent and passed out cookies and collected garbage. Once the plane reached its destination the passengers took their luggage and checked into a hotel. (I need to find out the name of that hotel because when you check in they give you money to go shopping!) I worked in the market square selling maracas (the other moms on the trip sold sombreros, platas, floresas, am I forgetting something else?). The kids then paraded through the school, I mean village, and returned back to the market square for tacos (waitressing, anyone?).

All of this was fun but paled in comparison to the grand finale - the piñata. Once all the kids had their turn it was Mrs. Peña's turn. They started chanting and cheering and once the piñata was broken they only barely managed to stay in their spots before FINALLY being released to chase after the candy. WOW was it a fun trip, and everyone was back at school in time for lunch!

My thanks to Archer's kindergarten teacher for a wonderful school year, a wonderful trip last week and for making school something that Archer enjoys. She's worked so hard with all the kids teaching them the rules, how to be good friends and students, and getting their education off to a great start. Its amazing to me how much he's learned over the past nine months. He only has three more days to go and then kindergarten will be history, but I know he'll remember it for a long long time. I'm sad for this chapter to end but I can look forward to the next chapters - Archer's continuing school adventures, Shelly going to school and our next child following after that. All I can hope for is that my children continue to love to learn, and that the grown-ups in their lives nurture them and point them in the right direction.

Acting Classes

Who needs Acting Classes when you have a small child in your life to teach you all about drama and exaggeration and putting on a show? Oh, Shelly is so good at it, its hard for me not to smile when she's moaning and rolling around on the floor because she's "so hungry" or "needs a tissue." We just ate. She knows where the tissues are. The list goes on... I just remind her that if she's not feeling well she needs to take a nap and usually she's feeling better right away. Sometimes it persists and then we have nap time. That unfailingly solves all our problems. Archer knows better, most of the time, so this is just a Shelly lesson right now.

Look at that sweet face in the picture, who couldn't smile at her, even if she is starving, can't play with the toy she wants, or just can't decide what game to play next? Oh, the tough things in life!

(Shelly just saw this picture and said, in the sweetest voice ever, "Why am I like that?")