Beach Trip!

We had an interesting experience last weekend. It was finally warm enough to head to the beach! Brian found a great deal for a half price hotel room at a beach that's about an hour drive from here. When we got about 5 minutes from the beach, Kelsie threw up in the new (used) car. Guess that's the appropriate way to break in a new car when you have kids. Turned out to be motion sickness and she was fine a few minutes later.

Then we got to the hotel to find out it was gay pride weekend there! So we saw some interesting outfits and the kids liked all the rainbow flags, but other than that they didn't notice anything unusual. They were sound asleep before we started hearing the raucous parties around the hotel.

But overall it was a great trip. The weather was just barely warm enough, although the water was FREEZING. After a few hours at the beach we went to the boardwalk for burgers and mini golf (Kelsie loved it, Dylan did not respect the game).

Not really getting the point of the goggles:

Hard at work:

Totally normal kids:

Very pensive:

He thought the object of the game was to go retrieve our golf balls after we putted, and kindly take them to the hole for us and drop them in. So we got a lot of holes in 1. Set some kind of record, I think.

Identical sleepers, crashed after a hard day:

Siblings

I wish this sibling love fest would last forever ...

Kelsie's 5th Birthday

I can't believe it's been 5 years since I was introduced to the wonder of the epidural. Kelsie is very proud that she is now the only 5-year-old at her school (which of course means she's in charge, according to her). Of her 5 birthdays so far, I'd say this was her best. We brought donuts in to her school for a little celebration and dance party there. Then a couple days later we had a laid back birthday party at the playground.

Birthday celebration at her school: Her main present from us was this scooter, which she says is her "favorite thing in the whole wide world." She asked me to take a picture of her looking surprised: We also gave her a fish, which she has named Blue Purple Star. She has completely disowned our other pets in favor of this one. We have since learned that we were overfeeding the fish, as you can see by all the food at the bottom of the bowl that is making the water cloudy. Oops.
And now to her birthday party. We had a party at our "secret park," which she so named because it's at the end of a dead end street and no one knows about it. It's small but nice and completely fenced in, which made it an easy place to let a bunch of preschoolers loose. The kids played on the playground and with our bubble machine, sidewalk chalk and pinata, while the adults enjoyed wine and cheese and crackers. Turned out to be a really good day for everyone.

Amazingly, no one got hurt. Even with the pinata:


She was insistent on having an M&M cake. No clue where she got that idea, but it turned out to be a good one. She nearly had a major meltdown when the other kids were blowing out the candles before she got a chance, but it worked out. Dylan had other ideas for the bubble machine: Not his manliest moment:
Great day. She's still on overload from all of the great presents she got. We even hid several of them to save for a rainy day, but it's still enough to completely throw off her routine. She has pitched a fit every evening this week because she wants to play instead of go to bed. Hoping we'll get that back on track this week. Wish us luck.

Proud Parent Moment #6

We invited all of Kelsie's classmates to her birthday party and the RSVPs have been incredibly touching. Many of the parents' RSVP emails have included stories about their interactions with Kelsie at the school. A recurring theme seems to be that Kelsie acts as the comforting parental figure for new students. Here are a couple of the notes:

"Kelsie was so sweet to Evan on his first day at Park Prep (back in January). She said she was going to watch out for him :) so sweet and adorable!"

"I really do have to tell you how sweet Kelsie is . . . Abigail had a difficult transition into school (lots of crying when I dropped her off). One day Abigail was about to cry, saying "do you have to leave mommy?" and Kelsie, bless her sweet little heart, chimes in with "don't worry Abigail, we won't leave you, we'll stay with you all day" (or something very similar if I'm not getting the exact wording ;-) I also almost fell over when I heard her READING an entire book one morning! Sooo impressed!!"

And we know that since Kelsie rarely naps the teachers get her to help the younger kids who have a hard time napping. They put her next to them so she can read to them or just lie down next to them to set an example. And apparently it works!

At the risk of bragging, I am so proud of her. If we can just manage to harness her book smarts and her nurturing instinct, she may just accomplish amazing things with her life. We'll do everything we can to encourage that.

Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Dylan

It comes as no surprise that sweet little Dylan is not the most gentle child, but he seems to be getting rougher.

Sometime it's cute -- his running-start kisses and strangulation hugs. This weekend he was playing with one of Kelsie's dolls and pretending to put it to sleep. He'd say "Baby go nap," and sing "Rock a baby .. rooooooccccck a baby," while holding the doll with both of his arms fully extended out in front of him. Then, out of nowhere he'd throw the baby onto the floor, run to yank it up by its head and start the process over again. I wish I had that one on camera -- pretty funny.

But other times it's not as cute. He hit Kelsie in the head with a toy this weekend hard enough to split the skin. And tonight he tried to bite her because she wasn't sharing the bath toy.

I'm hoping it's just a phase. And that Kelsie's patience lasts. After he hit her head (and after the ice pack, tears and time-out), she told him, "I forgive you, Dylan. I love you. You're my best brother."

In the meantime we're trying to find the trigger that sets him off (it's often Kelsie) and a discipline method that he responds to. Haven't found either yet.

Good thing he's cute.

Dylan's 2!

Yesterday was the 4-1-1, also known as Dylan's birthday, and we've had quite a weekend. It rained all day yesterday so the kids had fun playing with Dylan's new toys. Then we had some good friends over for Easter dinner/birthday cake last night (another 4-year old and 2-year old, which works out nicely). This morning the Easter bunny visited us, and then we packed up and went to the Bronx Zoo once the rain cleared.

Now that he's 2, Dylan has officially graduated to annoying little brother status. Last night Kelsie slammed her bedroom door on him and yelled, "get out of here, you TWO YEAR OLD!!"

Here's what happens when I send Brian to Toys'R'Us.


Trying to figure out his new remote control car from Grammie and Grampa. He has a tendency to keep pushing the go button while chasing the car to catch it (if he'd just stop pushing the button it would be much easier).


Drunk on chocolate cake:


Up close and personal with an alligator:


Kelsie the gopher:


They really liked the educational computer screens:


Who needs lions, tigers and bears when you have goldfish?


Feeding the goat:


This was probably my favorite part of the zoo trip. This gorilla was incredibly social. She was posing for pictures and literally smiling for us. She made clear eye contact with Dylan and grinned for him -- she must have known it was his birthday weekend!


Now on to the Terrible Twos.

Gossip

This is the conversation Kelsie just had with her play phone. (Just Kelsie's side of it, obviously.)

"Hello? Oh hi, Barbie. You have a secret? What is it? I CAN. NOT. believe that!"

Pause to talk to me: "Mom, sorry I can't tell you what I'm talking about. It's a secret."

"Barbie? I'm back. I can't believe your secret. I cannot believe it. What's that sound? That's the sound you make when you're nervous? Why are you nervous? Because Fall just came into your house? I can't believe Fall just came into your house."

Pause to talk to me: "Mom, I want to help you with Dylan but I can't right now because I'm on the phone."

"Hello, is this still the secret girl? I have to help my mom with my little brother. Just a minute."

Pause to talk to Dylan: "Dylan, I don't want you to stand or jump on any furniture. Okay?" (meanwhile, Dylan is seeing how far he can throw his stuffed animals)

"Hello? I thought the Jonas Brothers threw slime but they didn't."

How does she even know about the Jonas Brothers? That's terrifying!! I need to nip this one in the bud. I have no idea where most of that conversation came from (slime? Fall came into your house?), but especially the Jonas Brothers. Ugh.

And Dylan just found the sugar in the pantry so I should go.

Cecilia

We cracked up to hear Kelsie singing every word to "Cecilia" by Paul Simon. It is apparently one of the regular songs they play for their preschool dance parties (that's what they do when it's too cold or wet to go outside). Except they made a few changes. Instead of "making love in the afternoon with Cecilia up in my bedroom," she sings, "making play-doh in the afternoon with Cecilia up in my playroom!" So funny.

Our Pilgrimage

We just got back from a pilgrimage to the South. Started with Betsy and Andrew's wedding in New Orleans, then to Shreveport, then to Dallas. Very fun and exhausting 10 days. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

Like any masochistic parent would do, we started the trip by giving the kids chocolate cake at about 8pm on our first night. But hey, it's New Orleans. They can't drink yet, so we had to improvise on their gluttony:



Later that evening, I told Critter to "come drink ... and bring the baby monitor." It's a special friend who will not only not judge that kind of statement, but willingly comply. So we caught up on the balcony of the hotel while the kids slept in the next room (with the baby monitor, of course). Awesome.

Day 2 -- took the kids to the Audubon Zoo with Brandy and her oldest son, Walker, and Amanda and her new baby boy, Charlie. I don't have pictures to prove their presence, but here's one of Dylan dangerously close to assaulting a peacock:

I also missed getting a picture of the jaguar rape. (Seriously -- a horny male jaguar and a female who was NOT into him. She won, but it wasn't for his lack of trying. Thankfully, the kids didn't ask questions.) We also saw a bird show, which was pretty cool if you could get past the guy's appearance. Doesn't he look like he should be an alcoholic character in an Adam Sandler movie?


That night was the rehearsal dinner, which was really a crawfish boil. So fun. Here's what happens when we try to get Dylan to hold still (and you can also catch a glimpse of his bruised cheek and black eye):

Notice my grip on him here and how hard he's trying to escape:


Day 3 -- the St. Patrick's Day parade. It was raining. That's all I have to say about our appearances:




And the wedding! On the front porch of the Columns Hotel ...


Brian kept Dylan quiet during the ceremony by agreeing to be force fed Goldfish:

Kelsie somehow weaseled her way into being a flower girl at the last minute. So we told her she had a very important job of taking care of Betsy's bouquet during the ring exchange. Look how hard she's working:
And my personal favorite -- the bride changed into cowboy boots for the post-reception outing to Tipitinas:

The next day was a very painful and foggy drive to Shreveport, where despite hanging out with much loved and much missed friends, we only managed to get pictures of the kids soaking themselves at the playground water fountain. The other moms there were not amused, especially when Kelsie started shouting, "TAKE MY SHIRT OFF! I WANT TO TAKE MY SHIRT OFF!" We're a real class act.


My big men:

Then it was off to Dallas, where we got a real chance to relax thanks to my sister and my wonderful niece and nephew, Rachel and Chris, who were under strict orders to entertain the kids while we put our feet up. They took them to the playground, played for hours on end on the trampoline, bathed them, read to them, put them to sleep, and tolerated their piano "playing."


And we also got to reconnect with our old dog, Cali. She is so well behaved now and thriving with my sister and family. Awwwww:

Anyway, it was such a fun trip. We're still recovering, so I'm off to bed.

My little photographer

Maybe it's my mom-bias, but I think Kelsie actually has a decent eye for photography. She took all of these outside of the Columns Hotel in New Orleans:

The honesty of children

Kelsie's teacher recently had a birthday so she let the kids play a "how old is Justine" guessing game. Kelsie's first guess was 52. Later she pulled Justine aside and said she wanted to change her answer. This time she told her, "you look like you're 26. Except when you're tired. Then you look 31."

Fortunately Justine has a good sense of humor! (For reference, she's probably a few years younger than me, maybe upper 20s.)

Proud parent moment #5

This morning Kelsie came with me to get Dylan out of his crib. When I picked him up she said, "I love you, Dylan." And he responded, "I yuv you, Ketsie!" (he hasn't yet mastered the L sound) Great way to start the day.

In the mind of Dylan

When people ask us how the kids are, we usually say something along the lines of "[sigh] they're great, just crazy." It's hard to sum up kids in a quick conversation. Dylan especially. Kelsie's a little more predictable (stable?) and she can usually explain herself. Dylan, on the other hand, seems to have a constant ping pong game going on in his head. Here's a visual look.

This was all his own doing. A tutu, safari hat, apple and cracker. To him, all these things go together. Also notice the black tattoos all over his arms. Note to parents: washable markers aren't as washable if you don't clean the kid immediately. He looked bruised for a couple days.


"A turtle?!?! What is this thing doing here?! Did you know about this?!"


As we were unloading the groceries, he decided to spend at least 3 minutes arranging the paper towels and toilet paper just right so he could rest on them for 5 seconds or so:


Even this video doesn't really give the full picture. I edited it down quite a bit, but it was almost 7 minutes straight of Dylan bouncing around from one random activity to the next. (I should say that this was taken when we were having some construction done, so there's a lot of extra furniture and toys scattered around the place -- ignore the mess, please):

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It's exhausting just to watch him.

Not to be outdone, Kelsie has her moments of weirdness, too. This is what happens when we give her stickers in the backseat of the car:


Never a dull moment.

Happy Dylan

Is there any better sound than that of a baby laughing?

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Crazy day

Dylan slept till 10am. TEN. A. M. Seriously. At 9:50, Kelsie, Brian and I decided we needed to wake him up, so we all went in his room to give him a cheery wake-up call, and he just looked at us, turned his back and pulled his blanket back up. This is the kid that literally tries to jump out of the crib the second you enter his room. Especially if Kelsie is in there. Damndest thing I've ever seen. So we left him to sleep a little longer. Apparently he needed 10 more minutes.

(But we didn't mind since we were up late playing American Idol on the Wii. Our neighbors brought it over. Ridiculous and surprisingly fun.)

Now he's up and eating a very nutritious cinnamon roll. Off to a good start for another day of model parenting.

And today it is 57 degrees outside!! It might as well be 95. We haven't had a break from the biting cold for weeks. We will definitely make our way to a playground or something outdoors today. I don't even remember how to dress for 57 degrees -- is a bikini appropriate?

Oh, and speaking of crazy happenings, the other night our cooking resulted in two fire trucks coming to our building. We have the world's most sensitive smoke detector, so when we're cooking something that we know will be a little smokey (like bacon, or in this case, orange chicken) we cook with our apartment door open. Unfortunately we didn't realize the door at the top of the stairs was closed, so we accidentally filled the building hallway with smoke, which set off the building's alarm, which immediately alerted the fire department. Not sure which was more embarrassing -- having to apologize to the Jersey City Fire Department, or hearing the neighbors upstairs yelling "everything's okay -- it's just the Pierces' cooking."