My Kids Are Beach Kids

You never know what your kids are going to like. You just pray it's something you can stand. Phineas & Ferb over Jake & the Neverland Pirates, for instance. (What? Those little pipsqueaks give me a cavity.) Or Click Clack Moo for the millionth time instead of that damned Easter Bunny book for the hundredth.
Then there are times when they love what you love. This happened with the beach. John and I are both beach people. Hours in a beach chair just watching waves or reading with a dip or two in the ocean was a perfect vacation for us. Now those trips are more about running around after the kids as they cover themselves in sand and run away (CJ) from the waves or run into (Leila) them. It is not as relaxing as it once was, but it is just as satisfying if not more so.
John and CJ spent hours together, John waist-deep in the water with CJ on his hip waiting to jump the big ones.

Leila and I joined them for spurts, but she really preferred jumping around in the surf on her own independent terms or with a friend.

And, of course, it wasn't a day at the beach unless they were covered from hairline to toe nails in sand. There was hole digging and sandcastle destroying. Yes, destroying. They were very anxious to have someone else build one so they could go Godzilla on it. Even after hours on the beach, going home was a little disappointing even though they looked cool doing it. 

We're also glad they are turning into biking kids too.
Even though CJ is cautious, they are both kids who will try something new like riding a horse. Chincoteague and Assateague are known for the wild horses that roam the wild life refuge.

We plan on at least one annual trip to the beach. I love knowing that it will be something the kids look as forward to as I do.

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Camping with Toddlers! And others

We took the kids camping for the first time this weekend. We went to Killen's Pond state park in near Rehoboth, Delaware. John picked that area for a very specific reason. We went with some old friends and some new friends. There were eight kids in all, but eight adults, so we managed to maintain some order with man-on-man coverage. Somewhat.
The campsites were beautiful. There was plenty of shade and quiet and a really pretty meadow. It was a little inconvenient to the bathrooms, but it was worth it to not be near the RVs and their generators.
John and another dad, Jason, along with his two minions sons, Anthony and Ethan went down on Thursday to set up camp toddler-free. CJ's insistent,"I halp!" is cute, but potentially dangerous when putting up a tent. And God bless them because it was HOT! They were real troopers. When I showed up with our kids, other mom, Kirsten, and other toddler, Keira, on Friday, we dropped our stuff, looked around, and said, "Water park!"
Best. Idea. Ever.

  (courtesy of Domestic Deeds)

When we got back much cooler and happier, it stormed (shortly after the rest of our friends, the Layous and Aycocks, arrived and got their camps set up). Which is not the ideal camping fun unless it is breaking the gawd awful heat. Also it was awesome because it made this happen.

Fortunately, the rain stopped long enough to let us get dinner (kabobs over the fire thanks to John.) in and a quick round of s'mores before it started up again and drove us to our tents. Sleeping in a tent with toddlers does not involve much sleeping. It involves much rolling off of an air mattress and John eventually sleeping across the bottom of said mattress. Thank goodness I am short.
Fortunately, there were pancakes and bacon and coffee in the morning, thanks to the Deeds, followed by another trip to the water park where Leila spent her time running from one slide to another while CJ tormented sprayed victims friends with a play hose. After lunch we decided it was nap time. They were asleep before we got them to the car in the water park parking lot. Once back at camp we settled in for some actual camping. John entertained the children.

   (again, Deeds pictures, thanks Kirsten.)


While the Layous made us a delicious tortilla dinner. Camping is really mostly about the food.
We taught the kids basic camping skills that involve sticks and marshmallows .

I shall gloss over the epic tantrum CJ throw before finally falling asleep on Saturday and just say we were all so satisfyingly exhausted that tent sleeping was possible. Sunday we had another delightful breakfast, courtesy of the Aycocks followed by the not-so-fun packing, courtesy of John, but then a delightful lunch at Dogfish Head Brew Pub in Rehoboth before we all parted company. John and I took the kids for a quick trip to the beach before heading home. Leila, of course, ran straight into the waves, while CJ made John hold him for a couple of minutes before getting his toes wet. 

All in all the kids were a delight for most of the trip, and I think I can safely say that they had an excellent time. I see many a family and friends camping trip in our future. 

Motel Toddler

We had our first experience with the kids in a hotel. I learned a lot.

The room was really set up for me. All the surfaces, including the sink, were low, a bonus for a short person. Not a bonus for a short person, with toddlers, who wants to sit and eat a sandwich and watch the television.

One of CJ's favorite things is ice, and here, right in front of him, was a bucket full of it. I don't think he knew that much could exist, and there was nowhere to put it out of his reach. Heck, even the fridge was within his grasp. As was the door that's latch was on the loose side. As were the television buttons.

Within minutes of entering the room, we had to disconnect the phone because Leila was talking on it and pressing buttons. You know she would have managed to call Luxembourg, and it would have ended up cheaper to buy the motel than pay the long distance bill. Honestly, until Saturday night, I wasn't sure they knew what a lan line phone was for.

We decided to get a room with a king sized bed. Even at home, the kids end up in our bed every night, so there is no chance they won't when we are away. It was easier to just start out that way. In theory. Apparently, in her sleep, Leila mistook the new environment for an obstacle course with John and I being the obstacles. Her favorite obstacle was John's head though she might have thought that was a sparring dummy with the amount of kicking it she did. Maybe she is a Potential. At one point she, for her own reasons, crawled to the bottom corner of the bed and just passed out there, face down, sprawled. I ended up sleeping with my head down next to her, with my hand on her, so she wouldn't roll off the bed. I wasn't about to move her once she actually fell asleep.

CJ, you ask? He pretty much slept through it all.

In the morning, there were really only two things that were going to make John and me functional, showers and hot beverages of the Starbucks variety.

Our First Snow Adventure

We have not done much with this blog. We put so much on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, that it can be hard to find more to add. But now that the kids are a little older, and we can go on more adventures, we'll try to elaborate on them here. Hopefully.
Any snow adventure starts with the snow suit prep. This? Is a process, especially the first time when the kids have to investigate all the puffy warmness first. But within an hour of starting, we had all four of us ready for action.
The sliding glass door open, and the kids ran out in excitement. They stopped short. Walking was hard! Arms up! Mum! Da! (When it comes to calling us, apparently our kids become Irish.) Thus carrying them out of the fence to our little hill commenced.
They stayed true to their personalities. Leila thought laundry basket sledding was great.

CJ did not. He liked flinging snow.

It wouldn't pack into balls. And of course once they got use to the idea, running around in the snow was great.


They both thought snow angels were lame.
Of course the best part was introducing them to after snow hot chocolate.
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How to Scare Away Ducks

My iPhone is currently residing in a bag of rice. Why? Well, it got wet, and the hope is that the rice will draw the moisture out of the phone. What? Oh. How did it get wet? Fine.

First you have to understand the daredevil to whom I have given birth. I wish I could put into words Leila's level of fearlessness. I think if the boogeyman showed up in her room she would squeal, clap her hands and give him a kiss on his nose. At 16 months, I think she would bungee jump.

Today at 11 AM, we met some moms and kids from the Carlisle chapter of MOMS Club at Boiling Springs Children's Pond to feed the ducks. Ducks like Cheerios. CJ likes throwing Cheerios. It's a win win. Leila loves to watch the ducks eat Cheerios. Win win win. Only she really wanted to get up close and personal with the ducks. We played a game of move-the-toddler, but she really wouldn't stay away from the edge. I decided to pick her up and hold her. She resisted and slipped from my grip. Her escape route? Over the edge into the water two feet below. Now she was in there for less than 30 seconds. Probably less than 20 as I was right behind her. I had her out of the water and back up on the shore where the moms (THANK YOU) had her wrapped in a blanket before she could start crying (which she did a lot and loudly). I had to wade to a boat launch to get myself out. Seriously, the whole thing lasted less than a minute before I was holding my wet baby trying to comfort her, but people? The image of my daughter lying on her back completely under water is not going to leave me any time soon. I still feel extra adrenaline in my system, and while I am dry, I feel waterlogged. Leila? She's enjoying Lion King and trying to climb the pub table's stool so she can play with the light switch.

Define

It has become politically incorrect to put labels on people and for some good reasons. In the past and still today unfortunately, many of these labels, black, gay, etc., are used to demean and repress those seen as Other. Yet labels have their place. Humans work better with a frame of reference. It gives us a jumping off point for our journey into the world outside ourselves. As long as we don't make the labels more important that the people we are applying them to, they are a handy tool our brains use to cope with all the input we receive.

And while labeling the world around us is important, the most important labels are the ones we give ourselves. Some are simple: brunette, short, Greek, thirty-four. Others are a little more complex: funny, friendly, smart, forgetful. Then there are the ones we use to define ourselves, the ones that shape the decisions we make and the life we lead. They can come in a variety of categories. Career: Writer, Teacher, Librarian. Talents: Writing, Knitting, Photography. Family: Daughter, Sister, Wife, Mother. Throughout our lives as we grow, they change. Some disappear, others are added. The level of importance of each always morphing along a sliding scale.

Some people have shining label that glow and drive them. They become not just a label but a definition of our core selves. Actress, Athlete, Reporter, Engineer, Professor, Artist, Volunteer, Activist. Especially in our youthful adulthood the career labels often are the ones of most important or at least daily focus. The family ones obviously grow in import if you choose to start a family with a significant other and perhaps children.

I never felt the pull of a Career. I had jobs I liked, that I worked hard at, but while they were labels, they were never definitions. I always felt my family connections more even at the time of my life when they are often more in the background. I have always been the most proud of being a good daughter and sister and then wife. And when I became a mother, I found my definition. I know it is the one label I was meant to carry and turn into a definition of my self. It is hard. It is exhausting. It is my natural state of being. That is an awesome understanding, and I love the truth of that statement. Yet I worry just a little. It is a definition that is fundamentally about others, one in which I can easily lose myself to the fulfillment of my children. Other parents I know still have careers and talents that are definitions, not just labels. They are of an import in their lives that they go to extraordinary lengths to juggle all the parts of their cores. I juggle diapers and toys, laundry and a vacuum, a part-time job and workouts. And I am very content. I wonder if I should be. Is it enough to have one definition and many labels? Will labels be enough when my kids no longer need constant attention? Maybe a label or two will then change to a definition. Who knows? Maybe I'm worrying for nothing. I am glad it is just a tiny worry, a rumination, really. I wonder if I am the only one who has it.

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