Seven things on a … Wednesday? What day is this now?

1. This weekend was perfect. We didn’t get out of our PJs on Saturday until noon, and then we went shopping for a filing cabinet to get ourselves out of the house before our 4pm dinner with family for Spencer’s birthday. Afterward we decided to chance a “late” movie with the boys (7pm! Living dangerously!) and went to see the Lego Movie. I was not impressed, and frankly I was a bit bored. The boys in my life, all three, loved it though.

Sunday we tried to get to Disney super early so we could ride the good rides without a wait. That didn’t work – apparently the rest of the world had the same idea. It was actually so busy that for the first time in a year of Disney trips, we decided it wasn’t worth the hassle to stay. Rather than go home, though, we took a Disney bus over to the Disney boardwalk and walked around, and then signed up for a round of minigolf (still a 45 MINUTE WAIT). We took a boat back from the Boardwalk to where we had left our car at Hollywood Studios. It’s taken us a year but we finally feel like we have the Disney transportation down, so we’re trying to branch out a little. AND! I found out that the club that I spent so much time swing dancing at in college was not at Downtown Disney but was instead at the Boardwalk and was still there! They don’t do swing anymore, but it was very nostalgic to see.

Monday I had a holiday from work, but I had to fly out for a Tuesday work obligation, so I spent the entire morning very slowly getting ready, packing, and watching Sherlock. C told me it looked like I was taking a spa day, as I was painting my nails. Maybe I was.

2. Woah, I didn’t mean for #1 to be that long.

3. I had an 18-hour trip to Louisiana, which was not bad. I actually slept really well (I brought my teddy bear with me, so I credit him) and it was a hitch-free visit. Two of my flights were late but I still made my connections so no harm, no foul. I still hate ATL. Of the three meals I ate there, two were normal chains (that weren’t really that great) but for lunch we went to a great Louisiana seafood place. It was good stuff, and it kept me full until I got home at 8pm and could have a bowl of cereal.

4. The overnight trip messed up my progress on separation anxiety with Henry though – he was a mess this morning when I had to leave for work. I really hope this phase goes by. He’s been doing much better about getting up in the night – I don’t know how he did Monday, but all the other nights for the past five, he’s gone all the way through with one night where he tried to climb in at 5am. Otherwise it was sans nightly wake-ups.

5. I was unable to go to the parent teacher conference for Spencer due to the work trip too, so I had to rely on getting my info from C. Apparently you need to read at a level four in order to pass K, and Spencer reads at a 10. She sent home a folder for him to give him an extra push because he can do even more, she can only push so much while trying to get the other kids up to level. What are good first/second grade books for him?

6. The neighbors are coming over for dinner tonight, which is fun. We haven’t seen them much since Christmastime because we’ve all been so busy. It’s nice to have neighbors that you actually like. I was going to make shrimp but then I found out they don’t like it, so it looks like grilled chicken it will be!

7. I’ve got nothing else!!  Hopefully the grind stuff will move quickly and the fun parts of the week will move slowly. Like an accordion, baby! (I love the accordion) 

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday I …

-          Finished HP6 and got nearly 300 pages into HP7. It was a reading kind of night. I do love the Harry Potter books, but I like them best from Order of the Phoenix on; there’s so much more action and goings on. It’s excellent. I’m so glad I’m doing this rereading thing. Next is either Graceling or Vampire Academy.

-          Had Jury Duty. I wish I could actually talk about it, because it’s fascinating. I’m bound to never talk about the cases we hear, ever, but in general terms it’s definitely eye opening, especially about my county.

-          I made tacos last night for dinner. I always make chicken tacos, and then I make Spencer a chicken quesadilla. He was *not happy* I made beef instead and refused to have it in his quesadilla. So. He asked instead for eggs and cheese instead (such my kid). (Henry got his usual, cheese and turkey pepperoni)

-          (last night) Henry didn’t get up once! Well, he got up twice before actually falling asleep, but there were no middle of the night wake ups. You’d think this wouldn’t be such a big deal at 3.5, but one to two times a night is just so draining – especially at toddler age. It shouldn’t be happening so often anymore!

Today I …

-          Put out a card and a giant Reese’s heart for C, and I ended up giving the kids a couple small things: Star Wars white boards, TMNT socks and bouncy balls that lights up. So Target dollar bins, my children love you. They were all big hits.

-          I told Christen that I would cook him anything he wanted. He chose chicken kiev, so it’s that, roasted brussel sprouts and orecchiette w/ goat cheese and miso tomatoes. I’m thinking of making the kids heart shaped personal pizzas for movie night for them tonight. Unfortunately it’s going to be too cold to eat the grown up’s dinner on the deck, but we’ll make separate valentine’s dinners work.

-          Had a heart shaped doughnut that my coworker brought in for Valentine’s day. It was a bit too sweet (I’m not a huge doughnut fan) but still delightful. It would have been rude to turn it down, right?

-          Didn’t take a shower this morning. This should probably be rectified the minute I get home. But in my defense, I usually shower at night and didn’t, and it was too cold this morning! And I wouldn’t have had time to dry my hair, so really I’m just looking out for my health.

Tomorrow I …

-          Have no plans for the majority of the day. I’m honestly thinking of just hanging out in PJs as long as can be done, watching tv and having breakfast and reading. This is ideal.

-          Have Spencer’s family birthday dinner in the “evening”. It’s at 4pm. Spencer picked Logan’s Roadhouse, because he loves the bread and peanuts at steakhouses. If Texas Roadhouse was closer, he totally would have picked that (and I would have relished him being forced to sit on that stupid saddle) but Logan’s it is.

-          Otherwise have nothing. NOTHING. It’s glorious. Also, unlikely. We’re not good at staying home so I predict wandering the mall or taking the kids to the playground or something.

A Day in the Life of February

So I did this Day in the Life thing a couple weeks ago, but then I started feeling sick and then I ended up taking two days off of work so I never got past 4pm. Now I have no idea how I finished that day, but I feel confident most of it was in bed. So today. Today I think is going to be a normal day, except I warn you: I plan on cleaning the bathrooms. I am not militant about bathrooms, but I mentioned it in a comment yesterday and now I can’t stop thinking about the state of my toilets so it’s on the list of things I need to do.

1am-ish, Henry wakes up and comes in the room. He does this nightly, and mostly my husband takes him back to bed because I’m incapable to budging from sleep even though it’s my side of the bed he visits.

5am Henry is back up and in the room. This time I get up and take him back to bed, and tell him he can’t get up until 6. I regret that we never bought an okay to wake clock – is it too late at 3.5yrs?

5:05am back again, says he needs allergy medicine. I tell him I’ll get it at 6.

5:55am My alarm goes off, I hit snooze but then H is in again on daddy’s side to get allergy medicine and to blow his nose. He climbs into bed and I climb out – if I snuggle, I’m never getting up. 6:09am I’m up.

Until 6:40am I took a shower the night before, so I do makeup and flat iron my hair, get dressed and make Spencer’s and my lunch. I would normally make a green smoothie for breakfast for myself, but I’m out of bananas and pretty close to out of kale, so I skip it.

6:41am Kiss and hugs, remind Spencer to be good at school (stay on green! Listen to the teacher!) Henry still cries a little when I leave (we’re having a major separation anxiety issue these days) but it helps if I let him open the door to the garage for me. He was in the middle of dressing so he runs buck naked through the house to open the door. Holding his junk, as boys do.

7:03am I’m supposed to be at work at 7:15, but somehow for work I’m chronically late (I’m early to everything else) and I’ve been trying to be early rather than late these days.

7:15am-8:30am I try to buckle down to work. I drink my tea – this tea is amazing. I know it seems gitchy – Mad Tea Party, oh ho ho. But dude: “premium blend of Indian black teas, safflowers, calendula petals, ginger bits, apricot bits, peach and apricot flavors.” I’m not a big flavored tea or fruit tea fan, but I think the black tea base makes this fantastic.

8:30-10am In a meeting with some higher ups. Good meeting. Bagels and coffee.

10:00am back to my desk, I take a few minutes to read blogs, talk with IT about why some websites aren’t working on my computer. All’s well now! Work!

11:20am I usually take my lunch at 11, but the late bagel meant I wasn’t hungry. I ran to Target on my break instead, first to get licorice rope and gummy rings for valentines, but when they didn’t have licorice rope I ended up getting ring pops. I already did the printables so I didn’t feel like completely changing my direction. I was momentarily stymied because I didn’t know if Spencer would appreciate putting heart stickers on heart baggies, but I decided to skip the stickers and go with the twist ties that came with the bags ($1 bin, score!) If he hates this idea, I don’t really care.

12:15pm So I would have been back from my lunch 5 minutes earlier, but I got up the stairs to my floor and realized I forgot my badge at my desk so I couldn’t get in, and I forgot my phone in my car so I couldn’t call a coworker to let me in. I went back to my car for the phone and then stopped at security for a badge but oh my, that was a whole lotta stairs. Anyhow, more work. I ate my lunch at the same time, one of my very favorites: tuna and avocado on brown rice triscuits and coconut cream Greek yogurt. So yummy.

2:45pm MORE TEA. Don’t tell the tea purists, but I use the same tea leaves as the morning cup. I just don’t steep all that long so it’s not like they lose too much. Now that I’m using loose tea, I just keep my tea ball (heh) on a paper towel and reuse.

This is my cup (it’s giant).

3:05pm I’ve actually finished the work that I had allotted myself for today, so I start on tomorrow’s work. I have jury duty tomorrow and I never know how long that’s going to last so I may as well work ahead a little. There’s some stuff I can’t do until tomorrow or Friday so I’ll get the other stuff done.

3:55pm There's a monsoon coming and I need cheese for dinner, so I duck out a couple minutes early to try to get in and out of the grocery store across the street from work before the rain comes.

I didn't make it.

5:03pm I'm a half hour later than usual picking up the kids because of the rain, and it's still crazy raining. I talk to the daycare lady for half a minute but I want to get home! Rain! Ahh!

"So Spencer, when we get home we're going to make valentines."
"For Grandma and Pama?"
"No, for your friends at school!"
"But why? I don't love them!"

5:10pm Home. Spencer has to change out of his school clothes and correct his homework, and then we get valentines done and done.

5:30pm The kids really want C to build this Walltracks thing Spencer got for his birthday, but they've lost the directions already and taken the sticky off most of the foam tape. It was a worthy effort, but it didn't happen. We need more 3M sticky doodads. I take a quick minute to read on the couch.

5:45pm I start dinner - breakfast for dinner. I do some sort of breakfast every couple of weeks. Basically, I love eggs and I would eat them for every meal if I could. In the middle of cooking I bicker with C and then it fizzles out. Yes, I started it. No, I still don't think I was wrong. But it's done quickly and we move on.

(I broke the yolk getting it out of the pan. Dern it. At least I'll eat them now - when I was little I would only eat the runny yolk and the hard whites absolutely segregated. Now I just shove it all on a piece of toast)

6:00ish, I finish before everyone else, and start cleaning the kitchen. We have a pass through so I can keep with the dining room conversation while cleaning up. Tonight's conversation included the sign language alphabet, how shadows work and how wolves eat. Boy learns a lot in school.

6:30pm Spencer wants to play Wii, so we tell him he can if he reads for 15 minutes. He powers through a couple school library books and a couple from his bookcase. Henry runs for some books of his own - his favorite for tonight was the Elmo book that has a piano on it. He plays a booty-shaking concert for me.

6:45pm Toy Story 3 for the Wii. Spencer's finally getting good at video games although he still gets frustrated quickly. C was playing with him but the machine froze so now he's playing happily by himself. I start the kettle going and then clean the bathrooms as quickly and painlessly as possible.

7:10pm nighttime rituals:  pjs, teeth and potty. Then they watch one show in my room before bed. Tonight is Henry's turn to pick, so it's Mater's Tall Tales. If tonight were Spencer's turn, it would be Rescubots. Same things, every single night. I sit down with my tea at the dining room table to start working on this blog and get distracted by other social media. And my butt hurts because our dining room chairs are terrible but I don't feel like dragging the laptop over to the living room chair. It is STILL raining, and I want my bed. C is technically working the late shift until 8pm, but he works from home so it's negotiable. He might be watching the Olympics in there.

7:58pm Bedtime is technically 7:45pm, but it really depends on when we get last show started. So we're late, but this is why teeth and pjs get done before the show. No playing around afterward, and if someone falls asleep during the show (only ever Spencer), they can just be carried to bed.

Child is crying because no one carried him 10 ft to the bed. Child is tired. (Henry)

8:00pm still raining. Isn't this the dry season? Heading to bed with the sixth Harry Potter.

8:21pm Put Henry back in bed. 

8:26pm Put Henry back in bed.

8:56pm Husband puts Henry back in bed (so maybe he should be going to bed later, but his brother fell asleep immediately upon head hitting the pillow and can the younger one have a later bedtime than the older? I don't want mutiny.

until 10:15pm technically reading Harry Potter, but also Big Bang Theory reruns are on and I keep getting distracted by the funnies.

And then it's bed! Aren't you completely psyched by my day?

A weekend in Africa

Saturday was Spencer’s birthday. We were going to have a normal party – kids of my friends, maybe some friends of Spencer’s now. Bagels and breakfast, a playground. You know, normal. Low key.

But then I never got around to setting it up, and then by Tuesday it just didn’t seem like it was going to happen so we decided to go for a different route. We made last minute reservations at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, picked the kids up early and headed out to Disney. They didn’t really pay any attention to where we were until we hit the Disney area, and then they thought we were going to a park until we actually pulled up to the resort. Then they didn’t realize we were *staying* at the resort, and Spencer was very surprised and excited to find that we were (he’s always asking to stay at a resort, and there’s never any reason to do so – we live 80 minutes away!)

 

The room was nice but the weather was crappy and most the animals didn’t really want to hang out near our balcony with the misty icky rain. We explored the grounds and then Spencer decided that instead of fancy dinner with us, he wanted to spend a couple hours in Simba’s Cubhouse, which is basically a kids room with all sorts of toys and video games and adult supervision, and they feed you dinner if you stay a couple hours. Henry refused to stay so he came to dinner with us. He was in a ROTTEN mood, but finally we figured out that he was crabby because he was hungry and when he ate his weight in macaroni and cheese and strawberries from the buffet, he was a happier camper. C and I ate all the African offerings at Boma, and it was really delicious. Yummy. I took no photos of food, but trust me – it all ended up in my tummy.

I snuck a couple cookies off the dessert bar for Spencer, and we settled in to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. The kids didn’t make it to the Americans – someone needs to change the alphabet so that doesn’t keep happening.

Saturday the weather was just plain gross, but we we going to forgo Disney because of a little rain and cold? I think not. My feet were solid wet blocks of ice by the end of the day and I can say that it was not my favorite day at Disney, but the kids had a solidly great time.

But first, birthday presents!! We got him a US and World map for his walls, the Hidden Mickeys book, and the box set of Harry Potter on Blu-ray. Henry picked out Turbo and a DM2 Fartblaster (possibly the most annoying toy ever, may soon be left out in the rain by “accident”). Spencer was impressed by all.

Because we went to a resort, we are finally set up to do FP+ ahead of time. We got fast passes for one of the good Epcot rides, and stood in line for the other. This was Henry’s first time for both, and it was a winner (Henry kept pumping his little fist after getting off and saying That was AWESOME in a gravely excited voice). We gave up the reins of what to do to Spencer (after all, he was the birthday boy!) and we went over to Magic Kingdom for the rest of the day. Spencer made all the decisions on what to ride which was evident by the fact that we rode the Astro Orbiter in the freezing rain. By 6pm he decided he wanted to go to Downtown Disney for dinner. On a Saturday. With no reservations.

Ha.

We actually ended up getting a little lost because they’ve changed the bus systems, so ultimately we skipped DD and headed back to the Lodge (it took us 2 hours to get there with our mess ups), and Henry fell asleep on the bus. We had dinner at the counter service restaurant and Spencer was allowed anything he wanted to eat so he had a blueberry muffin and fruit and apple juice. Dinner of champions, people. We had more delicious African food, and they also sold wine by the bottle so we had a bottle with dinner and then since Spencer promptly fell asleep on daddy’s lap at the restaurant, we got a second bottle to take back to the room with some fabulous desserts. C and I sat in the cold on the balcony talking and planning for the next day, drinking our wine and having our dessert. It was lovely. 

Henry woke up at 5am on Sunday “mommy, someone peed in this bed”. Kiddo, you’re the only one sleeping in that bed. C took care of it and then everyone except me slept until nearly 7am.

Day two of the parks was gorgeous. Man, how I wish we had that weather the whole weekend. We spent most of the day at Hollywood Studios. We got there at opening with the hopes of being able to ride Toy Story a few times but it was already swamped so we rode once and then had breakfast at Starring Rolls café – yum! It’s been months since I had a bagel, I was happy.

Again, we had passes for the rides we really wanted to ride, although other than Toy Story the others didn’t really have bad lines. Every cast member we passed told Spencer happy birthday (hurray for birthday pins). Saturday we didn’t really have a chance to do any birthday cake or anything so we made lunch reservations at the HS pizzeria, Mama Melrose’s. I handed Spencer’s #6 candle off to the waiter, and after lunch the waiter had the close tables sing and Spencer got a little chocolate cannoli cake with his birthday candle on it. He was excited, to say the least.

We hit Animal Kingdom for a couple hours before ending our day because Spencer wanted to ride Everest. He refused to try the single rider line to ride without me so we spent most of our AK visit standing in line, but it was worth it for the birthday boy. He played in the slide enclosure for a bit after that and then HOME. Finally.

We got home at 7:55pm, and both kids were still awake (they watched Turbo and ate McDonald’s on the way home, capping a weekend of indulgence). By 8:15pm we had both kids in PJs and bed, cleaned out the car, C rinsed off the bird poo that had hit it in the parking lot, I half unpacked to have my toiletries and phone charger, and I was in bed in my own PJs. I do not sleep well in hotel rooms, even resort hotel rooms, and I was flat tuckered out. Beat.

I think it was a success though.

(this was the birthday dance)

Books I read: January 2014

This was supposed to be the year of the reread, and while I did some rereading, I also read a helluva lot of new books. This is mainly because I finally picked up a series that my BFF has been recommending for a year, and also that when I would forget my book at home, I would download a new book to start from the library. I read a lot, but I also don’t feel like it was the only thing I did, which is a change. The Gregor books were super quick reads. (I also watched 64 episodes of Veronica Mars in the last 7 days of January)

reread

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - JK Rowling

2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - JK Rowling

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban - JK Rowling
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling (continued into February)

new:

1. Flash Gold - Lindsay Buroker A novella by one of my favorite authors. A little different – more like a steampunk wild west – but very enjoyable.

2. The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer I didn’t know if I would like this at first. I was a little bored, but then I really really got into the characters and by the end I was openly weeping. The nonlinear storyline is jarring for me, but acceptable in the grand scheme. This was my favorite new book of the month.

3. Gregor the Overlander - Suzanne Collins Bex recommended this forever ago but I kept forgetting about it. The first book (this one) is a little young, I didn’t think I would care enough to read the rest of the series, but they are really well written and I just kept finishing one and immediately picking up the next (it helped that the library got all of them for me at the same time). Good stuff.

4. The Bat - Jo Nesbo This is Nesbo’s first Harry Hole book, and since I’ve read several of the others, this was way tamer. It was well written, less bloody, less insane (but still some insanity). Like when Criminal Minds first started versus where they are now. Can only get more shocking, right? I would always recommend these books, but maybe this one before you get to the others.

5. Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane - Suzanne Collins

6. Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods - Suzanne Collins

7. Gregor and the Marks of Secret - Suzanne Collins

8. Between Sisters - Kristin Hannah This was not the best of hers I've read. It was very formulaic, and honestly and terribly, a week later I can't remember at all what it was about. Not a ringing endorsement.

9. Gregor and the Code of the Claw - Suzanne Collins This one was my favorite.

10. A Visit from the Good Squad - Jennifer Egan I hated this. Hated, gleefully dropped it in the library's return box not even halfway through.