Teach Me How to Mommy

Summer Is In The Air! During normal years we are prepping students for final exams and finishing up report cards, all while making a hand-written "Summer Bucket List" to accomplish with our own kids.  But this year I've been focused on preschool concerts, field days and end of the year parties.  Maternity leave has given me so much time with the baby, but also, luckily, time with Lucy and John. You know what maternity is not giving me though?  Money.  I haven't made any money since that measly six weeks of recovery time I received back in January.  So even though it's summer and I do have a list of things I want to do with the kids, we have to be sensible.  Over the past couple of weeks, Amy & I, and our kids, have been researching, checking out locations, picking our work besties brains, and documenting our ideas for summer.  You don't have to be on a budget like us to enjoy these things, but who doesn't love a bargain? 1.  Parks...

Can you find Colin?  I don't think we had enough "stuff. While Colleen and her family headed north to Maine, the Hayes' headed North to Cranberry Lake.  We weren't headed as far away (the GPS says it only takes 5 hours), it took a full 7 hours each way, we were still far enough to leave our "normal" life behind. Lots of extra hands, lots of beer, lots of food, and lots of late night family fun made for a long overdue weekend of amazing-ness.  This was our first family vacation since Colin was born (other than short RI weekends), we we tried to enjoy every moment of crisp, clean, Adirondack air. We packed our car LITERALLY to the brim an drove off into the sunset and when we came home, we were refreshed, and I was ready to tackle SUMMER! There is NO service in Wanakena, and while we did have a bit of WIFI in one house.... who needs it when you have lake views, and snacks!  I did make sure to send Colleen some pictures while we were there.... but...

Wednesday 8/3/16 You guys! I'm the worst. Twice a week, during the summer, I bring Colin to daycare. The "rules" tell me this is wrong....that I'm required to feel guilty about this.   I don't.  When I tell people he's going to daycare, I VERY quickly go into a canned response about how, "it's only for lunch and nap time," "I think it's good for him," "It'll "save his spot for the fall," "It keeps him on a schedule," blah blah blah..... but you know what .... while that's all true,  DO YOU REALLY want to KNOW WHAT... even if it wasn't true, I want to bring him. I need those few hours!  I look forward to them. You how I know this... because Colin hasn't been to day care in almost three weeks. They have been an amazing three weeks.  We had NO schedule, we watched too many hours of Winnie the Pooh and Minions together, we Snapchatted WAYY too much, had too many snacks, we skipped ba...

This picture doesn't represent his usual state, but for some reason I love it.  Lucy and I tried to trick him by getting him all sleepy in the car and then transferring him into his crib at Memere's.  15 minutes later he woke up and didn't know where he was.  Since I was in the pool it took a few minutes to get to him.  When I walked in the look on his eyes was of pure devastation.  It was as if I had given him up for adoption and his new family hated him.  He was sad and angry and it didn't let up for awhile.  It was sad, but kind of funny. I talk a lot about how different my two children are.  Often, I realize that it insinuates that Lucy is somehow easier than John.  She always slept better, she appears to need me less and (with the exception of a few brief phases) she listens and wants to be good.  I could say the same about John on many days, but he does seem to need and want me a bit more than Lucy - he always has.  He can b...

Today I had just enough time to watch a grocery cart swiftly crash into my car.  Technically I had more than enough time to stop it.  In fact, it was kind of walking parallel to me, but then picked up speed and SMASH. The reason I couldn't stop it (even though it was bright green and headed for my shiny black car) was because I was holding 5 bags of groceries and two little people's hands. I went to the local grocery market so that the kids could both get their little carts and make a quick stop fun.  Ok fine, quick stops don't happen anymore, but they did have fun. I didn't want them bringing the carts in the parking lot, because that would be a disaster (both managed to tip them over in the store a total of three times). So I thought I could grab it all.  I didn't anticipate Lucy wanting to hold my left hand.  It was a really big deal to have the left hand - you know that one I had carefully balanced all the groceries on so I was frazzled when we walked ...

Just this week we have had lot of visitors.  Some visitors were scheduled (Nana and Uncle Justin) and others were surprises - neighbors and friends. In general I am not the biggest fan of surprise visits.  I am a planner (teacher much?) and so when I am caught off guard I am not at my best.  I got worse when I had kids.  If a visitor came when they were napping I nearly had steam coming out of my ears.  Yet, having kids also forces you to become flexible, so I often sometimes go with the flow. The visitors this week have brought such joy to my home.  A visit by Uncle Justin made John into a temporary cuddle monster.  He doesn't readily go to other people that aren't, well, me.  Yet when Justin drove up in his BIG diesel truck he was a puddle of hugs.  Justin's visit is another story altogether - I'll share when I am ready to embarrass myself (which also may be NEVER) . Unfortunately, every time someone came over my house this week my ho...

We've seen some recent lists about summers in CT and we wanted to echo and add our two cents. .  These are things we want to do, but never have OR want to do again. Can't wait to do it again: Roger Williams Zoo   - I took the kids to the RW Zoo a few days before the end of summer.  It was literally the best day trip.  They have a water park for toddlers.  YES, a water park for toddlers.  It's a bad-ass splash pad.  We went there first, got cool and then walked the whole zoo.  It is spacious, clean and had lots of great animals.  It was the best day. Mini-Golf Farmington - We always take the kids mini-golfing and this is my favorite place.  If you go early it's dead and it's lovely.  The kids don't really golf every hole (or any hole) so it's nice to have space.  They have ice cream and the Farmington River.  Out of the way and worth it. Beach Days, RI  - Self-explanatory.  Days are better with Amy a...