Vacation, all I ever wanted

The good weather continued our entire vacation--we couldn't have been luckier! 

Dan, Andrea and the girls left a day before us and that's when it hit us--vacation was going to end, just when we were getting into a comfortable routine of sand, sun, and swimming.  Oh, sigh, back to MN, work, school, and all the rest.  Cue tantrum.

Photos from the rest of our time below:

Dan was hoping to get on the blog, so here you go, buddy :)  Andrea and Callie were snuggling on this late afternoon on the beach.

I asked Boden his favorite part of vacation.  He said having friends to play on the beach and swim in the pool with.  I agree--good fun for everyone!

I saw Dolphins swimming nearby one day--Todd said they were there other days but my head must have been in the sand.  I captured a few pics but it was better live.

Here's our family beach photo--August looks the best, Todd and I are trying not to squint and ended up looking constipated instead :)

Last afternoon on the beach and both boys had their fun in the sand.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot:  gals beat the guys at wahoo marbles!  It was a close game, but we figured if the guys felt like it was a close game, then they wouldn't be such sore losers, right Andrea?  ;)

Big wave!

We're having a great vacation in Marco Island with friends!  

Boden and Addison are becoming fast friends and seem to be matched for energy--neither of them can be slowed down to eat or sleep.

Augie is finally at an age where he can really enjoy the beach--one of the cutest things ever is when Todd had him in the ocean and every time a wave would come at them and splash him, Todd would yell "big wave!"; Augie would recover from the splash and stick his hand up to wave around--giving a "big wave", of course!

Us parents are doing our best to wake up at 6 with the kids, get them to bed at the end of a non-stop day of pool, beach, pool, and more beach, and then go til midnight playing a (new to me) game called Wahoo Marbles.  Boys against girls and so far we're all tied up! 

This year, Todd, Boden, and our friends all went on an airboat tour of the Everglades for the first time.  They saw aligators and the kids even held one at the end--with its mouth Velcro-ed shut, thankfully!

The weather has been fantastic, kid disputes have been minimal, and I've gotten some good runs in, so life is good!  Some pics from the week are below with a little explanation:

We made our "annual" trip to the nature walk, mostly for the white and pink (i.e. Sunburned) MNs to get out of the blazing sun and to see if we could see aligators or nesting bald eagles.  Once again, the best view was in the ditch out front before we even got out of the parking lot--a mom and about 10 babies were swimming around our front.  And we didn't see anything noteworthy along our walk :(

The biggest beach hole ever:

Boden held a baby aligator after the airboat ride:

Boden was buried by Addison and Callie and his brother stepped in to put on the finishing touches.

Augie enjoyed some pool time and didn't want to get out!

A short friendly visit

On Sunday, friends of ours dropped in for a sleepover on their way from Detroit Lakes to Chicago.  We were happy to be the halfway point!  The kids played, the moms caught up, and the 2 yr old reminded both Todd and I that the challenges of parenting a toddler is far less stressful compared to parenting a preschooler...maybe we can do this again.

Tricks and Treats

Boden was super excited about Halloween this year!  He was determined to wear his Tigger costume from last year to school, even though I had bought an oh-so-adorable elephant costume for him that I tried to sell in by telling him it was "Horton" from Horton Hears a Who.  He wore the elephant several times prior to Halloween around the house, so I was feeling confident it would be the costume of choice on Halloween Day--but, he exercised his right to be contentious and refused to put it on Halloween night.  I swear, I would have squeezed myself into it, if I could, it's that cute!  In any case, not worth a (huge) fight, but we drew the line at wearing Tigger out to Trick or Treat with our friends.  The costume was so small that if Boden grew a millimeter of an inch while we were out (totally possible), he would burst out of it like the Incredible Hulk.  So, we ended up with the Candy Corn costume.  Yay.  

We went treating with our friends as we have done the past couple years, and it's becoming a nice tradition.  Our 8 year friend--Rapunzel--made an astute observation this year:  "Hmmm, the moms always dress up but the dads never do.  That's funny."  It is.  Party Poopers.

Pumpkin Carving is a real trick...I mean "treat"...with a 4 yr old!



CatWoman + Her Sweet Candy Corn



The Motley Crew

August Field Trips

This month, the cooler evenings made me panic and I began to feel summer slipping away, so we tried to leech everything out of the remaining bright and sunny days with a few field trips peppered throughout the month.  Boden is so much fun to hang out with right now and so interested in learning new things, that it's really great to be with him and enjoy his boyish silliness.  The one thing that does make me a little crazy, though, is the "are we there, yet?" question that starts shortly after we pull out of our driveway!!

MN Landscape Arboretum

 The Arboretum has an awesome exhibit in their child learning center area this year.  It's all about embracing outdoor play and using things like sticks, water, trees, pinecones and such to cultivate imaginary play and adventure.  We spent hours there the other day having a GREAT time.  Todd's hoping to create something like the pipe system in the above picture and put a similar structure in our yard so Boden can do lots of "work" with drains and water. 

Cheerios Dig at General Mills Company Picnic

 This is Boden's second year in the Cheerios dig--he was successful this year in retrieving a few Big G cereal logoed toys.  His friend Henry is right next to him in the red shirt.  Henry's mom and I had a good laugh listening to the boys and their silly conversaions--"Are you riding the bus? Yea.  Do you want to sit next to me?  Yea, that would be so cool.  That is cool.  Mom, he's going to sit next to me on the bus." and then lots of boyish giggling.  The company picnic also had a petting zoo, a bouncy castle, ice cream sandwiches, and a gymnastics course, but the best thing was riding the bus to and from the parking lot.

Boden and Henry enjoying some treats at the zoo

Boden taking on the dinosaur at the zoo

We went to the MN Zoo with Henry, his mom, and his little brother.  The two pre-schoolers kept us running and our main goal was to get to the dinorsaur exhibit before the wheels fell off the cart.  En route we saw the penguins, monkeys, bears, see otters, tigers, buffalo and such and then made our way through a prehistoric path littered with dinosaur scenes.  After the dinosaur walk, we went to the playground area, where Jill and I took turns keeping an eye on the wild pre-schoolers or standing in the shade with Jill's 4 month old son. 

We also went to the Uptown Art Fair earlier this month--one of my most favorite "things to do" in the Cities in the summer and, because Boden was so awesome, we also added in the Loring Park Art Fair which is the same day, where we had lunch from a food truck.  We considered making our way to the Powderhorn Art Fair, too, but didn't want to press our luck!  Next year, we may try for the Art Fair trifecta, but this year, I was content to have hit two and have such a great time meandering through the crowds (last year, Boden was hella crazy and kept jumping out of his stroller to run into artist tents--I was sure we'd be paying thousands in broken art pieces!).  Summer ain't over and we're considering heading to the State Fair--Lord help us!

Vacation re-cap

Vacation is over (boo!) and we're home.  All in all, Boden's first vacation was full of lots of firsts and it turns out he's an excellent traveler.  I asked him what the best part about vacation was, but couldn't get an answer...so that must mean it was all pretty great.  I hope down the road he remembers some of it!

This will be a picture heavy post--we did our best to document Boden's first big trip!  (I was going to say "out of state" but I guess he's been to North Dakota, so better correct myself.)  



Airport with mom and Ammi

  By the time we got to the airport and thru security for our 10:15 flight I was exhausted and thinking a nap sounded wonderful.  The three kids in tow did not agree--I don't think anyone slept on the flight.

Boden in the cockpit of the plane

Todd introduced Boden to the pilot and Boden asked him if he knew the way to Florida--luckily, he did.  And he let Boden check out the cockpit.


Digging holes at the "biggest ocean ever"!

  Boden loved the beach --it was like he found his purpose:  he was made to dig.  The house we rented had some beach toys and I had brought two of his trucks.  This meager supply was enough to keep him busy "at the jobsite" for hours.  I didn't think we'd get him in the ocean, but he eventually went in with Todd for a short dip to cool off...then went back to digging. 


At the jobsite with his co-worker



Dad + Bodie at the Beach

We saw tons of dolphins from the beach swimming not too far out --it was probably the same three or four but they were active and would breach regularly in between pelicans and jet skiers--beautiful.

In the ocean for the 1st time 



On the lookout for 'gators and eagles

 Every time we've been on Marco Island, we've make a trek to the Fakahatchee nature preserve in hopes of seeing nesting bald eagles and alligators (technically, I don't think the alligators are "nesting" but they were doing whatever it is alligators do).  We've never struck out, but this time was close.  We saw a mama 'gator and her 4+ babies right away at the entrance along with some big blue (?) crabs (no worries, they weren't swimming together, just in close proximity) and several cotton mouth snakes (ick).  We thought this was a good omen for spotting lots of alligators at the end of the boardwalk...but no luck--we just ended up with sweaty backs from the hot hike and a couple mosquito bites.

mama alligator with a couple of her youngins

Happy Browns + 1 at the end of the boardwalk

  We spent most of our days on the lanai of the place we were renting.  Boden became a little fish while we were there which gives us hope that his swimming skills will advance this summer with a little more practice. The house was on a causeway and we saw dolphins and manatees (and heard them at night) right from the lanai. 

Will not wake up--must nap

 On one of the days, I headed to the outlet mall with Kris and Petra for a little shopping and the dads and the little bitty ones hung out.  Without the car, they popped the kids in the burleys and biked them across town for a lunch outing.  After several days with no nap and LOTS of activity, Boden literally passed out for a few hours.  Todd could not wake him--of course, this led to a 10 o'clock bedtime later that evening...sigh, never timed right.

Nap in the burley

making fun out of whatever he could find

on the lanai with mom

everyone in the hot tub!

Pooped out on the plane home

The plane ride home was apparently less exciting or Boden just couldn't hang on any longer!  He fell asleep before take off and woke up about an hour before we landed.  We were all a little beat so it was good he got a chance to sleep.  

Halloween! Halloween!

Tigger and Cool Kitty

Mary and Laura Ingalls + Tigger

This year was Boden's first official year at trick-or-treating.  We went to the Zoo last year, but that was a little different than going door-to-door.  It turns out he's a natural.  He went as Tigger and stayed in character as he bounced and ran and yelled with exuberance to every house.  We went with more seasoned treaters so he could follow their lead, but he didn't seem to need an example to follow.  After each house, he would run to our friend Kris and yell "Kris! I'm going to go to another house and get more treats!" (in a really loud volume).  We went to maybe 10 houses and he ran the whole way.  At one memorable house, the guy who answered the door was managing his overweight dog who was stuffed in a bee costume and trying to hand out candy while talking to Kris.  Boden kept standing there after he got his treats. I encouraged him to say "thank you" and summoned him to join me back on the sidewalk--which he disregarded.  He looked at the guy and said "I want some more" and the guy said, "oh, sure" and tossed a couple more pieces of candy Boden didn't need into his bucket.  Boden looked down and back up and said "no, a LOT more!" :)

When we said he could only have one treat (on top of the several he'd had earlier that day), he looked at us like we were the craziest, most unreasonable people ever...and then he melted down.  But he hasn't asked for any candy since.  Short-lived excitement for it--whew.

Playdate at the Zoo

Getting two near-3 yr olds to look camera-ready = not easy.

First hunting season weekend so Todd and the dogs are off in Somewhere, MN, in search of some sort of bird. After a trying night of a really bad bedtime experience, I sacrificed my usual Saturday morning run with my buddy for a playdate at the Zoo in the brisk, Fall air.  Not an even swap but good to connect with another mama who is also widowed for four days while the men go hunt and gather things (or eat like crap and talk smart).

The boys didn't seem to mind the chill and the Caribou Mochas (decaf, soy, no whip please) kept the mommies warm enough.  I hadn't been to the Zoo on a weekend day for quite awhile (Boden and I take advantage of my Mondays off to avoid road/zoo traffic) and I have to say I was a wee bit annoyed by all the people...such a snob :)  But I suffered through the crowds and we got close enough to most of the animals we wanted to see--always a cool experience when the tigers and the bears walk right by the big windows in front of you and all that separates them from a delicious human snack is a sheet of (hopefully) very strong glass. 

Up all night...

Bottom line, the visit with the HGs turned out great--not a lot of sleep on my part (yawn), but, thankfully, not because of Boden. I rummaged around and dug deep (really deep) to find my inner night owl and stayed up both nights until after midnight--of course, I'm familiar with that time of night, however, I've usually had a couple hours of sleep first.

Despite his cold, Boden slept okay (yes, just okay). He gave a few shout outs before we all went to bed both nights, but my trained mommy ear interpreted his yells as "Hey, shut up, I'm trying to sleep in here!".

After HGs left on Sunday morning, Boden took a completely unexpected and unplanned for four hour nap...like he was so exhausted from being cute and getting oodles of attention all weekend.

My Bad Advice

As I was writing an e-mail to my friend, I thought, "This will make a lovely blog post" and then I patted myself on the back for my stellar multi-tasking. *grin*

E-mail to friend:
Subject: Bad advice
...mine, unfortunately. I feel like a bad momma because I told you I gave Boden raisins and that I thought it was okay. I told someone at work in a non-chalant way when she was asking about what Boden eats these days and when I mentioned raisins (among other foods) she was all "Already?! I think it’s a choking hazard?!" Complete with an overexagerated look of undisguised horror. And I was all "He hasn’t gagged on them once and I give him like 5 at a time, all separate so they aren’t one big dried fruit clump" (so take that!). Then she was all “ohhh” in a very disapproving, eyebrows raised kind of way. Grrr. So, I looked up the answer on the all-knowing Internet and the wise pediatricians at the AAP say dried fruit, including raisins, is not okay until age 3 “or older” depending on the ability of your child. Fine. I’m still going to give them to him once in a while if I chop them up, but seriously—3??! So, wanted you to know that I passed on bad advice…again :/

Halloween

This year, Halloween coincided with Daylight Savings time--I've been sweating about this for months (since we moved the clocks forward, in fact).  Boden has been going to bed around 7 and getting up at 5:30--not ideal, but okay.  But, I didn't know what kind of wrench this was going to throw into our sleep wheel.  I thought if we kept him up later, he'd sleep in...turns out he had plans to yell most of the night--or was it the howling of a little werewolf cub??

Before Boden turned into a pumpkin, we went to a friend's home for a fantastic dinner (most dinners I don't have to plan or make are great, but when they include popovers, it brings them to the next level of "fantastic") and some playtime.  I thought a group photo of the little ghouls would be cute so we spent 20 minutes or so trying to get them all in costume at the same time.  Dorothy and Toto were ready and patiently posed while the toddlers toddled around pulling their costumes off, poking each other and looking everywhere but the camera.  This is one of the best pics where you can actually see two of the three faces and they are all (kind of) in costume.

friends and lovers

Friends stayed with us this past weekend and Boden was quite enamored with their 11-month old daughter, Emma. I'm not sure if it was her Greek-Latvian heritage that made her irresistible or the fact that she was incredibly juicy looking with rolls on her arms and very pinchable little cheeks, but Boden wanted to give her non-stop love with a persistence that was driving me a little nuts.

I believe his intentions were good but his technique could definitely use some refinement. Boden is currently a fan of the open-mouthed kiss that was just wet when he had gums, but now that he has teeth, the potential is there for his kisses to be painful, as well. And, he was not deterred by Emma's wariness-- in a completely barbaric manner, he grabbed her hair, pulled on her clothes, pinched her cheeks, whatever it took to get her closer so he could plant a wet one on her. It was completely crazy...and I have a better understanding of how play dates can go awry.

Emma was incredibly gracious and tolerant (and so were her parents), but she did have Boden did cross her "Minnesota Nice" boundaries and she burst into tears and ran off a couple times. I guess teaching Boden to respect women will need to be fast-tracked; but I thought I had a little time on this one.

What comes around goes around

I caught up with a friend who had a three week old new babe. Her family had recently left town and her hubby was back at work so she was home getting to know her wee one.

The same friend who listened half-heartedly when I told her stories from the early weeks of child rearing was reciting my same tales back to me (the overwhelming exhaustion, what really happens when your milk comes in, night sweats, lack of schedule...etc.). As I was listening to her version, I was reminded of when I was in the trenches with Boden in those first few (and sometimes horrible) weeks. I remember cursing my friends (in the nicest way possible, of course) for not giving me tips about the littlest things and wondering why no one tells you how exhausting and all-consuming a newborn can be.

Then it occurred to me--no one really cares about the details unless they have gone through it. When you're caught in the minutiae of day-to-day living with a newborn, the only people who understand and can really listen are those who have already been there. It's like a "My kid's a toddler now and I lived to tell about it" support group. I'm sure my friends who had babies before I did shared their anecdotes and warnings with me, but, I was only half listening and full of judgment (roll eyes, pass judgment: "I mean really, how hard can it be?").

I found myself giving my friend the same "oh, yeah--I remember; you'll get through it, too!" pep talk that I got from others. It feels good to be on the other side and I have a little validation that other new parents struggle, too. Whew.

(Photos: Kitchen - nearly complete and mostly usable!; Boden and Sloan playing ball).

Eat, Pray, Love + a little sleep

Today was a great ending to a stressful week. To re-cap, Boden spent a lot of time eating (growth spurt?), I prayed for him and the Caustons (they were in Korea getting Ammi and bringing her home), Todd and I loved Boden more each day, and Todd and Boden got a lot of sleep (no, I didn't get to join in on that part). The details lead to a super long post (sorry)...

The whole pregnancy with Boden was fraught with worry and some denial about even being pregnant in an attempt to protect myself from being too crushed if/when he wasn't born alive--as it turned out, he's here and we're ecstatic...however, I catch myself still waiting in line for the other shoe to drop. At Boden's veterinarian--I mean, pediatrician--appointment this week, I thought "the shoe" was beginning to lose its toe hold.

The 2 wk check-up, of course, was routine and I expected the Pediatrician to examine Boden from head to toe, take his weight, and calm any new parent fears and obsessions we were having (I'm obsessed with whether or not the circumcision has healed properly and that Boden's peeper looks completely normal--I don't have one and I'd like somone who's seen lots of newborn peepers to tell me it's all good; Todd's obsessed with Boden's nasal passages and his flatulence--his adult-like, thunderous flatulence). So the appointment mostly went well. Boden's weight was 8 lbs 11 oz--up almost a pound from birth weight so no concerns that he's not eating well. He's basically at about the 50th percentile for his height, weight and head circumference--completely average and I'm down with that...not too big, not too small.

Then Dr. N moved on to palpating Boden's abdominal area and I'm sure he was pressing quite hard on top of Boden being full of gas--Boden squirmed quite a bit and made lots of painful faces. I don't like people pressing on my belly when I'm gassy, either. He spent what was appearing to me to be entirely too long on this little area of the exam and I was starting to get anxious. Finally, he said, I can feel his liver here, extending below his stomach--it's either too large, there's a mass on the liver, or what is probably the case, it's just decended a little lower and will creep back up as he gets older. Of course, Todd and I are convinced it's either one of the first two. To check things out, Boden got an X-ray that day at the office (no small feat to hold a sleepy newborn with his tiny arms up above his head and remain completley still--newborns are a bit like slippery watermelons, you never know which way they're going to go) and they drew blood from him (this was an awful experience as his veins collapsed in both arms and once again I was engaged in trying to hold my kid down while people did not-so-nice things to him. I was a reluctant partner in crime against my kid and the tears kept welling up in my eyes as I had visions of punching the two techs who reeked of cigarette smoke that kept looking for a good vein in Boden's arm so they could stab him again).

We were told right away that Boden's x-ray was fine--no masses (whew!). The next thing to rule out was whether or not the size of the liver was abnormal--that meant an ultrasound the following day at a different clinic. The appt was a at a fine time (i.e. not too early--while we are all up by 6 am, getting organized and pulling our poop in a group doesn't usually happen until a 9 or later), however Boden couldn't eat 3 hrs before the appt--hmmm, that's really easy to explain to someone who feeds on demand-- and I do mean "on demand"-- every 2 to 3 hours.

The people at the clinic were super great to deal with and got us in right away. Todd kept waited with a sleepy Boden in the car and I called him in after we were checked in. The radiology tech came to get us as Todd was visiting the restroom so I asked her to check back for him because he, of course, wanted to join us. When Todd returned to the waiting room she said, "Are you Boden's father?"...I wasn't there but Todd said his eyes welled up with tears--no one had ever called him a father before (well, I have said "say hi to daddy" and such, but this was an "outsider"). That was a sweet moment that I'm sure Todd will never forget.

During the appointment Boden managed to persevere through the hunger pangs-- I pretty much force fed him from 6-7 am and kept him awake for as long as possible in hopes that he would sleep through much of the appt...which he did, like a champ. The ultrasound lasted about 25 minutes and all of Boden's organs were scanned with Todd and I asking lots of questions. Near the end, Boden's nerves were wearing thin and he let us know that even if we weren't done with the procedure, he was--luckily, the tech finished up shortly thereafter and we promptly fed him...and then he fell asleep again.

Later that day, we got a call from Dr. N that the blood tests looked good and we'd hear from him again after he'd seen the report from the radiologist (that was Tuesday)--but, so far, he said, two out of three ain't bad, things are looking good. Today, we got confirmation that things are looking just fine--the ultrasound was all normal and no need to worry about this issue anymore. Yea!

Right after getting that call, we arrived at the airport and headed in to greet little Ammi Causton who was arriving with her parents from Korea. Seeing Ammi arrive with Jeff and Kris was so special--it felt a little like I was peeking in on a very private moment between Jeff, Kris, Ammi and Petra and I think all of us who were there felt completely honored to be a part of this very tender reunion and first meeting. Boden slept through the whole thing and was pretty much unaffected by the whole event--such is the life of the egocentric newborn :)