Traveling with littles

I come from a family of travelers. I have more memories than I can count of airports, airplanes, and long car trips. I remember the games we used to play and the endless amount of snacks and entertainment that my mom seemed to magically pull out of her bag.
I actually love car trips. Especially before children when Aaron and I would be in a car for hours watching the scenery go by, listening to music, and passing the time with conversations of things big and small. Of course, now I am the mother who must have a magic bag of tricks to keep the kids happy.
I will admit that there was part of me that was dreading the long drive to and from Pennsylvania. I just had no idea how the boys would do being awake for most of the drive. They must have inherited some of the travel DNA though because they did great and we actually enjoyed most of the trip!
Of course, there are a few things that help: stopping every 2 hours for a 1/2 hour of play, plan meal stops to correspond with Chik-fil-A (clean, good food, and always an indoor playground), lots of books, a small box of never before seen toys, and above all an attitude of patience and flexibility!

Summer Days

Summer time is.....

Clothes hanging on the line:


Cupcakes for a baby shower:

Playing games at a family picnic:


Snuggling your brother at the end of a day full of hot, sweaty play:

And of course - watermelon and sprinklers on a Sunday afternoon:

A good break and other randomness

The boys are getting better at playing together for short periods of time. Yesterday they were both excused from dinner because they were not eating. A few minutes later Aaron and I heard them from their room - Jeremiah was sweetly explaining too and pointing out to Nathaniel the animals on their wall. "Look Nathaniel, this is a giraffe. He has a long neck. Look Nathaniel, this is a elephant. He has a trunk." So cute. Of course, this quiet moment of instruction quickly turned into a wrestling match (see below).
It is also nice to have an older brother who can read to his younger brother (see above). I try to have them sit for a few quiet moments in the morning (after enthusiastic play time) and let Jeremiah read. They are getting better about doing this for longer than just a few pages. Jeremiah is quite the expressive reader, he does inflection, expression, different voices and everything!

I will admit that the past few days have been a bit stressful. I have been irritable (gasp!) and impatient (surely you jest!). Aaron and I have been working hard trying to get the house in order and the kids were feeling our lack of invested attention and acting accordingly. So this morning when we had to go to Chattanooga anyway (to pick up a light fixture we were buying off of Craigslist) I decided to put aside our to-do list and make a fun outing of it. We played in the water fountains and wading river outside of the aquarium and had yummy pizza at Mr. T's. And of course we had to top it all off with ice cream. It was a nice break and helped me realize where my priorities need to be this summer. Sure, I want my house to look a certain way and there are things that need to get done, but not at the cost of my relationship with my husband and children.

Fun with others

One of the most fulfilling things for me as a parent is to watch the interaction between my children and the people who I love the most. Here are pictures from our vacation that capture some of those moments.

This picture of Nathaniel and my grandfather will be cherished.

Playing "This little piggy."

Nathaniel loved Uncle Daryl!

Ben & Jeremiah chill out and watch a movie after a busy day of picnic-ing and hiking (see below).

I know this picture is a bit fuzzy, but I love the look on Jeremiah's face.
He had such a great 2 weeks with his oma!

A classic grandfather in hot-tub with grand kids shot! :-)

Fresh!

This is what $8.00 got me last night at our local farmers market. Sugar snap peas that are sweeter than candy, crispy green beans with a cool flavor, sweet yellow squash, scrumptious zucchini, and a bag full of 8 varieties of dark leafy greens. All of our veggies for a week plus some good conversation and a nice walk on a summer evening. Can't get that at Wal-mart.
Perfect.

Home Again...

A fun and fast 2 weeks are behind us and we find ourselves back home trying to adjust to a normal routine. The boys proved once again to be excellent travelers and surpassed my expectations in every way. Our days were spent taking walks, playing in the hot tub, taking naps, eating simple and delicious meals, and enjoying visits from various family members. A perfect vacation with just the right mix of rest and activity. And just to keep things from getting boring we were even visited by a black bear cub who hung out on our front and back decks for a little while!
As I have time to download my pictures I will share more memories. However for now I think that these two (stolen from my dad) sum it up.

The adjustment back to "real life" is being made more challenging by a number of factors. First, coming back to a house that was left in the midst of unpacking is proving to be a tad stressful for me. I woke up Saturday morning fully prepared to deal with unpacking vacation things only to be met by the unorganized mess of our still unpacked regular things. I am trying to remember that making this house a home is a work in progress but I am now more than ready to hit the nearest stores for paint, lighting fixtures, bedding, window treatments and furniture.
Second, while having Aaron home all day during summer vacation is certainly a treat it is also an adjustment. We are going to have to learn how to structure our days, divvy up parenting duties, and communicate lovingly regarding our expectations.

This summer is going to pass quickly and we have many fun things to look forward to. But for right now I want to get my linen closets organized while the boys are still napping.....

This & That before we go

No, we are NOT potty training yet.
Jeremiah and Nathaniel found the training potty in a pile of stuff. Jeremiah decided it needed to be in the bathroom so that he could teach Nathaniel. I was standing in the hall laughing so hard as I listened to him boss Nathaniel around. This was the finished product. :-)
Nathaniel has been talking about "pee pee in the potty" because he watches Jeremiah do it. However, on the few occasions that I have actually gone through the process of removing the diaper and sitting him on the potty he looks at me like, "ok, now what?" I figure if the kid can't take off his own pants yet there is no way we are starting potty training.
Nathaniel seems to have a fertile imagination. He loves his play doctor kit (even before "the incident") and spends most of the day walking around with the stethoscope around his neck. He has also developed a love for hats that is directly inherited from his father. Aaron has a collection of hats of all sorts and when Nathaniel found it he promptly claimed this same hat that was Aaron's favorite as a teenager. :-)

Jeremiah has been working on some paintings to give as gifts for some people we are going to see soon! He literally spent about 4 hours on Monday morning painting.
I am in the midst of packing and organizing for our vacation. We leave tomorrow morning to meet my parents in Roanoke, Virginia (half way point) and then on Friday we take the rest of the trip to the house we are renting in the Pocono's. Aaron will join us in a week. I have not had the experience yet of driving that long with the boys by myself. So we shall see how tomorrow goes. Some friends are letting us borrow their Volvo station wagon (my dream car! hee hee) since the a/c in our car is broken. This is such a blessing since taking the Saturn would have meant some serious downsizing in the luggage department.
I am ready to be on the way! I have been jealously watching from afar as the family celebrated Will & Mariana's graduation from law school, had a special birthday surprise for Ramona, and had a house warming shower for Ben & Ramona. I am ready to be with them!
We do not have a laptop so I will be computer-less until we get back. I am actually looking forward to disconnecting for a while. But be sure I will have lots of pictures to share when we return!

House or Home?

The kitchen is situated smack dab in the middle of the house. It connects from the "turtle room" to the dining room and the office/master bedroom. It is very spacious and I have been having fun actually having enough cabinet space for all my appliances and dishes. It will eventually need some updating but it is clean and well cared for. The little cut out window lets me keep an eye on the boys while they are playing in the sunroom and gives me a gorgeous view of the back yard while I work.

The living room.

This room is long and narrow so we are going to have to experiment with furniture placement. The dining room is connected to this room. (But I didn't take a picture of it because right now it is just a room with a table and chairs...)

The "master bedroom."

Is connected to a small office area and doesn't have any walls right now. But I decided to claim it as the master bedroom because 1) it has a separate entry to the back deck and 2) it has a connected bathroom! We are going to buy wardrobes from IKEA (there is no closet) and hang a curtain to create a door. So far though I don't mind the open space, it lets so much light through and disciplines me to make my bed every morning. :-)

The guest bedroom.

I am so excited that we have a room that is only for guests! I can't wait to straighten it up and make it an inviting place for our visitors to stay. Jeremiah has already started calling this "oma & opa's room" but other guests are more than welcome. smile. Right now it is full of extra boxes and stuff to sort through that we can't hardly walk in there but we will get to that this summer. This room will also have an area for my stamping and sewing supplies. Yeah!

There is a small room off of the carport entry that we call the "turtle room" simply because the previous owner (Ms. Pat) kept her collection of turtles in here. Right now it is a great room for Jeremiah's easel as well as a mud room. All of our shoes, coats, bags, and strollers are stored nicely here and out of our regular living area. This will eventually evolve into the school room when the boys are old enough for "formal" homeschooling.

Connected to the "turtle room" is the sunroom. This room is large, sunny and connects to the back yard. Ms. Pat was so kind and left us the wicker furniture. This has become the play room. The boys have toys and books out here so that they can play and make a mess that I don't stress over.

There is that weird moment in the process of moving where the initial hectic flurry of getting everything simply into the house is over, the basic necessities of everyday life are put away ,and the work of transforming the place from a house into a home must begin. That is where we are stuck. I am leaving with the boys for vacation in Pennsylvania next week and we have decided to put off all painting and other projects until we return. So for the time being we are enjoying living in the new house but haven't really had the opportunity to put our stamp on it and make it truly our home.

So much to tell!

This is a HUGE post! Hang in there! :-)

We got everything moved over to the new house this past weekend! Aaron took Friday off of work and we had lots of help on Saturday so everything really went very smoothly. The house is of course in a subdued state of chaos with boxes everywhere and us not able to find simple things like the dust pan. But already we are loving the extra room and space to spread out. The boys room is the only room that is complete. With the fresh paint on the walls and room for all their toys it is a spacious yet cozy place for them to hang out.

In the process of looking through old boxes I found a stuffed Goofy that belonged to me as a child. Nathaniel was so excited. So now his friend is Goofy and Jeremiah has Bob.

We have been enjoying our yard and back deck area. The weather has been so cool that we have been able to have all our windows open and spend most of the day outside. This is not normal for our area. Usually by the end of April I am ready to turn on the AC and have to make myself wait until May. So, no complaints from us! It is such a blessing to have a back yard that is fenced in and so well maintained. I love to sit on the deck and sip coffee while I watch the boys run around and explore. Yesterday we had a picnic lunch in the gazebo and were enthralled by a bright red cardinal flitting around our bushes and bathing in the bird bath. Of course, there is also raking and weeding to do. :-)

Nathaniel after the stitches in his lip were done.

Monday morning started out great! I was getting a lot done and the boys were being so well behaved. The day was finally warming up so I decided that we should go outside and do some work on the deck and in the yard. Somehow in a split second Nathaniel managed to ride his truck down the steps of the deck and landed face first on the concrete patio resulting in 2 large splits in the middle of his bottom lip. I grabbed the boys and headed to the ER, trying to keep my cool. Stitches were definitely needed but Nathaniel was just not giving in to the sleeping medicine. So he had to be stitched up while he was awake with 2 nurses physically restraining him. There are no words to describe how I felt as I stood next to him while he was screaming and crying saying "mama! stop! no!" over and over again while the doctor was stitching him. I just stood next to his bed singing, crying and praying. As the doctor was leaving the room Nathaniel (who was happy to be sitting up again) calmly said in his sweet voice, "Bye doc-er. Tank U!" That sent me into fresh waves of tears. Really, I was a total baby.
Thankfully Nathaniel seems completely fine now. He has slept well and seems to be his normal happy and adventurous self. His lip still looks swollen and the stitches are still visible but he doesn't seem bothered by it in the slightest.

On Tuesday my grand parents stopped by to visit with us on their way through the area. It was a perfect spring day and we spent the afternoon sitting in the gazebo playing games and chatting. It was wonderful!

We are hoping to spend the next few days relaxing, unpacking and just spending time together. I leave next week with the boys to meet my parents in Virginia and then head all together to a cabin the Pocono'c for a few weeks. Aaron will join us when he is finished school for the year.