I recently heard about this thing called "vacation" where you "relax" and have "time without kids." I don't know what that is, but if anyone has experienced it, I would like to learn more. Right now it seems about as likely as flying away on a unicorn.
As Dave continues his 24/7 work schedule (clients in London AND Hong Kong), my summer is mostly about nonstop kid planning, maintenance, and taxi driving. Fortunately for us (but not so much for our bank accounts) we have an A-list "village" of helpers.
As always, Lauren heads up the A-team. She is our all-star, never-fail, completely trusted Tuesday/Thursday babysitter. She was a Division 1 All-American soccer player who is never fatigued by two boys; she is totally happy to run alongside them when they ride bikes or scooters. The boys love to play with her dogs, go swimming at her house, and visit her grandparents who live on a horse ranch at the edge of a canyon. Here's how much she adores Zach: She saved her license plate registration sticker so that Zach could put it on himself, because she knew it would be the highlight of his week (it was). We are dreading the day next spring when she moves to Northern California and gets married, but we'll definitely have a super-cool person to visit.
Our trusted babysitter Rose is another one we are holding close while we can; she is a college undergrad who works for us in summers and on breaks. Rose is our go-to source for anything having to do with films or books; she's been known to talk to Luke for hours about Harry Potter and Hunger Games. Rose is also a cat lover who volunteered (!) to come over and stay with Kaya on the 4th of July while we were gone just to make sure she was OK with the fireworks. Again, a keeper.
Madison is our young up-and-comer; she finished high school on her own after moving here last year with her family. She has an amazing sense of humor, a delightful sense of mischief, and an unflappable cool about her that makes her seem older than her years. Needless to say, the boys adore her and ask for her often.
Kiara only babysat for us a handful of times but I'm mentioning her because I still consider her part of the team: She is a college student who was Zach's counselor at beach camp last year and she kept telling us how much she loved him, so we asked her to babysit several times last summer. This summer, when we first pulled up at beach camp, she was beside herself with excitement: "Zach!!!! I'm so happy you're back! I was just telling the other counselors that I was hoping we would see you this year!" So, yeah, whenever your kid generates that kind of enthusiasm in someone, you want them around.
Zach also has his own "team" this summer; his counselors who work with him on social, speech, and physical skills all day long from 8 am to 5pm. We have to have an adult at home the whole time that they are there, so it's not much of a break in it for us, but it relieves some of the pressure of having to come up with activities.
Pat, the lead counselor, is the guy that every kid wants to hang around with: He's athletic, funny, comes up with crazy games, and (we love this part) doesn't put up with bad behavior. He literally gets his feet wet with Zach every week at beach camp, at the waterslides and pools at day camp, and during water gun battles in our backyard.
Sharie is our M/F morning counselor who has Zach whipped into shape - He's dressed with teeth brushed and bed made before he leaves the house in the morning, and somehow he thinks she's hilarious.
Jac has the rough job of being the late afternoon counselor who arrives just as Zach has had his fill of work for the day. ("These babysitters are all RUINING my plans for the DAY!" he griped when she arrived last week at the end of a particularly long day.) Jac is focusing on social niceties and she has her fake sneeze down to a science (to make sure he "God Bless-es" her). Yesterday I overheard a priceless dialogue as Jac was trying explain to Zach and his little friend why it was important to excuse yourself after you pass gas...much to their amusement and complete obliviousness.
And last but not least, Luke has two coaches: Pete for baseball, and Grant for surfing. Yes, our kids need a surf coach. Considering how much one-on-one time Zach gets, it's only fair for Luke to have at least one guy to look up to. And both Pete, a late-20s character with a thick Brooklyn accent, and Grant, a recent high school grad who is headed off to college in the fall, are "good people."
Now the problem is that even with all of these team members, we still have to get the kids where they need to go. So that's why, in one 24-hour period yesterday, I put 120 miles on my car. That was driving to Zach's camp, driving to work, driving back to pick Zach up, driving home, and then driving to pick Luke up from film camp (which he loves, by the way - "Best. Camp. Ever.")
Will we ever have kid-free time? This morning I told them how much I would miss them when they are both in college. "Don't worry, Mom, I'm going to come and visit you a lot," Zach assured me. "And when I get out of college I'm going to live...on top of you."
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
50
Fifty years of anything is a hard thing to wrap your mind around, but 50 years of marriage? Talk about a rare combination of love, commitment, and luck.
What I had hoped to say, although I probably said so inelegantly at the party, is that I'm grateful to Dave's parents for setting a lifelong example of what it means to nurture a marriage day in and day out. Their example to us is that it's not about the grandiose gestures, it's about the little things.
And here I'll get even more inelegant and go off on a tangent to talk about gasoline. As a Jersey girl, I've never loved pumping my own gas. When I first met Dave, not only would he fill up my tank for me, but he would carefully and precisely clean off each window with the squeegee until my windshield was cleaner than I ever would have kept it. Earlier this week, the boys and I had to drive somewhere, but Dave rode in the car with us to the gas station around the corner so that he could fill up my tank for me before we drove away. "Boys," he told Luke and Zach, "When you're married, you'll need to remember that the secret is to do nice little things for each other, and then that makes you keep wanting to do more nice little things for each other." And sooner or later, you've made it through 50 years...
OK, back to the program:
One amazing thing about the party was that there were two people there (Suzi and Jerry) who had been at the wedding 50 years ago, and there were plenty of friends who have been in Bobbie and Dick's lives for 40 years or more. On the video screen they played a steady loop of old Super-8 movies and you'd hear a chorus of recognition through the crowd every time a familiar face appeared on the screen.
Is it possible for the kids to begin to wrap their minds around how lucky they are to be able to celebrate this milestone with family all around? In a word, no. They just know they're having fun. (Huge thanks to Jerry, a.k.a. Cuz, for all of the extra pictures!)
We had the good fortune this weekend of celebrating Dave's parent's 50th anniversary, and it was everything we had hoped it would be: a brilliant day of family and memories.
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| The whole gang |
What I had hoped to say, although I probably said so inelegantly at the party, is that I'm grateful to Dave's parents for setting a lifelong example of what it means to nurture a marriage day in and day out. Their example to us is that it's not about the grandiose gestures, it's about the little things.
And here I'll get even more inelegant and go off on a tangent to talk about gasoline. As a Jersey girl, I've never loved pumping my own gas. When I first met Dave, not only would he fill up my tank for me, but he would carefully and precisely clean off each window with the squeegee until my windshield was cleaner than I ever would have kept it. Earlier this week, the boys and I had to drive somewhere, but Dave rode in the car with us to the gas station around the corner so that he could fill up my tank for me before we drove away. "Boys," he told Luke and Zach, "When you're married, you'll need to remember that the secret is to do nice little things for each other, and then that makes you keep wanting to do more nice little things for each other." And sooner or later, you've made it through 50 years...
OK, back to the program:
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| Tony, Dave, and Suzi consulting on the toast |
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| The siblings reminisce and lead a toast to their parents |
One amazing thing about the party was that there were two people there (Suzi and Jerry) who had been at the wedding 50 years ago, and there were plenty of friends who have been in Bobbie and Dick's lives for 40 years or more. On the video screen they played a steady loop of old Super-8 movies and you'd hear a chorus of recognition through the crowd every time a familiar face appeared on the screen.
 |
| Someone in this picture is tired of posing for the camera |
Is it possible for the kids to begin to wrap their minds around how lucky they are to be able to celebrate this milestone with family all around? In a word, no. They just know they're having fun. (Huge thanks to Jerry, a.k.a. Cuz, for all of the extra pictures!)
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| Phone-tertainment |
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| Buncha bros |
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| Three ladies |
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| Golden glow (OK, Instagram filter) |
Friday, July 05, 2013
Day of the Did
School's out, summer's in...and if you followed my Instagram, you'd think all I do is hang out at hotels and go out to sumptuous dinners. That's only partly true. Yes, we did drive 200 miles round-trip to Bakersfield just for our annual molcajete fix. That, and to see Unk and Craig.
Dave and I starved ourselves all day so we'd be extra-hungry for Las Molcajetes, and when the massive steaming cauldrons of Mexican stew finally arrived at our table, they did not disappoint. Craig let us get about halfway through them before mentioning, "You know, people usually order those things to share..."
We did an overnight at the hotel in Bakersfield and the boys and I got our fill of swimming while Dave finalized a deal. This is sure to be the ongoing theme of the summer... the boys and I finding entertainment while Dave continues to work 24-7. The bad part: Less of Dave to enjoy. The good part: He is truly enjoying what he does, and he's good at it.
In yet another attempt to get the boys out of the house, I dragged them off to Watts Towers last weekend. One of our summer resolutions was to get out there because the boys had both studied them in art class this year. We thought we'd have the 11 am tour to ourselves, until a tour bus full of hipsters pulled up. My annoyance turned to disbelief, however, when I realized that it was in fact Mark Zuckerberg and 15 of his closest pals. I tried to play it cool, but I did some furtive whispering to Luke and I instructed him to take as many pictures as he felt like taking, and if he could possibly get that man in those pictures that would be cool too.
On Monday morning we packed up all of our coolest clothes (temperature-wise; I'm sure there were some fairly uncool clothes in the bunch) and jetted off to Las Vegas, or Lis Vigis as we call it in our house. Luke has this language that he started in which all vowels are replaced with a short "i". It sounds ridiculous to even write it down, but it's addicting and has become the standard pronunciation in our house. "Mom" is "Mim", Zach is "Zich", and Dad is "Did" - which is why Father's Day was known in our family as "Day of the Did."
So we rinted a cir and stayed at the "Vinitian," a.k.a. the Venetian (I am not kidding about this short-i thing) and braved the 115-degree heat for a week. "What did you do?!?" would be the incredulous question from most people I know. We swam in the lovely Roman-bath-style pools. We admired the lovely shops and artwork. We strolled through the "canals" and "St. Mark's Square."
...and finally on Tuesday we had a joyful reunion with Suzi and Bill and the Florida crew. Tuesday night was the best; we had great seats near the front of the Blue Man Group show and everyone - young and old - had a raucous and pants-splittingly good time. (Er, maybe I should only speak for myself on that.)
Wednesday the "bigs" (older cousins) played paintball while the "littles" got their jollies at the children's museum. I can't speak for the paintball crowd, but apparently it was quite a workout with those head-to-toe jumpsuits and the lack of air conditioning in the paintball warehouse.
Thursday we headed out to the middle of nowhere in the desert (yes! voluntarily!) to visit a little abandoned mining town-slash-ghost town, where we got a fun history lesson and a very refreshing mine tour. While it was still in the 110's outside, it was a cool 64 degrees inside the mine.
Oh, and that day also happened to be this little holiday known as the Fourth of July. It was quite an unusual day because it was the first day in at least seven months that we could think of that Dave was not working. Even if he wanted to, he couldn't have, because there was no phone service in the desert. But it was a very good thing. When we got back to Lis Vigis we celebrated with an afternoon comedy and magic show. The craziest trick: The guy ate his pet guinea pig... and then brought it out later. But I have no idea how he pretended to eat it.
Finally, we needed fireworks to close out the day. We caught this show from the Venetian balcony:
On the last day, (sob!) we met up with the cousins for our traditional last-day-of-Vegas brunch at Bellagio.
Then, stuffed like plump sausages, we headed over to the Stratosphere to see if the elevator there could possibly lift our over-stuffed selves up to the top of the tower (spoiler: it could). At the 108th floor (indoor observation tower) I was feeling a little woozy and Luke wasn't too much happier. But Dave and Zach, with their stomachs of iron, decided to head up one more level to the outdoor observation tower to snap a few pictures.
Long story short: Just after Dave and Zach came down, there was some lightning in the sky, which caused them first to close down the outdoor level, and then to close down the whole upper level as well. Fortunately we were already on our way back down at that point so we didn't get stuck in the whole enormous rush to get down from the tower. Lucky break? Let me tell you...
Zach is the coin-finder in our family. Everywhere he goes, he finds money. When we got to the airport this afternoon, he was extraordinarily proud of himself because he had found a total of 42 cents during the trip (which means he came out far ahead of me, after I lost money on the slots). He was bragging about this just as we passed the TSA team in the security line, and one of the agents overheard him and motioned for both boys to come over. "See these coins?" asked the agent. "People emptied these out of their pockets. But we can't keep the money. It'll go straight to Uncle Sam...unless you want it." Zach yelped with joy and gratefully accepted the additional 95 cents. Now that's what I call a jackpot. Or possibly a jickpit.
Dave and I starved ourselves all day so we'd be extra-hungry for Las Molcajetes, and when the massive steaming cauldrons of Mexican stew finally arrived at our table, they did not disappoint. Craig let us get about halfway through them before mentioning, "You know, people usually order those things to share..."
We did an overnight at the hotel in Bakersfield and the boys and I got our fill of swimming while Dave finalized a deal. This is sure to be the ongoing theme of the summer... the boys and I finding entertainment while Dave continues to work 24-7. The bad part: Less of Dave to enjoy. The good part: He is truly enjoying what he does, and he's good at it.
In yet another attempt to get the boys out of the house, I dragged them off to Watts Towers last weekend. One of our summer resolutions was to get out there because the boys had both studied them in art class this year. We thought we'd have the 11 am tour to ourselves, until a tour bus full of hipsters pulled up. My annoyance turned to disbelief, however, when I realized that it was in fact Mark Zuckerberg and 15 of his closest pals. I tried to play it cool, but I did some furtive whispering to Luke and I instructed him to take as many pictures as he felt like taking, and if he could possibly get that man in those pictures that would be cool too.
 |
| There's me on the left with the striped skirt, and there's Mark Zuckerberg on the right taking a picture. Hey, come to think of it, maybe I'm in some of his pictures. |
On Monday morning we packed up all of our coolest clothes (temperature-wise; I'm sure there were some fairly uncool clothes in the bunch) and jetted off to Las Vegas, or Lis Vigis as we call it in our house. Luke has this language that he started in which all vowels are replaced with a short "i". It sounds ridiculous to even write it down, but it's addicting and has become the standard pronunciation in our house. "Mom" is "Mim", Zach is "Zich", and Dad is "Did" - which is why Father's Day was known in our family as "Day of the Did."
So we rinted a cir and stayed at the "Vinitian," a.k.a. the Venetian (I am not kidding about this short-i thing) and braved the 115-degree heat for a week. "What did you do?!?" would be the incredulous question from most people I know. We swam in the lovely Roman-bath-style pools. We admired the lovely shops and artwork. We strolled through the "canals" and "St. Mark's Square."
...and finally on Tuesday we had a joyful reunion with Suzi and Bill and the Florida crew. Tuesday night was the best; we had great seats near the front of the Blue Man Group show and everyone - young and old - had a raucous and pants-splittingly good time. (Er, maybe I should only speak for myself on that.)
 | ||
| This is the wild and crazy finale where giant illuminated balls and streamers dropped down from the sky |
Wednesday the "bigs" (older cousins) played paintball while the "littles" got their jollies at the children's museum. I can't speak for the paintball crowd, but apparently it was quite a workout with those head-to-toe jumpsuits and the lack of air conditioning in the paintball warehouse.
 | ||
| Some of my Instagram photos; don't mind the stylized filters. I was trying to convey heat. |
Finally, we needed fireworks to close out the day. We caught this show from the Venetian balcony:
 |
| Danish at the Bellagio brunch |
Then, stuffed like plump sausages, we headed over to the Stratosphere to see if the elevator there could possibly lift our over-stuffed selves up to the top of the tower (spoiler: it could). At the 108th floor (indoor observation tower) I was feeling a little woozy and Luke wasn't too much happier. But Dave and Zach, with their stomachs of iron, decided to head up one more level to the outdoor observation tower to snap a few pictures.
Long story short: Just after Dave and Zach came down, there was some lightning in the sky, which caused them first to close down the outdoor level, and then to close down the whole upper level as well. Fortunately we were already on our way back down at that point so we didn't get stuck in the whole enormous rush to get down from the tower. Lucky break? Let me tell you...
Zach is the coin-finder in our family. Everywhere he goes, he finds money. When we got to the airport this afternoon, he was extraordinarily proud of himself because he had found a total of 42 cents during the trip (which means he came out far ahead of me, after I lost money on the slots). He was bragging about this just as we passed the TSA team in the security line, and one of the agents overheard him and motioned for both boys to come over. "See these coins?" asked the agent. "People emptied these out of their pockets. But we can't keep the money. It'll go straight to Uncle Sam...unless you want it." Zach yelped with joy and gratefully accepted the additional 95 cents. Now that's what I call a jackpot. Or possibly a jickpit.
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