Holding onto summer

School started today , which means all four of us are getting back into the work/school routine. 

But my family is still holding on to summer...

          Morning talks on our stoop

  Before bed pajama walks around our new 'hood

      Squirt gun 'fights'

           After school scooter rides

I wish I could freeze these moments...

Moving day

I'm sitting on my couch watching five guys pack the last four and a half years of my life into moving boxes. 

Feeling excited for my family's next adventure in a new house.

Feeling anxious about all the unpacking that needs to get done and getting the house to feel like home.

Feeling sad to be leaving our first home as a family (and one that Alex will never remember)

It's very surreal watching your whole life squeezed into various sized cardboard boxes. 

Thanks to all my friends who listened to all my questions, concerns, and excitements during this whole  (very long) process! I can't thank you enough!

Onto our next adventure (one with lots of before and after pictures!)

The Big Sister Effect

Alex is a lucky little guy - Jenna is an amazing big sister and they absolutely adore each other.
But of course, some umm less than 'manly' things come with having a sister...

Tea Parties Galore

A prince always wears his crown

Loving Dora

Boys can wear heels too

 Soon enough Alex will be playing superheroes and wrestling...but for now, Jenna loves her being in charge of her little doll  brother...

On a side note...a beautiful piece in the NYTimes about siblings...http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/opinion/sunday/bruni-the-gift-of-siblings.html?pagewanted=1&smid=tw-share

When Did I Become the Expert?

This morning I got to be the "experienced" one...the mommy who already dealt with dropping her daughter off at daycare for the first time...the mommy who had the guilt/anxiety/excitement of the child's first day....the mommy who had knots in her stomach worrying about whether my daughter would be happy, if the kids would like her, if the teacher would love her....the mommy who was nervous about her napping on a cot for 2 hours....

My friend dropped her daughter off this morning to the same classroom that I have been dropping Jenna off to for the past month.  We had breakfast together after our uneventful (thank god) drop offs. 

I got to tell my friend how freaking happy Jenna is at her school...how when I say "we're going to school" in the morning, she runs to the door....how she runs into the classroom with a smile on her face, turns back blows me a kiss and keeps going....how when I pick her up there's a little part of me that thinks she's slightly disappointed that she has to leave this great place....how Jenna's teacher reminds me of myself when I was that young and working in daycare....how she's such a caring, loving teacher...how Jenna has learned SO MUCH there.

This breakfast was good for my friend (I hope) and just has good for me.  It reinforced what a good decision this was for my family.  Jenna's so happy and I don't have to worry about her and can deal with my own "back to school" jitters!!

Sleep is a crazy time for me...I think I scare the shit out of my husband on a weekly basis because of the things I say or scream in my sleep. 

I am a vivid dreamer.  Always have been. 

As a kid, I was (and still am a little) convinced that I fell down the flight of stairs in my apartment building.  Like a whole flight.  My parents say it never happened. But I believed that it did.  I don't think they're lying to me. I dreamed it. But it was so real  that I truly believe it happened. 

Now my dreams consist of lots of yelling.  Loud. Yelling. At my brother. He's 5 years older than me and I probably spent several years of my life yelling at him and apparently in my dream world, I'm still doing it.
Recently, Mike woke up to me screaming:

"NEIL - STOP IT!! STOP IT NOW!!!"

Needless to say Mike was startled and as he does whenever I have these "outbursts," he woke me up to make sure I was ok.  I was. I actually had no idea why he was waking me up in the middle of the night.

But why am I yelling at my brother in the middle of the night? weird!

I should thank Mike for sharing a bed with me - between the cover hogging and the screaming, it's probably not too easy. 



This post was written as part of Mama Kat's Writers' Workshop and as a special Happy Birthday to my big brother!
Join in the fun by clicking here:

Berry Fun Day

We finally had some humid-free beautiful weather this past weekend and wanted to take advantage of it.  Mike has been talking about berry picking for months now and we finally got our act together and went.  We found a place all the way out east on Long Island (about 1 1/2 hour ride from Queens) and took along Jenna's grandma, aunt and her #1 favorite first cousin (Jenna seriously ADORES her cousin Ella, who is 3 1/2 years old).

I found the farm by checking out this site which gives lists of local farms in your area. We picked Patty's Berries and Bunches because they got the best reviews and talked about some "family fun" being across the street. They did not disappoint.  This was seriously a highlight of our whole summer.  We got to pick the most amazing raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries I have ever seen and eaten.  It was like candy.  The girls had a blast - The bushes were right at their eye-level, so picking was easy for them and since they don't use pesticides or spray, they could eat right off the bushes.  Needless to say they both had messy hands and faces!  Mike apparently knows a bit about berry picking (which was news to me) and "taught" the girls how to know if the berry is good for picking and they both filled up their own baskets. 

After about an hour and a half of picking berries, we headed across the street for some "family fun" at Harbes Farm and Vineyard. And it was awesome. We had some great snacks (corn on the cob, muffins, cookies) that were all delicious.  And then we went to the farm area where the girls could pet the animals, do a potato sack race, watch a pig race, ride a pony, check out a bee hive....the list goes on. 

I feel like an advertisement for these places but they were really that good.  It was a bit of a drive for us, but well worth it.  And we stopped along the way at some farm stands and picked up some amazing cucumbers, tomatoes, and peaches. 

I picked the winning pig &  won some kettle corn!

Every Couple Has Their 'Dance'

I've been thinking a lot about my job as a SAHM and how it will change when I head back to work and the roles my husband and I have chosen in our marriage.  Key word here for us is chosen.

Every couple has their what I like to call their own dance. The things that you do as a couple that may or may not work or be for everyone else.  With Mike and I it's kind of interesting because we both lived on our own before even meeting each other.  We both paid bills, maintained apartments, had jobs, cooked and had indpendent lives for close to ten years before moving in together.  We are both capable of taking care of things. So for me, I got to "give him" the chores that I didn't like doing and he got to "give me" the things he didn't like doing.  For one thing, Mike's in charge of the bills and money (which sometimes means that I have to explain what the $50 withdrawal was - but at the end of that day, I hate doing bills and he does them well). And I am in charge of the cooking around here. I like to cook and truthfully, I'm good at it.  Compromise. We compromise on tons of things around here - that's what marriage is, right?

Choosing to stay at home this past year and half made me feel at times like a 1950's housewife with a husband-provider who came home to dinner on the table.  But the difference for me is that I chose this and am lucky to have been able to choose this life.  It also helped me to know on those nights where I just couldn't deal, I had a husband who would throw his work hat off and put the dad hat on the second he walked in the door to help put Jenna to bed or cook dinner for us and give me some alone time. When it comes to Jenna, we really are 50/50 as much as possible.  I jokingly say that when Mike is around my "off duty" light goes on.

Now that she's a toddler, she chooses who puts her to bed at night (some nights it's me and some night's it's Daddy).  We tell her it's time for night night and she typically clings to one of us.  And if there's only one of us there, then it's not a problem. I think this back and forth is partly because we've always split up her "routine" things, even when she was an infant.  I remember when she was still waking to eat at midnight and 4 am - He took the 12 and I took the 4. It worked for us. It may not work for everyone.  Now if she wakes up during the night (which isn't too often thank god), we jokingly wait each other out in bed and inevitably one of us caves in to go take care of her. I think it's kind of funny (maybe because I usually end up waiting him out and get to stay in bed).

So I guess for us, some of our roles have been very traditional and other stuff has just been what works for us. It may probably will change when I go back to work next month but we'll make those changes as needed.  It'll always be a work in progress.  Some may say that I'm crazy for cooking dinner every night or not having my own bank account or that I shouldn't make him get up at night because he's working. But it's our business, our marriage and our dance.

the long and winding road

Road trips are one of the fondest memories I have as a kid.  We drove EVERYWHERE.  From New York, we drove to Atlanta, Knoxville, Fort Lauderdale, Disney World, Virginia, Vermont, Quebec, Nashville....and pretty much every other state on the east coast. 

This was before carseats and seatbelts were the law.

When my dad would put me on his lap (kinda like Britney) and let me put the token in the basket to pay tolls.

We spent a lot of time together. In very close quarters.

Maybe this is part of the reason why my family and I are so close to this day.  Rarely does a day go by where I don't speak to my mom, my dad, or my brother. And if I'm telling the truth here, rarely is there a day when I don't speak to each of them multiple times.

We did lots of stuff to pass the time.  The thing about my family is we're what you call "gamers" - super competitive over everything. This was (still is) true for our car games as well.  

We played some 'normal' car games like Concentration or Geography (person says a place and you have to name another place with the last letter of the first one...ex: Canada...Australia... Austria...)

We tallied the license plates we saw from different states, getting points for finding "new" states.

Then we played our infamous License Plate Poker.  You look for license plates with good poker hands - like four of a kind, or a full house, or two pair.  We still play this game now.  I even have my husband hooked. We'll be driving and he'll yell out "I'll take that car - three nines" amd I'll be on the search for something that will beat that.  It's addictive. Try driving right now without sizing up the poker hand of the license plate in front of you.

I loved our road trips.  I loved how we would switch seats around when my brother and I would start fighting in the backseat and I would sit up front with my dad and mom in the back with him.  I loved laying across the backseat, taking a nap.  I loved looking at all the South of the Border billboards heading down I95.  I loved staying in random hotels on the way, because we were never sure how far we would get on day one of our trip.

I guess it was vey Griswald-esque.  But it's what we did.  Every summer of my childhood, we packed up the car and went somewhere.

Some people (my husband being one of them) can't imagine being in the car for that long.  But it worked for us.  We made it fun.  We didn't have Nintendo DS or DVDs to keep up occupied.  We had conversations, imaginations and games. 

This post was written as part of Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop. Join in on the fun by clicking here:

so far so good

I'm feeling a little empowered this week.  For starters, Mike is away til Friday (left Monday morning) and I'm holding down this fort solo.  And I think I'm doing a damn good job.  I didn't realize how much stuff he helped out with around here until I had to do it all alone. 
Like the whole bedtime routine, that's a hard thing to do alone...we run a pretty tight ship over here...Jenna goes from highchair to bathtub to crib in one big swoop.  That's hard to do alone.  But I'm managing. 
Daycare day 2 was pretty good again.  Drop off was way different though. She ran into the building and you could hear her thinking "this place is cool...I have fun here" and then we got to her classroom door.  SCREEECH....literally saw the lightbulb go off in her head "wait, mommy leaves me here. don't leave mommy!" Grabbed onto me and started to lose her s***.  I did what every parent does when dropping their kid off at daycare, I passed her to Ms. Caitlyn and hightailed it out of there and cried in the car.  Seriously hard.
I figured I'll call them when I get home to see how long it took her to calm down. Luckily, I never had to, a friend of mine (whose son goes there too) texted me that she saw Jenna in her classroom, eating waffles, and looking happy.  Thank god.
She's been handling this transition as well as I could've hoped.  I imagine this week is really hard for her - Daddy's away, Mommy's dropping her off in a strange place, and tomorrow her Uncle comes to visit from Prague.  Lots of stuff going on over here...but so far so good.

Daycare Day 1

The dreaded first day of daycare....went really well.

Dropped her off around 8:15am and she ran into the room with her adorable new teacher. I imagine it's pretty cool when everything and everyone is your size. I put her stuff in the cubby and snuck out before she could see me.  Got to the car and cried. It's hard leaving your kid in someone else's care.  For the record, we have left her before for extended periods of time, but never with anyone but family.
Called and spoke to the teacher around 10:00.  I so didn't want to be that mom but as my mom and sis in law said, "this is your baby and it's her FIRST day - call and check on her." So I did and the teacher said she was doing great and only cried for a few minutes.  (Part of me was like what the f**k?!? She doesn't miss me?!?) But of course it made me happy that she was having a good time.

Learning about musical instruments this week

I think she may be the next Picasso!

My big concern about daycare, especially for the first couple of days was/is the napping.  She still takes two naps most days, she's never napped on a cot before and she can sometimes be ::ahem:: a handful going to sleep.  So I called again (I am so that mom) around lunchtime and the teacher said she was still doing great and to leave her there for nap.  I hung up knowing that I had another two hours to myself before I could go get her and that was kinda really nice.
I went to pick her up around 2:30 and she had napped for an hour (the shortest nap of her class, but a nap nonetheless).  She was so so so excited to see me - the second she saw that I was there, she ran into my arms saying "mommy mommy" - god that felt good.
As a stay at home mom I don't get to have to many of those "oh my god it's so good to see you" hugs and kisses from her.  That was amazing.
The teacher said she had a wonderful day, was happy and friendly and easygoing.  As we walked out I started to cry again because well...I'm really proud of her.  She looks like such a big girl now and I am so relieved that she was so good for them and had fun.  I think she's going to do really well there. 

Love that there's a daily "report" & that she

cried for 10 min tops!

As a mom, I always said my goal is to raise an independent child and I think this whole daycare thing will really help with that.  I don't know if it will ever get easy to leave my daughter in someone else's care for extended periods of time, but I do think it's going to get smoother as the days go by.

Many of you got an email already, but I want to publicly thank all my friends/family who called to check on me today. I'm not usually the mushy type, but it was really nice to hear from everyone who was thinking of me/us today.  I felt really loved!! xoxo

When 4 days feels like a week...in a good way

We hightailed it outta here on Friday.  I'm not mincing words here when I say that we needed some time off.  Between Mike not working to finding a job he's super excited about, to me going from SAHM to Working Mom in a few weeks to Jenna starting full time daycare in two weeks and lots of house guests coming and going the next few weeks...We took a well-deserved break.  I'm not going to call it a vacation (if you're a loyal follower you know this already) because I believe once you travel with kids, it's not really a vacation, but more a change of scenery. 
We drove up to Mystic, Ct., which is normally a 2 hour drive, but the traffic on Friday was RIDICULOUS, so we stopped off at Norwich for the Aquarium and dinner.  Jenna LOVED it! she was running around, touching animals, and playing with everything.

It was a great spur of the moment car decision to pull off the traffic-ridden road and try out a new place.  We got to hang there, grab some dinner and hit the road again (thank god the traffic died down) and got up to Mystic in time for bed.  Mystic was awesome.  We hit up the seaport and did a boat ride (Jenna's first), went to the aquarium there, and went to Ocean Beach Park. 

Loving the spray park!

Thing is, it wasn't what we did that was so good for us.  It was so nice to just be the three of us for four days straight.  We're big family people, so we're always seeing family and friends and sometimes our weekends feel like we don't get a minute to breathe.  So it was amazing for us to just be together, with no real plan of action.  We took family baths in our room jacuzzi...laughed all the way home from dinner one night just from making raspberries with our mouths...touched sting rays, starfish and shells...played in a spray park for what felt like hours...and realized that Jenna is in fact afraid of carousels. 

Jenna does not like carousels

It was great to just stop and enjoy ourselves.  It didn't matter that we ate dinner on the early side so Jenna could go to bed at a normal hour, or that we ate at family-friendly restaurants, as opposed to some fancier places (they have liquor and beer at the family friendly ones too), that we didn't get to read all about the seaport and it's history, or that we couldn't spend all day laying out at the beach.  It was great to be away.

And despite my feelings on these things, it actually felt like a vacation...

Our New Reality

We checked out Jenna's daycare this week. Although I had been there before for the tour and information and filled out all the paperwork, today was the finalization of everything.  We saw the room that she will be in, the kids that will be in her class, and her teachers.  She even got to hang out for storytime with her soon-to-be BFFs! She did great.  Mike and I stood watching her while she listened to the teacher read a story.  When she got a little antsy, it was the teacher who calmed her down. 

Honestly, I wanted to run and grab her when she got a little upset, and it took all my will power not to.  I can't believe she starts in two weeks.  Next week, we go in together and spend an hour or so on one or two days.  Then August 2nd, I drop her off. Period. I'll start be leaving her there for a few hours a day, working up to a full day by the second week. 

I'm having some mommy guilt about starting her in August when I technically don't go back to work until the very end of the month.  And I'm sure many will judge me for taking this time to transition.  But I'm okay with this decision.  I have been away from work for what will be 18 months.  I need time to get my head around it and get my shit together.  This is near impossible to do while watching a toddler.  And I really feel like the more "ready" I feel for work, the better and easier all this will be.  I also want to be around if they need me to come get her or if she gets sick. I won't be able to do that once I'm back at work (my mom will have to do that for us).  I think know she's going to be happy there - so many kids, so many toys, and all the furniture is her height! At the same time I know it's going to be very bittersweet for me. 

You are my sunshine!

How I love awards! Harmony from Baby to Go sent this my way...

Here are the rules


#1 Thank Harmony (a big thank you!) and you should go to her blog and check her out.
#2 Share ten things about myself.
#3 Pass this on to 10 bloggers(it'll probably be closer to 5 - sorry!)
#4 Let the bloggers know I've picked them for the award

Okeedokee 10 things about me...

#1 - I'm a lefty - well, I write with my left hand (meaning I usually have marker and pen ink all over my hands and arm) but do everything else with my right (weird - I know)
#2 - I hate shopping.  I hate browsing through stores with no real purpose.  The thought of spending the day at the mall seriously makes me nauseous.  I will only go shopping if I have a very specific thing to buy. Gift cards are probably one of the worst things to give me because they sit in my wallet forever!
#3 - I really trust my "sixth sense" - When I get that nervous feeling in my stomach - it's usually right
#4 - Studying abroad in London my junior year of college was one of the best decisions/experiences of my life - living in Europe and getting to travel all over was just amazing.  I hope Jenna wants to go abroad.
#5 - I try to act all tough, but inside I'm really a sissy.
#6 - I come from a long line of long marriages - my parents are at like 45 years (and still love each other), and I think there's only one divorce in my whole extended family (both sides) - I tell my husband - when we say "I do" it's seriously for life
#7 - I'm jealous of moms who can still wear bikinis - although I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, those damn stretch marks did me in (eff you genes!)
#8 - I'm a huge "gamer" - I take competition very seriously.  Anything from license plate poker (ask me how to play) to scrabble (more than one person has cried during a game with my family) to headstand contests in the pool (Jen beat me last time) - I like to win.
#9 - I don't ever want to have a pet.  I like other people's pets, but have no desire to ever have one of my own.  I lived with a roommate who had a dog and you know what? The house smells - you get used to it when you live there, but that doesn't mean the smell goes away.  And I really don't believe that dogs belong in the city.
#10 - I'm feeling really sad about going back to work in September.


Passing some sunshine onto some blogs I've been really into lately and have linked up with a few times...




not only a great read, but I won my first contest through Cali and it was awesome!!

Katies Bookcase
I love reading, love reading reviews and this girl's got it all!







Thanks to these blogs for the Not Mom of the Year contest - loved doing it, loved reading the entries!!




Thank you for making me a better writer - writing the letters to myself was one of the best things I've ever written and I don't know if I would've had the courage without your linky!

A Weekend Just for Us

This past weekend was really nice. For the first time in a really long while, we had absolutely no plans! This is a major thing for us because we're always running around and it was great to slow it down and do some local things, hang out and chill.

Since we're working on this whole one-nap a day thing.  We got up and got out Saturday morning.  They were announcing rain for most of the day, so we figured we'd take advantage of the good weather and hang at our local playground.  I love it there. We spend lots of time there and Jenna just loves it. Between the swings, the slides, the jungle gyms, she's one happy little girl. Had some brunch with my parents. Went to the local farmer's market (which is new in town) and bought some stuff for Mike for his NY Triathlon which is next Sunday.  Saw my brother for a little bit and just stayed close to home.  It was nice to have nowhere that we had to be. 

Sunday Mike took Jenna for a run (god how I love that jogging stroller!) and then we went to our playground which had an imagination playground.  It was super cool because although it's our same old playground, it had a bunch of new things to do for the day.  Then we went and got our free slurpies at 7-11...my first slurpie EVER.  (honestly, not so great, but my hubby loved it).  Went home for naptime and then ventured to a different playground in the afternoon.

This is the thing about this weekend - we didn't do anything too exciting or crazy, but the three of us got to spend a lot of time together doing stuff as a family.  Sometimes when we're running around, making all sorts of plans, I feel like I didn't get to spend time with my husband or my daughter.  So this weekend it was nice to do just that.

I'm a Guest Blogger!

I am so excited to be guest blogging over at Baby To Go...

Harm is a really good friend of mine and she's done some amazing things with her blog - she's had appearances on a bunch of different blogs and written aritcles for a bunch of publications! She is also hands-down amazing for all the traveling she's done with her little one (who coincidentally is only days older than Jenna).  After our trip to Florida (for grandpa's 90th birthday),  I asked if I could write a little post about our trip...she said yes!
So please go check it out - and take a look around her blog  - it's pretty awesome!

If you're here from Baby To Go - check out a few of my favorite posts:

Letters to Myself
Mothers & Daughters
Pacifier Issues

Top Mommy Blogs just reset!

Please click here to put me in the top 50!

Excitable? Yes We Are!

I was looking for some inspiration and stumbled upon Mama Kat and she had this writers prompt posted:


 What does your child do that reminds you most of yourself? How does it make you feel?

and it got me thinking...

Okay - so let me start on my first date with my hubby.  Weird place to begin when talking about what my daughter does, but bear with me for a second...
We spent the night talking and talking, and although we started out at a bar and even went with some people to a dance club, we spent most of the night nursing two beers each, talking. I knew he was "different" - we really got to know each other that night and Mike described me that night as "excitable" and seriously, there is no better word to describe me.  It amazed me that a guy I literally just met had me labeled so quickly and accurately.  And yes, if you know me in real life, you know that I am what you would call...excitable.  My emotions take over me sometimes - I become very err-passionate about many things - and I typically react quickly to these feelings.  Sometimes this is a great thing, and other times, not so much.

So anyway, my daughter...she seems to have inherited this gene of mine.  It may just be the whole toddler-thing where she understands so much more than she can communicate or it's just her mommy in her - but she can be quite excitable.  And like her mommy, it can be wonderful and umm not so wonderful. 

When she is excited, like this morning when Sesame Street came on, she's ridiculously excited - literally jumping around the living room, laughing at herself and falling over with glee.  Running from the TV to the couch and back again like this is the best thing in the world.  It's adorable and hilarious to watch. 

Then there's the times when she doesn't get what she wants - like when Mr. Softee comes to the park (and she's already had ice cream that day) and she literally runs to the truck and throws a FIT when I don't get her a cone.  I was that mom who had to man-handle my kid into her stroller while she was raging and push her out of the park.  She was literally overcome with emotion and wanted that ice cream so bad.

So yes this excitable gene seems to have passed on to another generation (my dad has it too) and I'm hoping she is able to control it better than I can...

Let's get to the Top 50! Click over here to vote for my blog on Top Mommy Blogs!

Mothers and Daughters

This past week on our 2 part family vacation, we got to spend lots of time with our extended families and it was awesome!

But...I also got to see daughters of all ages interacting with their moms and I gotta be honest, I'm a little excited and definitely scared!

Looking forward to the 4-10 year old stage when she'll be a little more independent.  I got to watch cousins who could let their kids go in the pools and watch from the sidelines.  Or let them go run off with other kids and do an arts and crafts project.  Or play some flag football with some of the older kids and adults.  The cool thing was that kids that age were able to be on their own to some extent and not need an adult on top of them at all times.  That sounds very cool to me right now especially since we're at the toddler stage, where I feel like Jenna really needs us to be right.next.to.her most (or at least much) of the time. 

No swimming alone for this little girl!

Then there's the 11+ age group - I gotta be honest, this seriously scares me.  And I know my mother is probably reading this laughing to herself because I was such a "gem" to her during these years.  The rolling of the eyes? Not cool The fresh back talk? Definitely not looking forward to it.  The doing whatever she wants without caring about what I think? Oh god, I'm not sure how I'm going to get through it.  The being really beautiful and making sure boys don't take advantage of her? Seriously, scared!

But I also got to see adult women and their moms (me included) and at least in the families I was with - the relationships are pretty damn special.  As my adult cousin said so bluntly to her mother as we were making fun of her crooked sunglasses, "C'mon who's going to tweeze your chin hair when you can't see it anymore?" We may all make fun of rip apart our moms, but we do love them to pieces and I'm looking forward to having that relationship with my daughter.

And I guess that's the return on the daughter investment...you'll always have someone to tweeze your chin hair! It'll be worth every second!

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!!

Plugged in Parenting

We get the newspaper delivered to our door each morning and while were eating our breakfast, I was perusing through the paper and checking my emails on my phone (I'm a great multi-tasker) when I came across this article

The Risks of Parenting While Plugged In

Check it out...or not...it's about parents and technology and how we're so worried about our kids overuse of technology but are we (parents) just as bad?

We've all seen it or done it:
-pushing our kid on the swing while talking on the phone
-texting a friend while 'playing' with our kids
-surfing the web on our laptop while kids are having a snack

I've even been known to judge caretakers who seem to be on the phone allthetime...But I have a few comments about this "problem" (I'm not sure we can call it that just yet)

As a stay at home mom, my smart phone is sometimes my lifeline to the outside world and my way of telling our family all the cute things Jenna is doing.  It's how I send my hubby cute pics of Jenna when he's having a tough day at work.  It's how I set up lunch dates or play dates with other mommies and their kids.  It's also where I got to video Jenna's first steps, upload it to youtube and send it out before I even got home that day. 

And then of course there are times where I'm using it just for fun - like checking out what's going on in the world of facebook or twitter.  And I don't know - does Jenna need my undivided total attention 24 hours a day?? I'm not sure.  I think there's something to be said for her playing by herself for a little while - I think it fosters independence. I also think that we'd like to have more children which means that she's going to have to be able to keep herself occupied for a bit when there's a little one around...

Or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better because I'm guilty of this behavior sometimes. 

One mother's comment on the article...

A mother made a child wait a minute or two for her attention because she was doing something not directly involving him. She even let him fuss for a moment rather than instantly reward his whining.

And this is considered a "troubling" incident? Does the nitpicking and guilt tripping of the modern parent never end?

the support that holds me up....

This week hubby had an overnight business trip and I don't know why but this time I was feeling  nervous about being home alone with Jenna.  Maybe it's because for the last week or so hubby has been doing bedtime and I've taken the backseat....but who knows? I've been alone with her before (he's had other trips) and she's a really good girl - even at night, but for whatever reason, I was feeling a little nervous.

And this is why we moved where we did...to be close to family. My parents are spitting distance away and my brother and sister in law are a five minute ride.  So on a weeknight like this, when I needed wanted some extra hands, I had them.  My mom met me at the park in the afternoon and helped me chase Jenna around, giving me a little bit of a break.  Then came back to my house with my dad and helped me do all the bedtime stuff...and once J was in bed, I had dinner with them.  And when I say had dinner with them, I mean that they brought over food and my mom set the table and did the dishes (to my protest).  It was really nice being treated as a "guest" in my own home.  I didn't need them, but it was really nice to have them and  I think Jenna liked the extra company too - went to bed without a hitch and even slept a little later...hmmm maybe I should have them come over during the week more often....