Hungry Man

You know those cartoons about teenage boys that open the refrigerator and pour the entire contents into their mouths?  Well, I got my first preview of teenage boyhood at our house over this weekend.

Ben has been foraging in the pantry and in the refrigerator for anything he can reach.  (This is not a practice that I condone; however, he's pretty sneaky.)  Ben is only 3 feet tall and can only reach the front of the pantry shelves.  So, his foraging this weekend consisted of an entire bag of Craisins, huge bin of pretzels, and my personal favorite, almonds -- covered in WASABI.  These almonds are super spicy, people.  They make my mouth burn and my eyes tear after about 4.  Ben housed half the can.

Not so long after the almonds, Ben walked determinedly into the kitchen.

Ben:  "Mom, I need some more FOOD."
CC:  "Are you hungry buddy?"
Ben:  "Yeah, Mom, really REALLY hungry."

So, I gave him some cheese and crackers at 4pm, which he ate like you think I'd been starving him.  At 4:30, he had a huge bowl of pineapple. Then, he finished a plate of fish and broccoli (without complaint!) an hour later.  So, on Sunday Ben ate breakfast, breakfast snack, pre-lunch snack, lunch, lunch snack, almond delight, pre-dinner snack, giant bowl of pineapple, and then dinner. 

Better lock up your food.  Ben is growing.

Down The Ocean, Hon

The family and I just returned from a fun week in Ocean City, Maryland (which is why the blog was so quiet this past week).  Unlike last year when we left our vacation early due to significant technical and behavioral difficulties (i.e., broken AC with 100 deg temps + super cranky kids), this year we were able to enjoy a full, action-packed, 7-day family vacation. 

Our time together had a lot of wonderful moments, but it was thoroughly exhausting. I've heard people say they need a vacation from their vacation, and now I really understand what they mean.  However after going to the beach and camping, I don't want to even think about packing or unpacking another bag for a looooong time...

Some of the week's highlights:

1) Playing at the Beach (of course!) - We really lucked out weatherwise, so we were able to spend lots of time in the sand and surf. We didn't even hear too many complaints from the kids about the copious amounts of sunscreen required. Abby really got into boogie boarding and playing "over-under" in the waves.  Ben and Caroline stayed closer to shore playing in the surf break. 

Foggy Morning Walk

Shelling

2.  Amazingly Delicious Steamed Crabs - I have successfully taught Abby how to eat steamed crabs. While she doesn't have the speed and accuracy of a practiced picker, I hereby declare her an honorary Marylander. 

3.  Assateague Island - On Thursday, we drove down to Assateague Island National Seashore run by the National Park Service to see if we could spot some wild horses and do a little hiking since the temperatures dropped down to a very pleasant 76 degrees.  We hiked on three short half mile trails, each highlighting a different habitat (marshes, forest, and dunes). The mosquitoes notwithstanding, these trails were perfect for kids -- short, full of wildlife, and interesting.  We saw some beautiful wild horses up close:

And then a wee bit too close:

View of Salt Marsh from the Trail

4. Trimper's Rides - A family tradition from my childhood, we spent an afternoon at the Trimper's Rides on the Boardwalk.  The kids had a blast, and I couldn't help but marvel how most of the rides haven't changed since I was a kid.  Although I don't have a photo, the original hand-carved carousel from 1905 is a stunner. 

On 'The Whip'

5. Lifeguards - Holy cow.  On Friday, the wind kicked up to a sustained 20 mph or so (if I were more nautically inclined I'd tell the speed to you in knots).  The water conditions dramatically changed from 'fun waves' to "No, Abby, let's just watch".  I've been to the ocean for probably 30 years, and I can think of maybe one rescue I've ever seen.  The water conditions were so rough (and the swimmers so overconfident) that I watched the guards perform 6 (S-I-X!!) rescues in the span of 3 hours.  At one point, three guards went out together to help a group of teenage girls that had gotten caught in a rip current.  A serious Baywatch moment.  Only it wasn't on TV.  Wow.   

AND -- all these rescues followed an even more dramatic set of events that occurred on Tuesday.  A mother on our stretch of beach lost her 3-year old child.  Word spread quickly among all the people standing on the beach, and soon there were hundreds and hundreds of strangers patrolling the beach and the block of houses behind the beach for this woman's precious daughter.  The lifeguards signalled up and down the beach, the police came, and hours passed.  Hours.  I can't even imagine what the poor mother was going through.  The girl's extended family was at the beach too, and she just disappeared while they were all standing there. And finally, the girl was found!  Thank God!!  We stayed at 138th Street, and Eleanor turned up all the way down on 88th Street.  Strangers were crying  and the relief was palpable.  The sheer number of strangers that just dropped everything to help look for this little girl was amazing.  And so scary.  We kept an even closer eye on our kids for the remainder of the week.  

6.  More?  So much more happened -- biking and kite flying and revisiting some family favorites (Dumser's for milkshakes) -- but I really need to go fold some laundry....and you're probably tired of reading...Overall, though, the best part was getting to spend a whole week of time together as a family.

  

Caught Cute

Now that Abby is 7 (and a half!) years old, she doesn't have as many "cute" moments anymore.  She has lots of "beautiful" moments and "silly" moments and "smart" moments....but not just plain "cute" moments like she did as a younger child.  Of course, I know that this is part of growing up.  And, she is not so old yet that I have gotten nostalgic about the baby years. 

Last night, I caught Abby looking fairly adorable (in my opinion).  After we read together and I turned off the lights, she arranged all her favorite stuffed animals around herself, tucked in her unicorn next to her, and even spread her baby blanket on top of the pillow and fell asleep.  So, this cute moment totally caught me by surprise when I peeked into her bedroom before I fell asleep. 

Observations

#1 - If a young child is able to have an intelligent and detailed conversation about the causes and treatments of diaper rash, wouldn't it make sense that this same child, a 3-year old boy for example, would be interested and/or able to start using the bathroom regularly to prevent the aforementioned rash??

#2 - I have changed diapers for 2,774 nearly consecutive days....and counting.  (There have only been S-E-V-E-N days over this stretch with no diaper changes. Seven!)

#3 - While I am now a whiz at the quick change, the standing change, the super messy change, the car change, and diaper improvization, I am now ready to have these skills lie dormant until my grandchildren are born in twenty or thirty years.

Special Wishes

for my Dad a.k.a Pops today:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! 



We wish you a very happy day!  Thanks for all your wonderful support and love over the years!

I asked the kids what they would like to get Pops for his birthday (for pretend, of course).  Here are your fictitious presents from us:

• Caroline sends an Ocean City Puzzle, "one of the ones with lots of pieces"
• Abby sends a disco ball (I have no idea on this one....do you have some kind of closet disco dancing hobby that you never mentioned??)
• Ben sends you a flower "but, I don't know what kind he likes"
• CC and Scott send you an Inverted Jenny stamp since money is no object, right?

Love, CC and the Gang

At the Zoo

I've been at the zoo for the past few days. 

No, we weren't sleeping there -- the zoo has come to us.  Although we all enjoyed the family camping trip over the weekend, I think the high level of physical activity and/or change of schedule temporarily transformed the kids into wild animals, as characterized by constant primal screaming, fighting over food, fighting over territory, selective listening, and general poor temperament.  Super fun times here.

Things were so bad yesterday, that after Abby had her final weepy episode of the day and went to sleep, I poured myself a shot of scotch and sipped it while crying (all out blubbering, if I'm being totally honest) over the end of the While You Were Sleeping movie with Sandra Bullock and then 30 minutes of a ridiculous teen TV show about gymnastics, Make It or Break It.  Poor Scott probably thought I had lost it, but kindly let me have my hour of self pity.  (Sorry if this is too much information, but the tough reality of parenting is that there are as many 'lows' of parenting as there are 'highs'.) 

If today had gone as badly as the last few days, I really don't know what I would have done.  My prayers for more patience and shorter minutes weren't enough.  Fortunately, the kids returned to their normal only semi-annoying and semi-trained selves today and played nicely with some friends for several consecutive hours while I talked to an actual adult female without too many interruptions or food requests. 

In addition to the zoo here, the family enjoyed a mostly nice visit to the Philadelphia Zoo with Grandma and Grandad on Monday.  We went up in the tethered Zoo balloon and saw a spectacular 360 view of the city.   It's been at least a decade since I had been to the Philly Zoo and they have made some amazing improvements -- Big Cat Falls, Avian Center, etc.  Really impressive!  In hindsight, I should have scheduled this zoo visit for a different week so the kids could 'recover' from camping before diving into another activity, but it didn't really occur to me they would be so tired since they didn't have to do the packing.  Overall, the kids and I definitely enjoyed our zoo visit.  Thanks Grandma and Grandad!

Philadelphia

Tortoises on the Move

Camping Attempt #1

Success!

Scott and I took the kids camping on Friday night at French Creek State Park. This was our first family camping attempt since Abby was 1 year old (that camping trip was...not stellar).  In addition to being fairly close to home in case a hasty retreat was required, French Creek has a little bit of everything:  hiking, biking, boating, fishing, playgrounds, and swimming.  A key component of the success was that we invited the Sullivan family to join on this venture so both the adults and the children would have some friendly reinforcements.   

Our plan was to arrive around lunchtime on Friday, spend the afternoon physically exhausting the kids so they would sleep, set up the campsite, have a campfire and eat s'mores, sleep like rocks, make a delicious outdoor breakfast, kayak, and return home.  We pretty well stuck to the plan, with the addition of some more hiking and swimming on Saturday.  Although the kids went to sleep later than normal, everyone actually slept and we had a lot of fun.  The three days of continuous packing and unpacking were worth it!

Some other camping highlights:

1. Absolutely perfect camping weather.  No humidity, no excessive heat, and no rain.
2. Super fun kayaking on a lake with gorgeous flowering waterlilies
3. Wild blackberry pancakes for breakfast hot off the griddle
4. Amazing fire-making ability from Mr. Sullivan (just like Bear Grylls using embers!)
5. Super speedy and stealthy kayak to canoe boat transfer by Ben
6. 5-Star camping accomodations

On the Water

Glassy Waters of Big Bass Lake

Happy Camper (literally)

At the Hike's Summit