Here we go

My bag is packed. The groceries are purchased. Mummu knows the routine. And tomorrow I begin my 2 year journey to nursehood.T is totally in love with his Mummu. He thinks she's the best thing since sunbutter and jelly sandwiches.

And I'm feeling very good about Mummu and F. They seem to be getting along beautifully. I still don't think Mummu knows what she's gotten herself into, but she's excited and ready to go.

And me? I'm as ready as I'm going to get. Here we go.

It is official

I'm a nursing student. I have the hospital ID to prove it.

In one swell foop

Our lives are about to change pretty dramatically. I've been feeling pretty bi-polar about school starting next week. One moment I am very excited to be starting a new adventure. The next I'm on the verge of tears thinking about F's reaction to being away from me for 8 hours a day. Then I am looking forward to having some time to be a regular adult, without a tiny person permanently attached to my hip. Then I'm back to super anxious about how I'm going to balance full-time student with mom and wife.

I always know that something is really bothering me when I start having bad dreams about it. In this case, I have been dreaming that F cries for all 8 hours ... every day.

Sometimes I'm sitting with my family and have this overwhelming sense of peace and rightness with the world. I'm just praying that my new adventure isn't going to upset the delicate balance of our lives ... too much.

Finally, really done ... mostly

Apparently, it's not a holiday weekend in our house unless we have a project. This weekend, we worked on the bathroom. We've been working on our bathroom in tiny baby steps since we bought the house 5 years ago. This is what it looked like when we closed on the house. There was nothing wrong with it, per se, it was was just kind of boring and ugly. I especially hated the light fixture. First we painted and put in new hardware (towel racks, toilet paper holder, etc. Last summer, we finally replaced the vanity. Then we had to look for a new light fixture and medicine cabinet. I found a fixture pretty quickly and we bought it last September. It's been sitting in the basement ever since, waiting for a medicine cabinet.

Then we finally found a medicine cabinet at Ikea, of all places. We got it and promptly went on vacation. This weekend, we finally (and by we, I of course mean Ry) took down the old light and vanity, replastered and painted and installed the new.
Ta da! Isn't it lovely? I have happy.

Now we just have to pull out the awful tub surround (which stains if you so much as look at it with colored anything) and tile the tub. That is a project for another day.

Really?

Happy Independence Day!

Go Blind Squirrels!

After yesterday's fireworks fiasco, we weren't sure if we were going to catch any fireworks this Independence Day weekend. Today, T was in a great mood and took a (short) nap, so we thought we'd give the fireworks at Sesame Place a try. As it turns out, this was probably a better solution than the township fireworks would have been. It was shorter, set to Sesame Street music, and the exit was well-planned and executed. It was also about an hour earlier than the township fireworks went off. It turns out that a blind squirrel does occasionally find a nut. I've decided that blind squirrels are our new family mascot.

This goes down as one of my all-time favorite pictures of F. He wasn't scared. Not one bit.

And of course, T thought they were pretty swell too. This is an interesting shot, because it looks like it's the middle of the day. It's not. It was dark. Cameras do funny things.

Anyhow, we had a lovely evening, ate some delicious ice cream and saw our fireworks. Go blind squirrels!

Niagara Falls: The Rest of the Story

I'm sure that pretty much anyone who reads this blog has already looked at the Niagara Falls pictures on Facebook. So this post won't include any of those pictures. Instead, you'll get some less touristy, but probably funnier pictures that have nothing to do with the falls, except that they were taken there.

We started out on our 436 mile journey bright and early Tuesday morning. It was the longest one-day journey we've attempted with the boys. The googles estimated that it would take us 7 hours and 15 minutes. In true family-with-young-children style, it took 10.

Once we finally got to our hotel, T was entranced with the shoe polisher. I hadn't seen one in many years. Do you still have one, Dad?

We also indulged in a glass of wine or two. Dad and Lala had stopped and picked up some bottle-sized box-o-wine. It was taaaaaasty. Then we ate dinner and watched the falls' illumination. Blah blah blah.

Day two started with a bang when we attempted to feed the kids in the hotel room. This was a bad idea.

But we made it through and started off towards the falls. F, of course, fell asleep.

We went on the Behind the Fall exhibit, where we all got fabulously wet and T and Lala made temporary hand print graffiti on the walls.

F and Lala size up each other. This was about as close as F got to being OK with someone other than me for the entire week. Sigh.

As you can see, he's a bit of a mommy's boy.

We went on the Maid of the Mist. F was asleep again. It was awe-inspiring, blah blah blah.

We attempted to get a picture with Dad and T. Not so much. T is not a big fan of posing these days.

We had dinner at the Keg, overlooking the falls. It was super tasty and a beautiful view.

Then I gave the boys a bath in the GIANT HOTEL TUB!!! T loved the whirlpool setting.

Dad and Lala found a golf course on Day Three, while we walked about, ate some ice cream and found a play land. That night, we went to see Oh Canada, Eh, a dinner show of all things Canada. It was fun. T tried (and liked) pea soup. Om nom nom.

We had to switch hotels this day. F was pretty tired in the morning, so I nursed him and he passed out. We packed around him.

This was the view from our second hotel. Not quite so impressive.

We hung out and took some cute pictures of F.

And that night we went out for ice cream. F has a thing for teeth these days. I suppose it's because he only has the two.

The next morning, we went home. It was a great trip and even better to see Dad and Lala. I was happy to get home though, and get the boys back into their regular beds, where they sleep much, much better. Ahhh, sleep.

Discipline Sucks

Right now, we are supposed to be headed out to see the Independence Day fireworks. Instead, we're hanging on the couch. Why? Well, here's the thing.

We've been talking with T about the fireworks all week. He's been super excited. All week, I've also been telling him that he had to take a nap the day we went to the fireworks because we were going to be up late. He's a monster in the evenings if he doesn't get a nap. And so. And so, today I put him down for his nap, with a reminder that he had to take a nap so we could go see the fireworks. Then I put F down. Then half an hour later, I heard some suspicious noises coming from T's room. He was sitting up playing with his toys. Then we had this conversation.

Me: T, you need to go to sleep so we can go to the fireworks tonight.

T: OK Mommy.

We continued to have this conversation every 30 minutes. I tried rubbing his back. I tried sitting in his chair. I tried scratching his head. Nothing. None of my usual get him to nap tricks worked today. I told him that if he didn't sleep, we weren't going to be able to go to the fireworks.

Finally, around 4:15, I went into his room (where he was playing with his matchbox cars), and told him that if he would like to get up that was his choice, but it would mean no fireworks tonight. He got up. Ry asked him to take a nap so we could go. "No Daddy, I choose not to go to the fireworks." (Yes, he actually said it, just like that.)

So here we are, sitting on the couch. Fireworksless. T, of course, threw a fit tonight before bed when he realized that we really weren't going to the fireworks. He also lost dessert tonight for kicking his brother, had to go to bed early for hitting him with a toy, and lost one of his bedtime books for not listening to his father. Can't you imagine how joyful he'd have been in a crowded park 2 hours past his bedtime? Delightful.

Sometimes, it sucks to be the parent.