How many more years til sleep away camp?

I feel like all any parent wants is for their kids to have more opportunities than they had.  

2011

I had an amazing childhood, filled with lots of opportunities but the one thing I kind of always wanted but didn't get was sleepaway camp.  

Jenna's 1st letter

Now, since I know my mom reads this, I want to let everyone know that I did go to day camp and then travel teen camp, and then in college, spent a semester abroad...But there was always sleepaway camp.  I still have letters from my friends that they wrote to me while they were away (stored in a closet at my parent's house).  

2012 - Carnival

Needless to say, I have talked to Mike about this, probably since before Jenna was born.  He had barely heard of these kinds of camps (obviously not from the NYC area).  And he's had mixed emotions about the thought of sending our kids away for the summer.  Now obviously, we have several years to make real decisions about this, but I think I need to lay the groundwork early on this one.

But as luck would have it, our very close family friends work at sleepaway camp and bring their two kids with them every summer (same age as Jenna and Alex). And we have made the trip to their camp for the past three summers.  

I don't have all the pictures yet from the "good" camera since our friends are still at camp and sending me pictures is not top on their priority list...but I can't wait to see the lake pictures -The girls got to swim, go tubing, canoeing and both my kids played on the 'aqua playground.'

2013 - Rock Band

I'm pretty sure I have Mike convinced to send the kids...or maybe I've convinced him to spend 6 weeks at camp without the kids...Either way we always have a blast when we go and they'll probably have two new campers in a few years!! 

How we keep in touch!

Unplugging

The three of us are taking a last minute weekend away...literally last minute - like it's Thursday night at 9:00 pm and I just booked the hotel and we leave tomorrow morning.  I love to go away and it's kind of exciting to be so last minute about it. 

Anyway, Mike got some good news and we're going away to celebrate. 

I'm officially going to be unplugged until Monday (or at least going to do my best to be)

I'll post about it Tuesday! Have a great weekend!

Top Mommy Blogs just reset their numbers and I went back and forth as to how much begging I was going to do for votes because I guess it all comes down to "why am I doing this?"

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love to write.  And this has been a great way for me to write down all the little things that go on in our day to day lives.  I'm sure some people may find this boring, others may like reading about someone else's life, and I know family and friends like hearing all the Jenna and Mike stories.  It's also a way for me to document all my feelings about being a new mom, staying home, going back to work, and all the crazy emotions you feel.  I also think this is going to be an amazing gift to give my daughter when she's older.  I wish I could read about all the feelings my mom had when she was raising my brother and I...I'd love to hear about all the dumb stuff we did...and how we drove her crazy. 

Then I found there's this whole other world out there of moms doing the same thing I am, trying to figure this whole parenting thing out.  Some of their stories make me laugh, others make me cry, but it's nice to know I'm not the only one feeling the way I do. 

I don't get as many comments on the blog as I'd like to (not going to beg for them, but c'mon if you're reading it and have somehting to say, click on the comment button!).  But lots of people contact me in other ways about what I'm writing here (emails, wall posts on FB, texts, phone calls), so I know people are reading and (hopefully) liking what they see. 

I've even had a few random people (some blasts from the past in my life and some complete strangers) tell me thank you for things I've written here...so I'm going to keep it up as much as possible.  With going back to work in September, I'm hoping I can still keep this going.

And for the person reading this who's about to go on a long car ride with their toddler...a box of tissues can be an amazing toy to get you through traffic!

Jenna pulling all the tissues out of the box!

To answer my initial question, I will be doing a little bit of begging for votes because I think my blog is a worthwhile and good read. Top Mommy Blogs helps me get new people to read my blog...

so please click here to vote for Diary of a New Mom!

Thanks!

Takin' Our Show on the Road

We're taking two trips this week:
Part 1 = Florida from Wed - Fri (flying)
Part 2 = Upstate NY for a Family Reunion (driving)

By the time this posts, we will have (hopefully) had a wonderful flight down to Florida and should be enjoying some beach/pool time as you read this...

But right now, I am in the midst of packing for the three of us to take a 3 day trip to Florida for hubby's grandpa's 90th birthday.  I don't know when a 3 day/2 night trip turned into using our largest suitcase, but I guess that's just what happens with a baby...In the days before parenthood, we probably would've packed two bookbags, carried it all on the plane, and called it a day.  Now it's making sure we have everything we need for Jenna - bathing suits, clothes, diapers, sunscreen, toys, books....(and hopefully we remember to pack some stuff for us too!) Her stuff takes up over half the bag and we're squeezing our stuff into the two corners.

Her stuff is taking over the bag

I have to keep reminding myself that this is a trip, not a vacation - As I've blogged about in the past (see this post), those are two very different things.  I actually reread that today to remind myself to manage my expectations with this trip.  It'll be great to see Jenna on the beach and hanging with her cousins who she's never met, and of course to celebrate the big 9-0! But to say it's going to be a relaxing beach vacation is probably a mistake.  I'm hoping she does well on the plane because the thought of three hours with a cranky baby does not sound like the best way to start a trip (sorry fellow Jet Blue-ers if this is the case). 

We're doing all we can to anticipate her needs for the plane, the hotel, and the driving that will take place all week...and hopefully we do a good job!

What's even more difficult is the fact that we come back on Friday, only to hit the road again on Saturday morning for a family reunion.  I'm definitely looking forward to this - there'll be all sorts of fun stuff for her to do once we're there, like pony rides and pool, but it'll definitely be a not-so-normal week.  I'm going to try to keep in mind that we're asking a lot of her this week, so if she's cranky or not sleeping as well as she normally does, well that's to be expected....

Looking forward to writing about our adventures when we get back!!

Car Tricks

We lived without a car for many years and about 2 months ago, we decided that it was time to get one - I'll need one for when I go back to work in September, but decided to get it earlier so we can enjoy the summer and get to places we want to go easier. 

That being said, Jenna was barely in a car for the first 12 months of her ilfe, so this whole car thing is kind of new to her and we're constantly trying to find ways to make it more pleasant for her (and for us!) 

This past weekend, we took several long car trips (6 to be exact) and I really don't like sitting in the back seat unless I absolutely have to.  So we got together a bag of tricks to help us out...
* Goldfish, mum mums, puffins, and anything else she could eat independently and that were not very choking-hazard-ish.  When we first got the car I swore she would never eat in it - how quickly I changed my tune!

* Baby Tad - It's big enough for her to hold onto and me to pick up if she drops it on the floor

* Music Together CDs - We kind of wanted to shoot ourselves after hearing them over and over, but it kept her happy and a happy baby = happy parents on long car rides!

* Cell phones - we give her old ones that still turn on to play with

With our new bag of tricks (and naps along the way) the car rides were actually pretty enjoyable!

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My Daughter...The Teacher

My 14 month old daughter taught me a lesson today and just like any good teacher, she 'explained' it to me in multiple ways...

She taught me to ssssllllooooowwww down.  Now I'm a born and raised New Yorker - we don't know the meaning of slowing down...I do everything fast, I talk fast, read fast, type fast, walk fast (even while lugging around a 20+ pound kid)...you get the picture.

But, as Jenna taught me, sometimes, it's okay (and even better) to take things slow.

Cases in point:

I had to move my car and decided to go stroller-less down to the car and just have her walk (and carried across the streets) with me.  And it definitely took (a lot) longer than if I pushed her in the stroller.  But I probably wouldn't have noticed every bird (5 of them), dog (2), and squirrel (3) that we passed along the way.  Seeing her face light up and yell with glee at all these animal sightings was certainly worth the extra time.

At bedtime, she reiterated her 'teachings'.  She was tired so I put her in the crib and I don't know what about her told me to stick around, but I did and I rubbed her back and played with her hair and just watched as she drifted off to sleep.  And during that 15 minutes (that's all it really took) I thought about how adorable she is and how when I go back to work I won't have as much time with her as I do now and how I should really cherish these moments.  And maybe it was me letting my mind wander to those nice places, but she went to sleep so peacefully and I felt a lot calmer too...

Car Riding

We just got our first car in over 10 years...by choice, hubby and I have been car-less for a very long time.  We live in the city where everything we need is just a walk or a subway ride away and anyplace that we need to drive to is handled with zip car.  We recently leases a Honda CRV...very exciting for us - nice and big enough for all the baby stuff you inevitably lug around and big enough for a potentially 'growing' family. 

But here's the thing - Jenna is not used to being in the car and by not used to I mean not happy in it.  Especially since she's been able to walk she doesn't really appreciate being strapped into anything (strollers, carseats).  So even though I always said I would never plan my life around her naps, I'm finding myself doing just that (how many things do we say we'd never do and end up doing them anyway) - but you know what - that doesn't always work!

We took a day trip to Pennsylvania this weekend to visit some friends and family.  It's about a 2 hour car trip door to door.  We left in the morning and timed it with Jenna's morning nap - and she did nap - sort of...closed her eyes for a bit then would open them then close them again (not sure that it really counts as a nap if she's never fully out).  And then when we had about 15-20 minutes left to our trip the crying and whining began. Fun times! On cue, hubby looked over at me and said "why'd we get a car?" (getting the car was more my push than his).  So we listened to her Music Together CD - well just the first song (it's her favorite) over and over until we finally got to grandma's house.  Okay - not horrible...but not wonderful either...

Coming home - probably left too late, but c'mon she typically goes to bed on the earlier side (I'm talking 6:30ish) - we're not going to leave a barbecue on a beautiful Saturday at 6:00!  So we ended up getting on the road around 8ish...it was really dark by then but again, Jenna was in and out of sleep the entire ride home.  To the point where I had to climb into the backseat to keep her in sleepy-land....Again, not horrible, but certainly not relaxing either...On the bright side she transferred into her crib pretty well - only took a few minutes to get comfortable and then slept through the night. 

I'm not really complaining, well maybe a little bit!  I'm thinking it could be just getting used to being in a car a little more often or maybe getting used to her new big girl carseat (facing forward now!), or maybe she's just not into road trips!