Travelin' blues

Recently, we took the girls on a bona fide vacation. Beautiful beaches with white sand that squeaked when you walked on it. It was awesome. The girls loved it. We all loved it. Who wouldn't - check this out:

However, I would like to point out that it took 9 hours of travel, with a layover in Atlanta, to get there.

And, while most of the time Jellybean looked sweet, like this:

There was a lurking, evil little sprite, waiting to be unleashed - napless - into the world:

(doesn't she look spooky?)

Post vacation blahs....

We were fortunate enough to spend time (on vacation in DC) with one set of grandparents over the recent holidays. Monkey and Jellybean LOVED it. 

Unfortunately, they are now profoundly disappointed to realize that:

1. they must now walk again like a commoner (versus a princess), as granddad isn't here to carry them around;  and
2. my pockets are NOT full of candy, like Nana’s are!

Bummer. Real life is soooo boring (to quote Monkey).

Gone fishin'

Been offline, off the grid, and on vacation. 

Here's a preview, with B-Bear, HP, Monkey and Jellybean meeting "frog frog"!

More to come, later!

Fire Island rocks

This is how we spent last Sunday. It was HEAVEN.

In which I pretend that she doesn't speak English....

This heat wave is pretty brutal.

I'm going to stop making jokes about it (for the next 5 minutes) as I just stuck my foot in my mouth with a colleague. I opened up the conversation with a bit about how this heat was killin' me, only to learn he's recently been released from the hospital, where he was treated for heat exhaustion. And he spent 2 days there, he was so sick. *cough, cough, let me remove my foot from my mouth*

Like I said, the heat is brutal.

Our a/c at home just can't keep up. We have a huge window unit in the living room that usually does a good (enough) job, but because of the odd layout of our apartment, Monkey's room stays hot. Too hot. Hot enough that it feels like you are walking into a sauna. So hot that, for the past few nights, she's been bunking with her little sister, crashed out on the floor with a sleeping bag.

I wasn't sure that this would work out. I mean it's worked well on vacation to have them share a room, but on vacation we run them ragged: walking all over Washington, DC., or spending hours at the Milwaukee County Zoo. So that when we put them to bed, they're both so tired we don't worry one will wake the other.  But we've never had them share a room, not even for one night, at home after a regular day.

The first night I was worried that Jellybean would wake Monkey, or vice versa; it was a roaring success. Both slept well, and when I went in to spring Jellybean from her crib (she was singing and talking), I found Monkey wide awake and happy! My normally sullen in the morning teenager was awake and happy on a school day. It was so pleasant I was shocked. I kept thinking I must have wandered into the wrong family! Monkey loved it, and was charming as she told stories to me and M about how she and Jellybean were telling each other jokes. (JOKES! how does she know about jokes?) She even talked about the sleeping bag and pillow on the floor as "her bed."

The second night was also a roaring success, in part, as the 5 times that (poor, poor) Jellybean woke up crying (and screeching) in pain from heartburn (we think), Monkey slept right through it. She didn't even wake up that night to go potty.

I'm telling you? Monkey sleeping in a/c is a VERY GOOD THING. And, quite frankly, after Monkey expressed an interest in sharing a room with Jellybean after our recent visit to the Midwest, we started to talk seriously about doing just that.

Last night over dinner, I prompted the girls (in a leading question) if they liked sharing a room together. Monkey immediately piped up with a cheerful YES.

Jellybean? She looked at me, looked at her sister, looked back at me and said "no."

Monkey told me that Jellybean said no, and she sounded a little puzzled/confused.

So I asked the question again.

And.........no.

And that is when I might have hinted that Jellybean doesn't really understand everyone yet, as she's still learning to speak English....

Home again

We're back. You didn't know we left? Well, we did. We snuck off to Washington, D.C., for a little family vacation.

What did we do? We went to museums, and kicked some snow around, and ate Trader Joe's macaroni and cheese, and watched Monsters, Inc.... and what? What's that, you say?

You say our vacation sounds EXACTLY like stuff we can do here at home in little ol' New York City? Hmmmm. OK, busted. You're right.

But there, you see, someone came in every single day and tidied up after us. They made our beds, gave us new clean towels, ran the dishwasher....yes, dish washer.....and OMG SQUEEEEEE there was a washer and a dryer IN THE APARTMENT we rented. I though I'd died and gone to heaven. I came home with MORE clean clothes than I left with! (so my jeans were dirty...sue me, I was on vacation and everyone has a cold so if I stunk they wouldn't have even noticed! so there, ha!). Yes, I know. It was nirvana.....a constantly cleaned environment with cleaning appliances at my fingertips.....an anal-retentive's nirvana, but nirvana none the less!

We went to the Smithsonian and saw Dorothy's ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz. Man, that Judy Garland had tiny feet - size 5! Monkey's face was priceless when she figured out what we were standing in line for all that time.

We went to the Museum of Natural History, saw the White House, the Capital, Washington Monument, the reflecting pool (minus the Octopus from Night of the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonium, a movie Nana just gave us for Christmas), kicked around on the Mall, and generally just farted around. It was nice.

The girls really bonded. They wrestled, battled over toys, tickled each other, and had a lot of fun. Monkey told us, in a heart-breakingly precious moment, that she couldn't wait for Jellybean to get older so they could walk and hold hands together. I know! Seriously sweet. I'm going to bottle that feeling and try to break it out when they're 15 & 13 and scratching each other's eyes out.

As we rolled into town today, after a seriously hassle-free trip back (in comparison to our death march on the way there - ugh), M asked Monkey what her favorite part of the vacation was.

"Playing in her closet" was the answer. Of course it was.

Vacation recap in 170 words or less (I'm counting.....)

Vini vidi vici.

We came, we saw, we conquered: what’s the children’s version of that one? Because Monkey and Jellybean had one hell of a good vacation! They had both sets of grandparents’ wrapped around their pinkies. And that is as it should be.

Some highlights:

Jellybean rapturous with joy and wonder, watching ‘Andpa play the guitar

Monkey screeching for joy when Granddad or Nana turned the sprinkler on for the bounce slide & pool combination

Monkey begging for one more Grandma-made muffin “for the road”

Jellybean leaning out of the arms of whoever was holding her, anytime Nana or Grandma walked by…just begging to be cuddled one more time

Jellybean mastering the stairs (up only) and climbing them again and again at ‘Andpa and Grandma’s house

Monkey climbing up on the piano bench and pounding away at both grandparent households

Me taking so many photos I (first time ever) ran out of space on the CF card!

Photos to follow, I promise. As soon as I catch my breath.

The Great Paper Chase

Otherwise known as the pre-K admission process in Manhattan.

Next week we go on vacation. There’s a family reunion for my mother-in-law's family, a celebration for my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary, there’s a party for my family (both my dad’s and mom’s) to meet Jellybean for the first time….and oh yes, while we are there we also have to write our essay answers for Monkey’s pre-k school applications.

That's right. Essay answers. On applications for pre-K. Seriously. But these are pre-Ks associated with schools that continue, some through 8th grade and others all the way through 12th grade, so I understand.....but still. Gah!

I was (after a glass of wine) imagining the most horrible answers I could write:

Please describe the adults that are important to your child:
Well, there’s the wino on the corner named Kevin. Monkey loves to wave hello and make him smile each morning as we pass him on the way to the bus stop; it’s only when we get too close that she wrinkles her nose and comments on how he smells funny. They share a common love of ice cream, flirting with strangers, and bugging mommy for quarters to buy a treat.


Um, yeah. So maybe it was more than one glass?

Milwaukee, or where the dinosaurs roam

We spent this past weekend with probably our closest friends in the world, in their lovely home (don't believe the hype about the "crapshack") in Milwaukee, WI.

We had a blast.

Their daughter, aka Bunny, is obsessed with dinosaurs. She's also 8 months older than Monkey and, um, freakishly smart. So watching the two of them interact was awesome. And gave us a preview of what life will be like with two ankle biters/insane toddlers in the apartment.

Bunny would flip about which particular (anklyosauraus, for example) dinosaur Monkey was not allowed to touch and which she "didn't want to share"....Monkey would shrug like, ok, damn woman, I can't say that word so you can have your dinosaur all to yourself. Relieved, Bunny would recant her toddler ways and offer the toy up for inspection. It was hilarious! And adorable. Thankfully, Bunny is good at sharing and Monkey was really more obsessed with the rubbery lizards than the actual dinosaurs, so it all worked out well. But for the first ten minutes of our visit I thought it might get ugly.

Also, at first they did the whole parallel play thing. But soon, they were having actual conversations. To wit:

Bunny: What 'cha got?
Monkey: Got my blanket.
Bunny: Oh, ok.

I know, it doesn't sound like two geniuses in the making, but trust me...it was cool. They had a conversation! Like two kids do! Like OMG BFF!!! Awesome, all around.

The Adventures of Monkey and Mommy

Well, the staycation is going swimmingly.

This past weekend we: went to Coney Island and got sandy, Monkey fell/got dunked in the surf, we ate cheese fries at the original Nathan's hotdog stand, saw a baby walrus at the Aquarium, and our car didn't start on fire...it only smoked a bit. Um, yeah. So after a full day in the scorching sun (since even the Aquarium is outside), we stood in the parking lot with an insanely tired little girl and turned the motor on to try and figure out why the engine was smoking. And then drove home because no one (and by that I mean M and Grand Dad, Nana and I stood there impatiently shifting from foot to foot) could quite figure it out. We got home safe. And Monkey LOVES the ocean.

And that was only on Sunday!

On Tuesday I called in an emergency sitter to watch Monkey and drove the car out to Flatbush, Brooklyn to our mechanic. The highlight of that experience was the two guys (family members, I'd guess uncle/nephew) there who bantered exactly like the brothers in the Ocean's 11 (12 & 13) movies. As M put it, at first he thought they were in on the joke, but then he realized that they actually DID act that way towards each other! Odd, but funny.

Today we went to the zoo with Monkey's friends Daniel and Caleb. At one point the three of them were walking hand in hand. I about died from the cuteness of it all!

Tomorrow we go meet Monkey's teachers at her Montessori daycare (she's in the Purple room!) and then will play until it is time to have lunch with godmom Heather.

I need to keep a calendar open to make sure we do everything we said we'd do! This staycation is busy work, I tell you!

Summer lovin', happened so fast.....

Tell me more, tell me more, did he drive a nice car?

This past weekend we went to San Juan, PR, and really enjoyed ourselves! M was there for a work conference, with colleagues in from around the world. Monkey and I just went for the sand and the surf....and the pina coladas! We stayed at the Caribe Hilton, where the pina colada was invented. And yes, there was a swim up bar. (no, sadly, we did not take advantage of that option....Monkey declined to get in the pool. More on that later.)

No, I don't have a tan. My dad's nose was just carved up to remove skin cancer, so I was blanketed in sunblock. Monkey, too. I've had several colleagues at work ask me when I'm leaving for San Juan....and look puzzled when I explain I'm back already. What, they thought this pale white skin would suddenly be a deep bronze? Sheesh. I was too busy watching Monkey to even turn my face to the sun 99% of the time!!!

The Caribe was lovely. There were several pools, including one for kids only two feet deep. You'd think that we would have spent all of our time there, right? Nope. Every time we got close to the pool, tons of kids would swim over, with much splashing and laughter, and holler "hola bambina!" and Monkey would say "no!" and walk away. I think the water was too cold and the commotion was too much. So no pool for us.

Thankfully, the Caribe had a lovely beach. The sand wasn't the superfine sand that looks like confectioner's sugar, but it was still heaven on earth as far as Monkey was concerned. We spent quality time building and tearing down sand castles, and throwing rocks into the ocean (Monkey liked the splashing). They had clearly engineered the beach to be super-friendly for kids, as the incline was such that you would be 15 feet out in the water before it was even mid-thigh....so Monkey could walk pretty far in, without getting in over her head. And, while there were waves, they were really gentle and enjoyable.

At first, I didn't think Monkey would go in the ocean. I thought we'd be destined to spend the entire time playing in the sand. And that would have been ok. Just not as much fun.

But, then Joey showed up. Dun dun dun! Joey F, a gorgeous Italian-American 10 year old, the son of one of M's colleagues. Joey was all that and a bag of chips, as far as Monkey was concerned. She had a bona fide crush on him! A graceful 10 year old, Joey was fun and funny. He'd put sand and seaweed on his head to make Monkey laugh. And once he went into the ocean? Well, in went Monkey!

Every time Joey showed up for the entire weekend, Monkey's face would break out into this gigantic smile. She'd chant his name and ask where he went, when he swam away. I kept humming the "Summer lovin'" song from Grease in my head as I watched their interaction.

I don't know how much of this vacation Monkey will remember. And I don't really have any pictures, since M was busy which meant I was on my own at the beach - not a good time to be trying to handle an expensive camera...when your toddler is heading into the ocean and doesn't know how to swim! But, what I will remember is the pure joy that Monkey exhibited when Joey came around, and how much fun she had tumbling in the sand and playing in the ocean. Pure heaven.