A Three Hour Cruise

My husband took me out for a romantic dinner date last night.  A three hour dinner cruise in the San Diego harbor.  Awesome!!  It was rainy and windy, but that wasn't bothering me any - I was super excited to have a first class romantic date with my husband.  He's more of the "let's order a pizza and watch a dvd" kinda guy.  I'm very comfortable with that laid back home style kind of date, but a dinner cruise! Wow!

For days, I worried about what to wear. What does a frumpy mom wear on a cold rainy harbor cruise? I rummaged around in my closet and decided that my entire wardrobe looks like thrift store rejects. And why do I still have maternity dresses hanging in there? Only one solution: shopping!

My teenage daughter went with me to keep me in control and make sure my selections were appropriate and in style.  It's good to have someone along who is so honest and keeps me out of the frumpy stuff. She steered me to Ross.  Really? Ross? Fine, but then we are going to Macys.  I rarely go to Ross since the store is usually such a mess and the merchandise is dirty and has missing buttons and all, but we were pleasantly surprised with a nicely stocked store, very neat and tidy and the inventory all looked great.  I ended up buying 4 shirts and two dresses for myself.  Ginger and Mrs. Howell took plenty of luggage on their 3 hour cruise, now I can too!

It was way too cold to wear a dress, and I would either have to shave my legs or braid them.  I decided to wear dark jeans and one of my new tops, tossed on a sweater and I was all set.  Except I forgot to buy socks. How is it that I don't have any socks?  I have white socks, and nothing else. My feet are half the length of my husband's feet, but I was desperate so I raided his dark sock drawer.

My husband has two sock drawers. A white sock drawer and a dark sock drawer. Seriously, who needs that many socks?

I rifled through his dress socks looking for something black and shrunken but I couldn't find anything. I grabbed two of his thinner black socks and put them on, folding the extra length under. Hey, cushiony! Nice! The socks don't match, but maybe nobody will notice.  I was wearing my mary-jane style tennie shoes.  I know, romantic footwear, right?   Are mis-matched man socks with tennies frumpy?

We got the girls ready to go, loaded up the van with their pajamas, books, toys, a potty chair and blankets and set off for our romantic evening in San Diego!  Libby brought along her Justin Bieber doll. He wanted to have a fun date too.

Oh great, I just remembered that I forgot the potty in San Diego. 

We went straight to our daughter's house to drop off the girls for their "date".  Our oldest is all grown up now, 22 years old and living in a nice duplex; it's pretty convenient for us! Free babysitting!  My husband had never been to her place. As soon as we walked in, I thought for sure I'd lost him and our night was over.  Because.. like father, like daughter.  She has a "jam room".  The first room you see in her house is a big room full of guitars, drums, piano, tambourines, ukuleles, and who knows what all kind of noise making stuff is in there. My husband was like a little boy in a toy store. Luckily, I pried him away and we were on our way to the docks.

After hitting 20 red lights, Keith pulled into the best parking space! Free parking to boot!  He was pretty excited about that even though he has the best luck with parking everywhere he goes. Since it was raining and windy, an up close free parking spot was especially appreciated!

We met up with our friends right at the dock; nobody was sure if we were boarding the Lord Hornblower or the Inspiration Hornblower. The dinner cruise was aboard the larger boat, the Inspiration. My husband immediately started saying very loudly in a Saturday Night Live sort of way, "Lady and Lord Hornblower". Oh boy, we're in for a silly evening and I thought it was going to be all mushy romance. I should have known! We got our boarding passes and compared them to see if we were all sitting at the same table.  Nope.  Three couples and three different tables: 10, 74 and 112.  Not even within shouting distance of one another!  After we "walked the plank" and boarded the boat, we were given a glass of champagne and the host reassigned us to a table for six.

The ship was nice!  Like an elegant floating restaurant.  Both of our older girls attended prom in 2007on this same ship and they said it was very nice. They weren't kidding!

The cruise was supposed to set sail and float around the San Diego harbor at 7pm and dock again at 10pm.  Shortly after 7:00, the captain's voice came over the loudspeaker and announced that we would not be leaving the dock due to inclement weather.  We all decided they were wimps.  What's a little wind? It was only blowing at 30 mph!  One of the waiters told us it wasn't actually a problem for leaving the dock or cruising on the water, the problem was getting back into the dock. The wind would slam the boat up against the pier and everyone would spill their drinks.  So, we just bobbed while tied to the dock.  A dinner bob.

This is the view out of our tableside window.

The meal started off great!  Yummy rolls and a nice salad. We also ordered an appetizer of spinach and artichoke dip with crackers.  That was delicious! I had a glass of white zin which was also very delicious! The main entree looked nice, but it wasn't the best meal I've ever had.  The steak was tough and the portions were small.  I'm not complaining, but I do think that Chef Gordon Ramsey would have been cussing out the cooks on that dinner. Half of my dinner ended up stuck in my braces, good thing I brought along my travel toothbrush!  I flashed a broccoli grin at the hubby and went off to find the ladies' room..Braces and broccoli are not romantic friends. We were served a chocolate raspberry cheesecake and coffee for desert.

Dinner conversation was anything but romantic! We laughed our heads off mostly. The two couples we were with are also South Dakotans. One couple lives in Southern California like we do and the other couple was from Sioux Falls. They were on vacation, trying to escape the cold South Dakota weather for a weekend - so they came to sunny California and got nothing but rain.  These three boys grew up together and had a good time reminiscing about all sorts of things. They talked about pranks they pulled, driving their big sisters crazy, driving Ford Pintos, cussing in Catholic school, and all sorts of stories were told. The whole time they would interject with comments about how we should set sail.  It was really funny to listen to the boys talking about the old days, how any of them survived to become adults is beyond me.

After desert was served the DJ started to play and he announced that the dance floor was open.  When did we become the old people that sit way in the back drinking coffee and asking each other, "have you ever heard this song before? No? Me niether! Look at 'em all dancing. How do those girls stay up in those shoes? Good Lord that guy's shirt isn't tucked in. Who sings this one? I don't know, do you?"  And then we decided we weren't old, this DJ just didn't know what he was doing!  Yeah, that's it!

The time had come to cruise around the cruise boat. We wandered around to see if we could see more. We were seated on the lower level, so we went up to the second level which was pretty much the same, then up to the top deck which is open so that you can see the stars and all.  We bundled up and put on our heading into a blizzard wind faces and out we went. Holy Cow! It was super windy and freezing cold!  No wonder we didn't set sail! We looked over the railings and saw enough in the minute or two that we were out there.  Back in we went! 

The tourist couple purchased our boarding photo as we left and then we all made a mad dash for our perfectly parked mini-van. We gave our friends a ride to their car which was three blocks away. This was hilarious, as I have three car-seats buckled down tight in the van!  I got one undone and put in the trunk, but it was too cold for everyone to patiently wait for me to remove all of them and they all climbed in.  So, two of us ended up sitting in carseats. What weight limit? Keith drove with the four friends all navigating. Even with four of them telling him where to go, he turned a block too soon and had to make another loop around.  Here we were cruising around downtown San Diego in a mini van full of adults in car-seats!

We saw two people wrestling with inverted umbrellas.  Thought that only happened in comedy movies! I felt sorry for them, but we were all in such a giddy giggling mood that the comedy of it really shined!

We dropped our friends off at their car and went on our merry way to pick up the kids and head home. Turns out that they had a great date with their big sister. She had fun with them too. A great rainy evening out for everyone!

Putting Favors in the Bank

I'm trying to build up my savings account of favors. I'll need to draw on it in May.

My daughter is having her first baby in May and I want to be available to help her as much as she wants me to. Or more!  Her husband is deployed so he won't be there to wait on her every whim; I loved that part!  I've had four babies and I know how it is, mama tires pretty easily and doesn't get much sleep.  Mama needs food and a clean bathroom and the trash needs to get to the curb and the dishes pile up and someone needs to bring in the mail.  Hopefully I can do a lot for my daughter without getting on her nerves too much. We'll see.

I know that I won't be able to bring my little girls to the hospital, or if I can, they'll be bored to death and that's just trouble in the making.  I also know that a newborn does not need a couple of noisy little aunties showing off their latest "cool tricks", teaching the baby how to fly off the top of the couch, nor does a newborn need to listen to very loud toddler operettas.  Because I know so darn much, I'm going to try to plan ahead and get some friends to babysit my little girls so that I can bring my daughter some help, not some chaos.

Lately, I've been babysitting for my friends and offering to do whatever I can for anyone who will return the babysitting favors in May.  Hopefully I can bank enough babysitting time to be a good Grandma in a couple of months.

Toddler Update

When I was pregnant, I got involved in a pregnancy message board for Advanced Maternal Age women - which means old pregnant ladies.  In the pregnancy world, 35 is over the hill.  I "met" some wonderful other old ladies and we've continued our online friendships.  Some of the women have other children and some do not. We're all over the USA. And our babies are all over two years old now and one of the mamas wanted a toddler update from everyone.  Guess we've all been just chit chatting and not really doing full fledged updates in a while, so everyone wrote a long piece about how their babes are doing these days.  It's fun to compare, but at this age, they all vary so much that comparing is starting to become impossible. 

Two year olds come in so many sizes! They are all over the growth charts in height and weight.  Vocabulary is everywhere too. Fine and gross motor skills are developing and again, they're all very different.  So, the updates are really more of a curiosity satisfaction and fun than to compare. 

Here is my contribution to the toddler update thread - figured it would be a good blog post too since it's nice to update my bloggy friends too! 

ok: Toddler Update

Libby is 6 weeks shy of being 2.5 yrs old. I refuse to admit it before it's true. Time is flying so fast!  She is 33" tall and 25lbs, mostly wears 18 mths clothing although I've shrunk some 3T things that fit well enough.  It really depends on the outfit if she'll wear it, not so much the size. If it is a yellow dress, she'll wear it. Too big or too small does not matter!

Libby has the vocabulary of a 5 yr old. She speaks very clearly and blows us away all the time. She also is doing very well with letters and numbers, in fact she's ahead of her big sister. Who says old ladies can't grow smart babies? Ha!  Like you all, I don't send her to preschool - but mostly because she's not headed to kindergarten any time soon so I don't see the point.

I am sending Gracie to preschool because she will be going to K in the fall, and I felt like she needed the preschool boost.  Sending Libby to pre-K at age 4 will depend on if I'm working and need child care.  I do not anticipate working, but you never know. Stranger things have happened.

Libby is still breastfeeding.  Hey! She's a baby! Ok, maybe not anymore but she's still a booby-baby and no matter how many remarks I get about the negative affects of extended nursing, I'm still nursing her.  She's so skinny and she doesn't eat well, so I am ok with giving her the extra nutrition. It comforts her when the garage door scares the pieces out of her and it's just easy.  I stopped going to the breastfeeding support group because I started to feel very unwelcome, isn't it ironic!  I will quit this summer when my husband is home to help relieve me from listening to the screaming and crying that is inevitable. (he's a teacher)

Libby is daytime potty trained.  She's doing great peeing in her potty!  Although she prefers the pink potty chair, she's peeing in the green one and the red one if she has to. White, no way.  Not unless it's one of those public tiny flush toilets. She is only peeing, poop is a whole 'nother story.  She doesn't like to poop in her panties, but she's not doing that in the potty either.  Recently, she decided she just wouldn't poop at all.  After 5 days of retaining, I gave her a laxative and cleaned her out. We are going to start giving her poop presents - time to start bribing her.  By the way, Children's Place panties are the best!

Music: We don't listen to radio, just children's cds.  Seriously, I have to learn how to flip it to radio when I sneak out alone. Libby can sing most of the Disney songs, the alphabet and some nursey rhymes, and most of the Phineas and Ferb songs too.  Yes, she's very over-Disney'd. I'm sure she'll need to address that in therapy someday.

Emily - Good Luck and I hope today is your day!

Polly - I have 4 daughters, one grandson and one grandson on the way. 

Sandra - we must get together again! I will be in San Diego a lot from now till the end of May because my pregnant daughter is alone there. Her husband deployed.

To all of you in the snow - stay warm. Hope the groundhog was right!

Whoever mentioned being a frightened passenger of a permit holder - (I forgot who said that and if I scroll up to look I will distract myself with another post and forget and so it goes...) I know exactly how that feels!  Hang on for dear life with your knuckles turning white, scream, heart stopped, pray for your dear life, and push a hole through the floorboards with your imaginary passenger side break pedal! My advice:  Go ahead and let your teen get the permit, try your best to survive the driving practice, let your teen get the driver's license  - then never let her drive!  Really!  Do not put her on your insurance either, because it is so darn expensive. But, in the event of an emergency or a lottery win, the teen will be licensed and can be added to the insurance. You want the child to be licensed because after three years of having a license, the insurance rate drops significantly.  So, have the license and don't use it - this sets you up for the lower rate in three years and gives the kid some licensed time without any accidents or violations.  Sweet! Of course you will hear some whining and complaining from the licensed teen, grounding her for no reason, ruining her life, etc, eh - whatever, let it roll off. Teens are old enough to resist temptation, make's 'em stronger.  Tell her that teasing is good parenting.

Loved everyone's updates! Look  forward to more.

I'm finally ready for Christmas! Almost.

It's the end of January already? How did that happen?

I have my Christmas cards half done now and I just ordered a Christmas gift. Guess it could be a birthday gift. No, that was a few weeks ago for the little recipient... Valentine gift?

Have you ever made a photo book?  I thought it would be quick and easy, but it's really not like that.  The layouts are all premade, but then they gave me options to change them.  I did, over and over again.  The book only has 20 pages unless I pay for more but I figured if I added one or two more pages, I would decide to just add one or two more and so on.  I decided not to tempt myself and just stuck to the minimum number of pages. I didn't need to go broke making a photo book!

There really weren't enough spots on each page for the multitude of photos I have.  So many adorable pictures and only one, two or three photos per page.  On the last page of the book, I chose a layout that looks like a checkerboard of photos.  I can't wait to see it all printed and bound in my hands!

Luckily, I thought about myself when I ordered the photo book. It is just too cute to give away, so I ordered two!

The photo book is for a little girl who just turned two years old. I'm sure she will appreciate all the thought that went into the picking and choosing of the photos.  She is my toddler's best little baby buddy.  It was decided before they were born that they would be best little buddies and have lots of playtime together. And, that's exactly how it was. The girls really did bond and form a loving friendship even though they are so little. Libby's little friend moved away recently and though the girls don't know how far apart they are geographically, they do know that they miss playing together.  So I thought the photo book would be nice for both girls, pictures of them together.

I can't believe it took me two months to put the photo book together.  But, it did.  First I had to go through two years worth of photos on my computer and select all of the possible pictures that I might use.  After building a photo folder of copied pictures, I had to sort and select the ones I wanted. Still had way too many.  Then I needed to arrange them in the book.  Some were too big, some too small, a few off centered, some needed a bit of color correction... there was just a lot of tiny touches to be done on photoshop.  I arranged the photos, changed my mind and started over again a hundred times or more. I had 55 photo spaces to fill with two years worth of total cuteness.

My intention was to get this done in one sitting and order it as a Christmas gift.  Then I decided maybe it should be a birthday gift for a January birthday.  Now, it will be a Valentine. (I hope). I was able to include a few pictures that have never been seen yet!  I think the girls will enjoy those pictures the most.  I'm very excited to see the end result!

Now, to finish those Christmas cards and get them in the mail.  February is still included in "the Christmas season", isn't it?

Happy Coincidence, Again!

Once was weird, twice is bizarre!  Good thing this coincidence is such a good one!

Today the girls wanted to go to the park; they requested a sand filled park with swings.  Hmmm... ok, let's go to Cal Oaks, no? ok, Antelope Hills Park, whoops, I turned the wrong way.... ok, we'll go to Meadowlark... no, wait, that one has wood chip fill... hmmm.... well, since I'm headed this way we can go to the one on Whitewood Ave that we've never been to, ohhhhh no, there it is and it's wood chip filled with no swings.  Sigh.  Fine, we'll just go to Firefighter Park which I know has everything they love, but it's always so darn busy.  I pulled into the driveway and got the girls out. They were hopping and dancing around with excitement.

I was leading them in the direction of the toddler equipment (even though they prefer to play on the big-kid structure) and I heard my name.  I ignored it of course, because who would holler for me? And then Gracie ran ahead of me and hugged this adorable little girl like a long lost teddy bear.  I swung around to see who is still yelling my name and it was my friend Elizabeth!  Gracie was hugging the stuffing out of her daughter!

How exciting!

This is the one friend of mine who I do not have facebook or cell phone contact. We email on occasion, but not often enough. She babysat Gracie for me while I finished college, and she loves Gracie dearly.

One other day just a couple of weeks ago we met up the same way, only I was the one at the park first.  We spontaneously went to the same park (not this particular one) on the same day at the same time.  This just doesn't happen!

We decided we need to plan some playdates since we just love getting together.  Although, we don't really need to plan them since we obviously think alike, or we have divine playdate intervention. The three girls sure had a fun time playing together!

Not Napping Today! Guest Blog Post

Sometimes moms of two-year-olds just have to laugh!  My friend wrote this letter to her 2 yr old toddler and I am sharing it with you today. 

Dear Catherine,

It's very sad that you did not want to take a nap today - especially after suffering from the flu this week. I admit I was slightly entertained listening to the monitor until you somehow whacked your head. That happened right after the mysterious jackhammer sounds.

I ran, tripping on two dachshunds, to your rescue (as any loving mother would).  After many hugs, kisses, and a few books, I thought you'd sleep - either from a concussion or fatigue. No luck.

After the final bout of high-pitched screams, now 1 1/2 hours into your so-called nap, I was surprised with your choice of entertainment as I entered the room a second time.  By tossing every single blanket and stuffed animal from your bed, I'm guessing you were thinking that you would like to be the first female replacement for Brady on the Patriots.  Some of your throws were so far that I thought you were trying for your own version of a Hail Mary pass.  Impressive indeed. 

Your throwing skills aside, I'm most impressed with your ability to remove your clothes and DRY diaper so that you could pee standing up all over the side of your crib aiming every so slightly left and then right so that you could pee between the slats of your crib making the hot urine contaminate the stuffed animals and linens you threw to the floor.  HOT?  Yes.  I believe that is the exact word you used to describe the pee, making me realize I ran upstairs only moments too late for the pee party.

I'm sure our adventures would have continued had Baby T not started screaming from her own crib, bringing our fun in your bedroom to an end.

But WAIT!  Since I couldn't take the time to wipe the urine off of you in your room, I thought it best to take you to T's room to wipe you down.  I never realized that you had grown quite fond of me taking your temperature all week.  I was  further impressed with your ability to lube up the thermometer that was sitting next to T's changing pad and attempt to take your own temperature where the sun doesn't shine - just like mommy does. This time your aim wasn't the best.  I hope you did not cause any internal damage in the moments it took me to grab a screaming Theresa from her crib. 

I suppose we can try for another nap this afternoon.  On second thought, maybe we'll just skip it.

Yes, I carried a potty chair all around Disneyland.

Yup, I did! I toted a potty chair all around Disneyland and California Adventure last Wednesday.

It was Libby's 2 week anniversary of being diaper-free. Two weeks isn't very long! I've taken her for a few outings without diapers, but I've been nervous and haven't ventured too far away from home.  I've also been carting around a supply of clothing and kept a potty chair in the van.

The potty in the van is a red one, which matches our red gingham picnic blanket.  Libby dubbed it the "picnic potty".  So far, she's used it in the Walmart parking lot, church parking lot, at the park and in the driveway.  It's very handy!  Her favorite potty chair is the pink one though. Pink is just better for everything.

For a day at Disneyland, I packed up the pink potty, baby wipes, plenty of extra panties and leggins, an extra pair of shoes, some socks, and three or four plastic bags.  In addition to all of the new potty items I was bringing along, I also packed up the rest of our Disneyland baggage: sunscreen, snacks, ears, blanket, jackets, water, camera and purse items....  Toting the bag with the potty chair in it really seemed to add a lot to my load.  Plus the week's worth of clothing really filled up my diaper bag which I like to keep packed lightly. There comes a time during the day, twice actually, when I need to carry everything I brought with me, plus carry the stroller and herd the children. I now had two large tote bags stuffed full and a backpack, also jam packed, double stroller, kids.  I put the ears on my head to at least get something out of my hands; ok so that only helped a wee bit.

As I passed through the Disneyland security checkpoint, I laid all my bags on the table and unzipped everything.  I was using a Minnie Mouse reusable grocery tote bag for the potty chair, so it was wide open already.  The security lady peeked in all of my bags and when she saw the potty she kind of snickered to herself.  I heard her!

She said to me, "You didn't need to bring that, there is a child sized toilet in the baby center" and I said, "Yes, I know, but it's the only tiny toilet and if I'm in Toon Town or Critter Country, there's no way I can get back to Main Street to the tiny toilet in time. So, I thought I would just run her to the nearest ladies' room and set her potty on the floor for her, then I can clean it there and hopefully we can avoid an accident. She's only two."  Security lady smiled and said, "Good idea". And off I went.

I heard giggling as I walked away.  I'll bet we were the talk of the security checkpoint people when they met around the water cooler that day!

Throughout the day, we stopped in every rest room we passed by and I took out her pink pot and set it on the floor. And, every time she refused to use it. She told me, "No, not that one!  The Dizzyland one!" I held her and she went on the big giant handicapped toilets!  They are huge!  Well, compared to my itty bitty girl they really are big.  But, they are Disneyland fixtures, so who am I to argue?  I carted that pink potty around all day long and she didn't piddle in it once.

That's ok though, because she didn't have one single potty accident all day long!  That was the goal, after all.  Ah, the magic that is Disneyland!  Love it!

Gracie had a close call.  This girl has a bladder of steel.

She told me she wanted to be brave like her friend, Paige.  Paige can ride the Pirates of the Caribbean ride without being scared at all. She's just fine. She doesn't scream or hide or cry.  She doesn't have to hold hands or anything!  She's amazing!  And Gracie wants to be brave like Paige.  Gracie gets scared, but not too bad.  This time, she was determined to be free of fear.

I took the girls to the bathroom before we got on the ride and Libby went, but Gracie wouldn't go.  Nope. Don't need to.  Nope.  Don't have to go.  Nope.  I'm fine, Mom, I'm fine.   Well, all right then, off we went.

As soon as that girl saw the water, she started dancing around.  Ohhhhhh No!  We were next in line for a boat and she's hopping around and  holding herself.  "Mom!  I gotta go potty RIGHT NOW!"  Oh, child of mine.  We walked right onto the ride, there wasn't a line at all, and now you have to go?  Not two minutes ago in the rest room?  Can you hold it till the ride is over?  "Maybe I can".

My choices are  1.  Take her out of the que and find a restroom or 2. make her wait and hope she learns that she should go potty when she has the opportunity.   Hmmmm.  Choice number one is much safer.  Choice number two is very risky, but the ride isn't all that long and she does have a bladder of steel.  She's probably just nervous, plus the water is powerfully suggestive, I'll bet she has a gallon in her because she drank a couple of juices and she hasn't gone since we left the house.  What to do, what to do?  She's hopping furiously.  It's our turn to board!

I opted to make her hold it, er, hoped she would hold it. The boats are rows of bench seats and Gracie got in the middle.  Great.  She better hold it or we'll all be sitting in a puddle. She was really wiggling as we went down the waterfalls.  Oy.  Waterfalls and a full bladder in a frightened four year old.  This is not good!

Did you know the Pirate ride is 14.5 minutes long?  Plus getting in and out of the boat adds valuable time, very precious seconds.  She made it.  She didn't flood the boat!  She wasn't brave either, but that wasn't nearly as important as the potty emergency.  Once the ride ended, I grabbed that child by the hand and stuck the other one on my hip and we RAN to the nearest rest room I knew of - at the train station in New Orleans' Square.

I shoved her in the first stall and praised the girl for being so strong and not having a potty accident!  Thank you again, Disneyland Magic! Now, here I am in the rest room without the pink potty for Libby.  Oh well.  I put her on the big toilet and she was just fine.

What an unbelievable day!  No potty accidents from either child!  Most people think Disneyland magic is all about the rides or the characters or the decorations... it's also a very magical place to go potty!