Tonight’s project was trying to get him to float better. He could do it a little bit during the completion of his jump…but I wanted him to do it longer. It took quite a while—and daddy finally getting in the pool—before it actually happened.
But first, the prerequisite underwater shot…
A cool shot that looks like ice…
And cool new underwater blowing bubbles shots…
Attempting to float but really just jumping at me…
A cool faux-hawk…
Making mama happy…
Floating!
And on video!
When it was almost time to go in:
Me: Daddy, I think it’s time for I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M. Owen, do you know what that spells?
Owen: I got no idea.
Tom: What does I-C-E sound like?
Owen: Ice!
Me: Yes, so ICE-C?
Owen: Cake!
Me & Tom: [Laughing] Nooo.
Me: ICE-C-R?
Owen: Cracker?
Me & Tom: [Laughing] Nooo.
Tom: ICE CREAM! Doesn’t that sound good?
Owen: Ah, no thanks.
Our pool has reached the tipping point where it’s no longer refreshing—it feels like bath water. I’m actually contemplating emptying and refilling half (before Tom leaves!) to try and cool it down…though water coming straight from the tap is like 75° so it might not help much.
Today was the big day of our Deckwarming party (and Tom’s going away party) as well as a mini celebration of Katie’s first birthday (technically her third first birthday as we already celebrated in Michigan, then she had her actual birthday on the 10th, and then today’s gathering). It was a long, hot, tiring—yet fun—day.
Party-prep is so much work—it never seems like stuff will take that long…but it always does. I was VERY thankful to have hired Virginia to come watch the kids while we did the prep because then I didn’t have to listen to Katie screaming because I wasn’t paying attention to her…and I was actually able to get stuff done! I loved what Virginia posted on Facebook—it’s classic Owen:
As usual, we had too much food (or maybe just not enough people?!) but then, I’m a Len and we apparently don’t know how to cook for less than 40 people (or are paranoid about not having enough food regardless of the number of people). 🙂 But everything was delicious.
The weather actually held out—it was touch and go for awhile with intermittent thunderstorms pretty much all morning and early afternoon—but it cleared up about 4 and was sunny and gorgeous (though the humidity was right at about 99%).
We had a good blend of old (Mitchells and Trimbles) and new friends (from my mommy group) and the kids had a blast in the playroom and in the pool.
Then it was time for the birthday cake. I had wanted to do something special for Katie so she didn’t fall into that “second kid gets squat compared to the first kid” thing PLUS after Owen’s Lego cake debacle I had decided I was never attempting to bake a cake again…so I asked our friend Ursula to make a cake. She has recently started making and decorating cakes and she’s ABSOLUTELY AMAZING (as opposed to my first attempt—see above Lego debacle post). Here’s the picture I sent her (that I found on Pinterest) along with her version on the right (I asked for the 1 on top instead of the ladybug and only two layers):
Also a big thanks to mommy-group friend Jacqueline who helped with my last-minute ice cream request (Doh! How could we have forgotten ice cream on our three trips to town?!) and pre-party kitchen cleanup (she arrived during the last 15-minute rush to get everything done, saw I was a bit overwhelmed, and jumped in to wash the sink full of dishes).
Some of the kids playing dress up:
Having a blast in the pool:
Wandering:
She made such a mess that we had to hose off the deck (thanks, Roger!) and give her a quick bath in the sink with Dawn detergent (I hadn’t planned ahead to have baby soap downstairs). Here she is somewhat cleaned up, back with Virginia again.
Since Owen was having so much fun in the pool and with the kids, we let him stay up late. This is about 9:30 right before he finally went to bed.
Thanks to everyone who shared the day with me and Tom!! And you can tell we’re all getting older…everyone had gone home by 10:15!! 🙂
I rarely look back there unless we’re specifically looking for a missing item…but I vacuumed today and re-plugged in a lamp that Katie had unplugged weeks ago…so I almost HAD to look from my vantage point on the couch.
So, since the satellite view was new, I just decided to check out the street view as well…
My first simultaneous thoughts were “YAY! A picture where the grass is finally green!” and “Wow, it’s been since we got the new car!” (Which seems like yesterday but it’s already been 1-1/2 years!)
The clues:
We got the car in January 2012.
Old photos show the water-sprinkler seal in use on April 17, 2012; this corresponds to when my mom and Dave were visiting—April 14–21, 2012—as she gave him the seal.
The backyard pool went up on May 5, 2012, and I think we got rid of the seal then.
So, the best I can date this photo is April 17–May 5, 2012.
ETA: I checked the street view online (vs. mobile) and it says it was generated in October 2012…so I went back and checked my photos and yep, we had the seal out then, too.
Daddy and Owen went in the pool tonight…and after awhile, Katie peeked behind the curtains and saw them out there…and went CRAZY so I took her out, too.
I was checking Google maps today to see how many in-ground pools were in our subdivision (for no real reason other than it’s a question that popped into my head while driving to Costco) when I realized that our satellite view has been (somewhat) recently updated.
I love how much I can determine from what we can see:
Previously, our view was fenceless. Now? The shed is there (so, after April 2012) but there’s a dead spot in the backyard grass where the pool was (so, after October 2012) but wait!—that’s not Tom’s car OR my car in the driveway!—whose is it? Aha! Dad and Linda’s minivan! And they were there in February 2013. And from the amount of stuff on the curb, it looks like garbage pickup day so it’s a Monday morning. And Tom’s at work (hence his car not being there) and since my car isn’t there I’m guessing I was running errands.
Looking back at my calendar, Katie had a 9:00 appointment for her flu booster on Monday, February 18…so that’s when Google got us.
So Owen and I went in the pool when Katie went down for her morning nap. I worked with him on sticking his nose under to blow bubbles…which he eventually did. I really tried to get him to stick his whole face under—even tried getting him to plug his nose to do so—but he was having NONE of it. Okay, fine, I was content with what we had achieved.
Fast forward to Katie going to bed for the night and all three of us get in the pool. I had gotten a new waterproof camera so I wanted to test it out.
I told him to stick his face under—and you can see he barely got his chin and the very tip of his nose.
So then I told him to show daddy what he learned with me today—and imagine my surprise when we witnessed this:
WHAT?! He went under JUST like that! Like he’d been doing it all summer or something. The stinker!
Testing the stop-action setting with splashing!
And Photoshopped to adjust the colors (though it washes out the rest of the picture—I’m sure it could be done better, but I’m NOT a Photoshop wiz):
With all the rain we had while we were gone (we’ve heard 9″), our garden went batshit crazy. The tomatoes overgrew everything and cut off the basil (you can’t even see it). Tom had to cut it back with the weed eater…and it still needs to be thinned out by hand.
The rabbits had a field day with things that hung outside the container (who knew they liked basil?). And the leaf lettuce got so big it’s now completely useless—and I don’t think I’m going to be planting any more.
The only good thing about driving too far the first day is that the second day is a lot shorter. BUT…the day started too early with Katie screaming good morning about 6:15. 😐 But it meant we were on the road at 7:30 again.
As usual, we stopped at our favorite park near Raleigh and Owen had a blast.
He’s getting SO much older. Now, he just takes off across the park without telling us…so we had a few chats about that. 🙂
And here’s how packed in things are—including Maggie! And it’s missing the last outside row that we had to take out at the park (the stroller, backpack, Maggie’s bag, etc.).
Look at that pathetic face. But don’t let her fool you…she’s perfectly happy. We had to literally DRAG her out when we stopped at the park.
Also, does Katie want her bottle at the park, when it’s convenient to do so? Of course not. She wants it 10 minutes later as soon as we’re back on the highway. Babies are annoying. But at least it put her to sleep so both kids thankfully napped almost the last two hours home…
Owen summed up the day nicely about 10 hours in: I am not happy. No more road trips.
Best case scenario it’s a long day but it was made even longer since we decided to push the mileage to get to our favorite hotel…and then it was full so we had to go an hour farther. 🙁
And I tried to make Katie a bottle of formula…with apple juice. Because I just wasn’t thinking and thought I had filled one of Owen’s cups with water. WRONG! So Katie was REALLY not happy the last hour, though I tried to keep the snacks coming her way.
Then I tried to check in to the wrong hotel. I just saw the Q and assumed it was La Quinta. Nope, Quality Inn. It’s a good thing Tom didn’t get anything unloaded…
Then we had horrible take-out Chinese food (Mongolian Beef and General Tso’s Chicken are hard to screw up, but they did) which just added to the day.
Owen perked up once he got to play in the pool.
But since we arrived late, dinner was late and Owen getting to and back from the pool was late…which meant a super tired Katie—who should have gone to bed early at 8—couldn’t go to bed until they were back in the room and ready for bed…about 9:15. At least she only screamed for 10 minutes before falling asleep!
I took Grandma Jean to Dairy Queen tonight after we dropped off a Redbox movie at Walgreens. I was keeping my fingers crossed that they would be able to make my all-time favorite blizzard that no one can make anymore…that I grew up eating at this exact DQ.
So what is this magical flavor? Peanut Butter Crunch. It used to be on the menu everywhere like 20-25 years ago—it’s just peanut butter sauce and cookie crunch but not every place carries the crunch.
I started my spiel like I always do: “I’m hoping you can make a Blizzard for me that used to be on the menu. It has peanut butter sauce and cookie crunch.” She barely batted an eyelash and said sure.
Be still my heart.
Then I asked the next most important thing: “Can you please make sure to mix it really, really well? Most places where we live mix the top half and leave the bottom all vanilla.” Of course, she said.
Oh my.
I splurged and ordered a Large (I typically only order a Small because it’s some waaaay-distant-second-place-flavor like Mint Oreo).
So all my life, our address has been N. Roberts Road. As time passed, we learned that our road was actually made up of North AND South Roberts Road but no one really knew were the dividing line was (though my grandma’s house about 1/4 mile away was a South address).
To make matters more confusing, there is a completely different North Roberts Road in a neighboring city (well, I guess technically it’s a continuation of the road I live on, but there’s a gap in it which creates the confusion, and for those of us who live here, we consider it a completely different road since it’s technically a different city).
Stay with me, I’m going somewhere with all this. 🙂
Well, the county commission put up new street signs on our corner…that say S Roberts Road. Which drove my mom nuts because it’s NOT S Roberts Road. Calls were made and they tried to explain to the county but the county disagreed for whatever reason (I guess their mapping systems claim it’s South)…so my mom took it upon herself to fix it.
Tom took Owen to stay at Grandma Marsha’s overnight and they went to the Kaliseum. Why does Kalkaska have something like this and Jacksonville doesn’t?!
Owen was having fun playing with the other kids and then even went down this big waterside by himself!! Twice!!
He had a blast there! He called it a hotel, though… 🙂
They all went to Big Boy for dinner, where Owen ordered his own hot dog dinner!
During dinner…
Owen: Guess what?
Uncle Rob: What?
Owen: Not you, I am asking your mother!
And then had ice cream back at Grandma’s.
And Uncle Rob tried to sleep with Owen, but Owen told him “No, Uncle Rob, this bed is my size.” 🙂
We took Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob out for dinner to Traverse City and we picked Harrington’s On The Bay. It was quite yummy—and while Owen was really good, Katie was pretty good but got a bit antsy/squawky towards the end. Owen was a MUCH better diner than Katie is so far…but she’s a MUCH better eater (tonight she ate calamari, French fries, asparagus, filet mignon, yogurt, and chocolate cake).
Grandma knows the kids love water, so she got a pool for them! However…it’s a big pool and their ground water is COLD (a few gallons of boiling water didn’t even help much), so it was a very cold and brief play time…but they both loved it!
Amazingly we started off on schedule—and if you want to be technical about it, we were actually seven minutes early. And we didn’t think of anything we forgot…
The barrette lasted a whole hour—which doesn’t seem like much but her previous record was about three seconds.
Things went pretty well until Katie got a little screechy. But Owen was SO awesome—he’d start talking to her, singing the ABCs, playing peek-a-boo (which usually resulted in giggles), and clapping (at which point she’d clap in return). But then it turned into hunger screeches meaning she wanted her bottle—which sounds easy…but isn’t. She can physically hold the bottle—but can’t understand she has to tip it (she wants it to work like a straw cup). We tried putting her formula in the straw cup…and then she doesn’t really want it. And even though it’s attached to a strap so it can’t end up on the floor…it ends up hanging or upside down…dripping milk. Sigh. At this age, Owen was definitely holding his own bottle—great for road trips.
So I tried giving her a no-spill snack cup…which lasted all of five minutes until she a) figured out how to hold one flap open and tip most of it out and then b) got the entire lid off! Joy.
No-spill snack cup: 0
Katie: 1
So we figured our good little eater would snarf down some mac and cheese for lunch. Nah. Not interested today. REALLY?! Also not really interested in any of our foods, including one of her favorite baby foods. GRRR.
The good thing about lunch is that the owner—after chatting with Tom—comped our meal as a thank you for his service. So a nice shout out to Prissy Polly’s BBQ in Kernersville, NC.
Neither kid napped well. Katie got maybe an hour each before and after lunch and Owen got maybe an hour total with his catnaps.
Then there was a sibling sharing game, played with the lid to the snack container. Owen would hand it to Katie, she’d hand it back, lather rinse repeat. Owen kept saying “We’re sharing! We’re talking turns!” 🙂 He’s such an awesome big brother.
When we finally got to the hotel, Owen helped daddy with the cart (it was too bright for a good picture!).
And Maggie’s bag…which was about half his size.
Katie was having a blast crawling/zooming across the bed. Of course as soon as I tried to record her, she stopped.
Then she learned how to get off the bed. Just like that. (Just like she learned how to slide off the couch.) She’s a smart cookie.
Then it was off to dinner. We ate at the hotel just to make life easy. Katie ate seasoned curly fries, regular fries, and beef brisket (in addition to her cheese slices, green beans, and yogurt). Yes, BBQ beef brisket. Owen? The triple-decker PB&J and yogurt we packed from home.
Then it was FINALLY time for the pool—Owen had been asking most of the day but had really started asking when we got to the hotel. He was VERY excited!
Catching a ride and kicking it with daddy…
Watching daddy and Owen in the pool:
Then I took Katie outside for a stroll since it was REALLY warm in the pool area.
It took a minute to get a smile.
Then it was back to the pool, where daddy nommed some Katie toes.
I love when I get an unexpected shot. 🙂
Back at the room, we turned our backs for a minute…and this happened.
Yes, she opened the drawer AND got in by herself. And she was SO proud! Of course, she got out by herself, too.
Unfortunately, there were a few tiny snafus.
I thought I did really well by packing overnight bags so we didn’t have to haul everyone’s suitcases in…but I apparently forgot obvious stuff like jammies and Katie didn’t have her burp cloth.
I rolled the stroller through something in the hotel (they had some construction areas) and tracked it all over our carpet. It looked like putty, and thankfully it was still wet enough to easily wipe up.
Owen picked a scab and bled all over the white sheets. I had no band-aids…either on me or in our med bag. Tom had to get one from the front desk.
I haven’t had reflux in a month…so of course tonight was the night. And I forgot to take my nightly meds before putting Katie to bed, and I really didn’t want to get up because it took her 25 minutes of SCREAMING to fall asleep and hell if I was going to be the one to wake her up.
Also, the room next door has a bird and a yapping dog. Luckily it didn’t wake Katie up…but it woke me up about 10:30, and them continued to bark randomly until the owners SLAMMED back into their room around midnight.
Oh, we also got the last non-smoking room and it’s…not great. The bathroom smells, the bathroom counter is chipping, the toilet runs, and the sliding bathroom door (handicap accessible) is off the track so it can’t close. But we got a military discount!
Owen was in the pool when Tom got home, so Tom decided to surprise him—he dove right in while Owen’s back was turned! Owen LOVED it! Then I took Katie out to join them…
So, many moons ago (heh heh) I signed up at NASA for “Spot the Station” alerts (go here if you want to sign up) because it sounded cool:
Did you know you can see the International Space Station from your house? As the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, the space station is easy to see if you know where and when to look for it.
NASA’s Spot the Station service sends you an email or text message a few hours before the space station passes over your house. The space station looks like a fast-moving plane in the sky, though one with people living and working aboard it more than 200 miles above the ground.
Well, most of the alerts have been for my sleeping hours…and while I thought the idea was cool, it wasn’t cool enough to actually set an alarm to wake up for. Or the time was fine, but I forgot about it with bedtime rituals, etc. But tonight, the stars aligned (heh heh) and this was the alert that I reread in my email at about 9:25 tonight:
Time: Tue Jun 04 9:32 PM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 77 degrees, Appears: SW, Disappears: NE
So I told Tom we were going out to look for it. 🙂
Of course, neither of us grabbed our phone so we weren’t entirely sure which direction SW was, but we guessed. And waited. And watched. And marveled at just how much stuff is out there moving around at night. And then we saw it—from a completely different direction than we thought—but it was obviously it. The brightest thing in the sky, moving lickety-split. If you hadn’t known that’s what you were looking at, you really would have just thought it was a plane. It looked that close. But of course, it’s amazing to think it was 200 miles above our heads.
It was really cool, even though it really just looked like a plane.
But I did it. And now I can unsubscribe from the alerts. 🙂
For real! We’ve made them before at his request, but he didn’t want to actually eat it. But tonight?! HE DID! And he asked for a second one (though he didn’t finish it). Tom and I were just FLOORED. He also wanted to help roast the marshmallows…until he realized how hot it was by the fire and how long you had to hold it there. 🙂
As mentioned previously, Owen just LOVES Katie’s pool and wanted to play in it after dinner. I then had the bright idea to get out his old slide so he could slide into the pool. And he LOVED IT. 🙂
And then I told him to try sliding down on his belly…which, as you will see in the video, it took him a minute to figure out just how to do it. But after that, it was GAME ON!
And a few more butt slide shots!
And a comparison to just over three years ago…May 2010 and June 2013.
We finally got out the small pool I had bought for Katie about two months ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t look really closely at what I bought, and it’s not so much a pool as a splash pad—which requires a constantly-running hose to keep the side of the “pool” up and the sprinklers going. (I had just thought we wouldn’t use the hose for the sprinklers part…but if you don’t, the sides don’t fill up to hold the water.) So…we can’t use warm tap water in it so Katie gets chilled pretty quickly—even when it’s 85 degrees out. But, she still liked it. And, of course, Owen LOVES it. He was more enamored with it than his big pool!
Yep. I’m now that mom. Tonight’s bath was a dip in the pool. (Well, technically more than just a dip.) 🙂
Every time he says “Watch me mom! Watch me!” I think of all the hundreds of times I said the same thing about cartwheels (or thousands of times if you believe what my dad says).
Tom busted his ass all weekend to get the side benches done on the new deck! And they are AWESOME! (There’s still one tiny section to do on the top level deck, and then we’ll likely just put one bench across the far end of the lower level deck. At least that’s the current plan.)
Of course, Owen loves to run up and down them, lay on them, and play on them. He loves everything about the new deck. 🙂
We also had dinner outside tonight… Katie loves her whole strawberries.
And Owen got a little messy with his chocolate pudding dessert.
Being built, that is. (Now we just have to get everything back on it so it looks nice again!)
But first, we had to get different wood delivered because there was a slight misunderstanding on the size of the second deck so different pieces of wood would work better. They worked most of the day…and about 6:30 it was done!
We did move the table and chairs back to the lower level to test it out, but I can tell already I want it back where it was originally (if only to make meals outside easier so we don’t have to lift Katie’s high chair down and up again). And it’s a little too close to the bay of windows in case of a sudden windstorm that sends the umbrella and/or table flying.
Tom also still needs to build some seating around the upper edges but for the moment, it’s done! Owen loved running around on it, too…
And Katie. Wow. She LOVED being outside with the breeze in her face! (It was a really nice night—almost bordering on chilly—which was surprising after the humid day.) She sat outside in her high chair FOR AN HOUR perfectly content!
