Wedding Vacation (Just found this saved draft - posting as is)

So we turned Mike and Jennifer's wedding into a vacation and stayed in Missouri for 10 days. My parents went with us which was such a help on the flights. We had two adults per child. So much less stress for me. Unfortunately, my parents sat with Liam, who just sleeps through the flight like I do. Greg and I got Brianna, who is very active, much like her father. But we made it safe and sound. We flew in on the Wednesday before the wedding and we're very busy with wedding type stuff until Sunday evening. I have so much to write about, but I am going to try to keep this brief as most people who read this blog were actually part of most of these events.

On Thursday evening we went over to Mike and Jennifer's for the final tux fitting for the boys and for Brianna's final flower girl dress fitting. It was really nice to see their house and have Jenn's mom cook dinner for us - yummy. Anyway, the dress was adorable as you can see. Oh and Liam and Grandma Boyd picked up Kolby from the airport. Liam was sooooooo excited to see his cousin. He totally looks up to Kolby and talks about him all the time. Liam ended up sleeping with Kolby that night back at the Grandparent's Boyd.

Since we didn't have anything scheduled until late afternoon for the wedding, I decided to give my mom and mom-in-law an early mother's day present of a manicure and pedicure. Janelle was able to join us too for the manicure portion. It was a lot of fun. But unfortunately lead to my downfall - literally. Since this was a last minute idea, my mom and I had to stop by good ol' Walmart and buy some flip flops to wear, so our toenails wouldn't get messed up. Here's the unfortunate part, the flip flops were very slippery. Later back at the house, as I was trying to help Brianna get down the stairs she wasn't use to, I slipped. In my effort to avoid causing Brianna to fall. I ended up landing very badly and not really breaking my fall at all. I started crying but had to suck it up quickly because Liam was very upset that I was upset and he started crying too. To make a long story short. My dear, sweet husband kept telling me I should go to urgent care or the emergency room. But we had no time for that. We had the rehearsal that night, then the wedding and reception on Saturday and finally the brunch on Sunday. I really didn't want to miss anything or any one.

Mommy’s Day of Wonderfulness

So my most wonderful friend and first wife, Amanda, talked me into joining her for a spa day at the Body Suite. You see, she was getting a weekend without her husband and daughter and she planned to take full advantage of it. She decided to do a full day of spa-wonderfulness. I was originally just going to join her for part of the day as she had invited other mommies to come along, but then I just bit the bullet and decided to do the whole day thing too. And the best part was we decided to take Friday off of work to do it. So not only were we totally pampered, but it was like playing hooky too.

The day started with me showing up at her house and we made breakfast together. Her husband and a friend were still at the house, so we all ate together. Then off we went to the Spa. We started out together in the dry sauna room. There’s nothing like getting to know a friend while you’re sweating, naked (except for a sarong), and in a little box of scorching heat. I was slightly (OK really) annoying at first because I couldn’t relax. I was running through my list of things I should be doing instead of sitting in here. It took me a good 20 minutes to start to relax. Amanda was very patient with me – although she might use that against me later.

After escaping the heat of hell, we had to go our separate ways. Amanda went off for her massage and body scrub. I went off for my first ever manicure and pedicure. I was so worried that I’d be laughing the whole time my feet were being touched, but it was actually very relaxing. The spa is right on the bike path over looking the ocean down by Cannery Row. So as I was being made beautiful, I got to watch all the interesting people go by. After our first sessions, we met up again for lunch. There is a cute little café located in the same building as the spa and we got to pick out what we wanted and they brought it over. The food was great and we both were well on our way to blissdom.

Next, I went for my massage and body scrub and Amanda got a facial. The massage was wonderful. I’ve had a sea salt back scrub with a massage before, but this time I was getting a full body sugar scrub - which by the way tastes pretty good when you accidentally get some in your mouth in the shower (more on this later). Anyway, this was a total body scrub and at one point I felt a little weird. So I’ve flipped over onto my back and am face up. I’m totally relaxed and may have even snored a little – who’s to know for sure. Then, all of a sudden, whoosh a hand towel is now covering my, uhm let’s say chest and the sheet is pulled down to my waist. Then boom my belly is starting to be scrubbed/massaged with sugar. Now as most of you know, I’m carrying a lot of my weight that I still haven’t lost (someday, someday) right in my belly and it’s a jolly, jelly, Santa type belly. Needless to say, I came back to reality quickly and abruptly, but was able to get back to my blissed out relaxed state once the initial shock of a stranger intimately touching my belly wore off. And as I was getting my hands massaged for the second time that day, I thought to myself – “I should massage Greg’s hands when I get home tonight, so he can experience just a little of the joy I’ve had today.” And I did indeed give Greg’s hands a massage when I got home later that night.

Now, I’ve got to go take a shower and get all the sugar off of me before I can go for my facial. It’s not as easy to get sugar off your body as you might think. I really had to rub it off to make sure it was all gone. I was doubled over in the shower rubbing my calves and the water was dripping down my head (while the blood rushed to it) when I shot upright – got a little dizzy and got some sugary water in my mouth. It’s not easy to steady yourself when you’re completely relaxed, but I didn’t fall over or injury myself.

I had a little time between the shower and my facial, so Amanda and I got to chat again while she was having her mani & pedi. She was sort of making fun of me for the huge grin I had on my face. I don’t think it was that big, but whatever. So we were trying to decide where to go for dinner when we were done. Then Victoria is ready for me and off I go to my facial - again another wonderful, blissful, relaxing experience. When it was all over, I felt like I was walking on air. I didn’t even think about the kids and didn’t feel guilty about that fact either.

Amanda’s officemate and friend, Renee, joined us for the end of the day. The two of them where waiting for me in the lobby. The first thing out of Renee’s mouth was, “I see what you mean about the grin.” So maybe Amanda was right. I was grinning from ear to ear, but I couldn’t feel it. I couldn’t feel anything but wonderfulness and bliss. And I got to this state without the aid of chocolate. : )

So we decided to go out for dinner, but Renee could only stay for a drink and had to get home. The dinner wasn’t part of the original plan, so I had to call Greg and make sure he was okay with the kids. We had a great meal and great conversation. I ended up getting home around 9:00 pm and again didn’t feel the least bit guilty about my day of pure self indulgence. I’m feeling completely renewed and reenergized. Now I get what they say about the fact that Mommies have to take care of themselves first, so that they have something to give to their families. It’s like the oxygen masks on the plane – place your mask on first before helping those around you.

I’ve decided that we have to get together once a month and have a Mommy Day – no kids, no husbands, no guilt – maybe not a full day at a spa, but at least dinner or a movie or a bike ride or whatever we discover recharges our mommy batteries. I think it’s made me a better mom and wife this week.

Sibling Conversations

This morning on the car ride to school the following exchange happened out of the blue.

Liam: “I love you Beeeeannaaaa.”
Brianna: “Luv Eam”
Liam: “You want kiss?”
Brianna: “Kiss Eam”
Liam then grabs Brianna’s hand and kisses it. Brianna then makes a kissing sound. I assume she blew him a kiss. I can’t really see her when I’m driving.

Then they both start laughing.

Brianna: “GRRRRR”
Liam: “Ahhh, a monster mommy! There’s a monster!”
Brianna starts laughing again

Brianna: “My car! My car, Eam!”
Liam: “No, Beeanna. Mine”
Brianna then throws something at Liam as she yells at him, “MINNNNNEEEEEEE.” Liam then hits Brianna’s arm.

Such great love and such great turmoil during our commute.

Parent Teacher Conference

I just got back from my first parent teacher conference. It didn’t last too long and went relatively well. The reason Mrs. Hord wanted to meet with me (Greg is in DC right now) is because Liam isn’t picking up on his letters very well. He started the year only knowing L. In the month he’s been going to school he’s only added – A, X, x, o, i, a
So he still doesn’t recognize all the letters in his name, although sometimes he can spell it.

She’s so concerned that she’s requested that the speech specialist evaluate him. I also met her today and Liam will be evaluated tomorrow. So Mrs. Hord gave me some ideas to help work on his letter recognition. Now I’m going to go out and buy Leap Frog’s Letter Factory and implement some other suggestions.

She also told me that he’s a little slower in the morning to finish his worksheets and much faster in the afternoon. Guess what they do in the morning? - English. The afternoon is math. He loves the math stuff, which is just sorting and patterns so far. He’s always asking to make patterns or let’s sort this stuff. So maybe he’ll just be a math wiz.

I asked how he was doing with share day, since he has to get up in front of the class and speak. I was worried about his shyness. But she said he does great – that socially he’s doing very well. He does well with rhyming. Basically he’s doing great in all areas but letter recognition, which is why she thought there maybe some other reason that he’s not getting his letters and why he’s seeing the speech specialist tomorrow. I’ll let you know if anything comes of that.

So if you spend any time with Liam be sure to play letter recognition games with him and make it a lot of fun, please.

Dream House?!

So my mom had this great idea that when my dad retired and/or she retired they would build a play house for the kids. Well, that day has finally arrived. Home Depot delivered a huge amount of wood this weekend. My dad did the “ground breaking” last weekend and this past weekend he laid the foundation.

Now when my mom and I first started talking about this, it was going to be a simple little wood house with a door and window. Then she added flower boxes under the windows. Oh and a porch, so the kids can sit on the porch in rockers or a porch swing or something. Now I’m use to my mom building on her ideas and thinking it won’t take anytime because – Hey they do entire room makeovers in an hour on TV. Yes, this is how she thinks – and to be honest I kind of think along the same lines only not as bad.

Well, I found out this weekend what my dad actually plans on building. First he removed the grass from the area in the yard the playhouse will be built upon. OK. Then he spent hours and I mean hours getting it leveled and sinking the concrete corner blocks to tie the foundation to. Maybe a little extreme, but it gets better. Not only is he putting drywall on the walls, but he plans to insulate the thing too. He has some leftover Corian counter that he’s planning on using. He’s putting siding on the outside and shingling the roof. When mom and I teased him that the kids are going to out grow it in three years, he said no they're not. Which explains why he had asked me last week how tall Greg is – he’s building it big enough that we can stand inside?!

Yes, my parents are crazy and yes my kids are totally spoiled by them. I think this is why I’m such a manners nut. At least if my kids are going to be spoiled rotten they will know to say please, thank you, and you’re the bestest grandparents in the world.

Oh tomorrow’s the big day – My first parent teacher conference with Liam’s teacher. I’ll let you know how it goes. Unfortunately, Greg’s in DC this week so he’ll miss it.

Boyd Family Camping

So we survived our camping trip. On the way home on Sunday I called my mom. My exact words were, “Mom thanks so much for making camping so much fun when I was a kid and I’m sorry I didn’t help more.”

My childhood camping memories are filled with fun times and great food. Little did I realize then that my parents camped on our vacations through Europe because they didn’t have a lot of money. This was when my dad was still enlisted and my mom didn’t work. And I had no idea about how much work it is for the mom. That is until now.

Ashley and I are big into planning everything – Ashley a little more so than I am. We basically were driving Amanda crazy the week before we went camping. She finally told us to just give her a list of what she was supposed to bring. Ashley and I went shopping for all the food the weekend before and even made spaghetti sauce (with the help of my mom) and froze it.

We originally were going to go down to Big Sur on Thursday afternoon and come home on Sunday. That was before I realized that Liam started school so early. So the Bridges’ and De Noyer’s went down Friday afternoon. We followed after Liam got out of school at 2:30. Oh, and we took my dad’s pick-up to have more room and still couldn’t fit two boxes of stuff, which Amanda was nice enough to carry down for us. I think all the moms were glad we cut it short by one night.

After trying to figure out the best configuration of tents and cars to keep the toddlers from escaping easily, we finally set down to preparing dinner. The first night was pretty simple – hotdogs, chili, and sun chips. The kids loved cooking the hotdogs over the fire. Liam cooked Brianna’s, since he doesn’t eat them. I made him a grilled cheese sandwich. So after about an hour of cooking and eating it was time to clean up. We were trying to be environmental kind and didn’t use paper plates or disposable silverware - which means that we had to clean dishes a lot. The first night that took forever because we were trying to heat water on the camp stove to do the dishes. We FINALLY got smart and put the pot of water on the fire and it heated up so much faster. We actually learned quite a few lessons.

The kids loved having s’mores that night and the next. We actually had to buy more s’more fixin’s at the little store because we were all eating so many of them. But let’s be honest – isn’t that the best part of camping. S’mores just don’t taste the same at any other time.

The first night was horrible. Poor Noah got sick and was up all night crying and miserable. Joaquin finally packed him up and took him home around midnight. So Greg was the only man in camp. He was great though. Not one complaint out of him. Amanda was smart and brought her pack and play for Des. We didn’t think about it. Brianna got to have her first out of crib sleeping experience on an air mattress covered with sleeping bags. Basically Liam and I slept on one air mattress and Greg and Brianna slept on the other one that was right next to it. Greg discovered that Brianna moves around in her sleep just as much as her brother. And of course the kids didn’t go to sleep easily. Liam didn’t like all the noise and Brianna didn’t know what to do with all the space she had. We tagged teamed laying down with them and actually ended up going to bed pretty early.

So it seemed to take forever to have meals and clean up. The next morning we had pancakes. That was an experience. After what seemed like an hour we had fed the kids, because I could only make three pancakes at a time and the side closest to the middle of the pan would sort of burn while the outside didn’t really cook all the way. So it took some getting use to. Amanda got smart and started another pot to cook them in and took over cooking so I could eat. We finally told Greg and everyone else, if they wanted more pancakes they had to make their own.

We did have a lot of fun on Saturday. Greg stayed at camp, while the moms and kids headed over to a neighboring camp ground that had a playground area that the dads had discovered the day before. The kids had a great time and the little girls held their own with all the bigger kids on the playground. Then we went back to camp had a lunch of sandwiches (yeah no cooking – except Liam’s grilled cheese) and chips. After lunch everyone changed into swimwear and went down to the river to have water play. I stayed back at camp which overlooked the river, so I got some good pictures of everyone having a good time. Brianna didn’t want anything to do with the water, which was very cold. Liam loved playing with the water guns but didn’t really like getting in the river either. Des and Kylie had a great time in the water.

We had the spaghetti sauce and pasta with garlic bread for dinner that night. It was perfect because it was filling and there’s something about being outside all day that really works up an appetite. Again cleaning all the dishes was a pain. The one good thing about all the fun the kids had that day was that they were exhausted – the little girls didn’t nap either. So all the kids went to bed pretty easily that night. We adults got to stay up and talk and have more S’mores. That was the best night but we were all pretty exhausted too. In fact at dinner that night, Amanda and I were discussing how much more fun camping was before we had kids.

Oh and Amanda came prepared. She had little jingle bell bracelets that we put around the little girls ankles just in case they strayed too far. Kylie and Liam got whistles with the rule that they were only to be used in case of emergency. Amanda also brought glow sticks for the big kids for both nights. Liam slept with his each night tightly grasped in both hands.

Sunday morning our kids were up first. Greg and I weren’t quite ready to get out of bed, so Liam and Brianna put on a song and dance show for us on the “stage” - the area of the tent at the foot of the ‘beds’ and in front of the changing room area. They were too funny and I think all our laughter woke up Kylie. It was about 6:45 when we got out of the tent and fed the kids breakfast.

Then we started packing up, which seemed to take longer than set up – mostly because we were all doing it at the same time and having to watch the kids, which wasn’t exactly easy. But we didn’t lose any of them. After Greg got the tent packed up, I discovered a cool looking bug on our tarp, so I called the kids over to take a look. It was the first bug we actually encountered, which is weird because I thought we’d be surrounded by them.

And just for the record, everyone gave me a bad time about bringing so much stuff, but we used everything except the space heater. And when we packed up, it all fit in the truck because a lot of the stuff was food that we ate up during the weekend.

My favorite part was when Greg was talking to Liam and saying (not a direct quote), “You had a lot of fun didn’t you? Mommy put a lot of work into this trip, so you should give her a big hug and kiss and a big thank you.” Liam then proceeded to give me the biggest thank you I’ve ever received and a huge hug and kiss. It made all the work worth it in that split second. The aching back was forgotten, the nasty dishes forgotten, the cold, uncomfortable, sleepless night forgotten and I basked in the glow of my childhood memories that I had just recreated in my son. And isn’t that why we enter into this crazy thing called parenthood. For all the pain, worry, stress, etc. those fleeting moments of pure joy that your child gets to experience make it all worthwhile.

Greg was all ready to make this a family tradition. I’m all for that as long as we don’t have to do it again for at least a year. I need time to recover.

There is one little tip I’d like to leave you with – Don’t take toddlers camping. Take babies that can’t yet move on their own or kids that are old enough to come back when you call them. If you must bring a toddler, I’d suggest tying them up to a rope between two trees. This may sound cruel, but trust me it will save your sanity. : )

P.S. When I picked up Liam from Porter Youth Center on Monday, his teacher told me he couldn’t stop talking about his camping trip and how much fun he had.

Camping and Singing

First, we are taking the kids on their first camping trip this weekend. Yes, I’m a bit scared. Some people have told me I’ve over packed (Greg!). And while I don’t like the boy scouts policy on gays, I do believe in the motto of “Always be prepared”. “Better safe than sorry” “A penny saved is a penny earned” Oh wait, I digress.

So, we are camping with the Bridges (Joaquin, Ashley, Kylie, and baby Noah) and some of the De Noyers (Amanda and Des). Liam and Kylie will entertain each other and Des and Brianna are starting to get use to playing together (ok side by side still with a little interaction every now and then). So the adult to child ratio is still one to one, but we can tag team and I think that will make it somewhat relaxing. This is really going to be the test of whether we keep all our camping equipment when we redo the garage or whether we decide that we can’t hack it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Brianna LOVES to sing. Liam liked to sing. But Brianna really LOVES it. She’s always singing in the car, when I change her diaper, in her crib -- Basically anywhere. And you better clap for her when she’s completed the song – even if it’s hard to tell when that is – although lately she lets you know by clapping herself. She doesn’t have a big repertoire, but that doesn’t seem to bother her. Here are some sample lyrics.

Up bove whirl so hi
Ike dimnd sky
Winkle, winkle ittle star
Wonder wwwaa are
(that’s Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

MeDonald hav farm
Eieio
Moo moo here
Moo moo here
Eieio
Donald farm
Eieio
(that’s Old McDonald Had a Farm)

Ring rosy
All fallllllll downnnnn
(Ring Around the Rosie)

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE
(Brianna’s impression of an opera singer – she actually stretches out her arms to either side and screeches at a decibel that I think is going to break our windows one day. She typically only does this when Liam or I are not paying enough attention to her.)