Tips for Traveling

When you have toddlers and plan to travel, you need to get some serious advice and a plan of action before heading out.  Here is my advice to you...

DON'T.  They won't remember.  You will.  They will cry.  You will want to.  They will not have fun.  Neither will you.  They won't make any new friends.  You will make 253 new enemies by the end of your flight.

So before you spend tons of money on tickets, tons of energy on getting kids to sit and be quiet, tons of brain cells on the heavy drinking that is surely to follow, just go to the store, get a plastic kiddy pool and a ocean waves CD.  They will think they are at the beach!  Or get a stuffed Mickey Mouse toy and ride a city bus around, then take pictures in front of different things.  There, instant Disney World! 

You will have more fun and they kids seriously won't know the difference.  It will also make for hilarious scrapbooking!

Disturbing Trend

So I recently had to go shopping for some new shirts.  After I had each kid my body was different.  After I finally finished nursing my body was even more different.  Basically, I have had to shop A LOT in the past few years.  After loosing the last few pounds of baby weight (shut up, I am perfectly aware the Vivian is almost 2) I found myself in the closet crying on Sunday morning because I had nothing to wear.  Dexter didn't believe me, so I tried on everything he suggested.  Every outfit hung in places it shouldn't and clung in places that wasn't so flattering.  So it wasn't a typical woman in the closet meltdown.  It was real...sincere...annoying (especially for Dexter).

So off to the store I went.  I shop in an odd way.  I pick up everything I could possibly want and then as I head to the checkout I replace things on the rack as feelings of guilt from spending too much money overwhelm me.  Then once I check out with 2 shirts instead of twenty I go home and leave them in the bag in case I need to return one more to sooth my still guilty conscious.  Its a vicious cycle.

I did end up finding some shirts that I liked.  Cute tops that I could throw a cardigan over to make them work appropriate.  I was wearing one last night though and noticed how if I leaned over the slightest bit I was virtually giving a peep show.  I got home and tried on another and moved around to simulate the normal movements I repeat all day (bending over picking up toys or mid-tantrum kids off the floor).  The same result...too low cut.  And I know its not me - my boobs didn't miraculously go back to their pre-motherhood position.  This is a disturbing trend.  I either have to wear the clothes that are too tight but not low cut or the correct fitting yet low cut variety.  Its not really a win-win situation. 

I guess I could take up sewing since I am a Little Miss Susie Homemaker and just mend them in my spare time!

Call the Movers, We're Going on Vacation

Its summertime, well not yet, but close enough.  I am sadly counting down the last days of school.  But I have some stuff planned to keep me and the kids busy - because busy kids aren't bad kids and busy moms yell less!  As I plan the weekends away and more extensive vacations I am a little daunted by the thought of all the packing.  When you have two kids it literally seems as though we are packing up the house.

This past weekend I got a taste of packing for four.  We decided to stay overnight at my dad's house so Dexter could be closer to the soccer fields he had games scheduled at the next morning.  A win-win situation really, the kids got to see their grandfather and Dexter didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn for once. 

The change of venue was great.  The kids had fun, the pool was open and my dad had them help with some landscaping by digging holes in the ground.  We were there for less than 24 hours, but my Honda Pilot was packed!

The dog and her food, the kids and their bags, diapers, wipes, 2 bikes, woofle balls and bats, shoes, swim suits, towels, water toys and noodles, play cars, a few dinosaurs, a Barbie, plastic pony, medicine, pacifiers, sippy cups, snacks for the hour drive, my bag, Dexter's bags and soccer gear (including cones) and a partridge in a pear tree. This took me a total of 3 hours to organize, pack and get in the car.

The amazing thing is it all fit.  The great thing is while repacking before we left, it still fit (its hard to replicate the perfectly packed trunk).  The crazy thing is thinking about packing for more than one night...I may need a bigger car.

Daddy's Soccer Game

Dexter loves soccer.  He was playing about the time he started walking.  He coaches it and once a week the coaches team up and and play each other.  Every week he asks us to come and every week I am in my right mind and make up an excuse.

But once a season, I say yes thinking that this time it will be different.  This time the kids will watch the game on the sidelines.  This time the kids will understand and not cry uncontrollably when I tell them that they cannot go onto the field to be with Daddy.  This time they will not kick any soccer balls on the field so that they game must be stopped.

Yesterday's game was not this time.  We went because we had hardly seen Dexter all week.  As the soccer season approaches the end there are more practices, more games, more tournaments and less Dexter.  So a cheer went up in the car as we headed to the fields instead of straight home after church. 

Loaded up with snacks, drinks and a few toys we head to the field to go see Daddy play.  That's when it went down hill.  Vivian wanted to run around the parking lot and Flip already spotted Daddy.  Neither would listen and come stay with me.  Vivian got sand in her shoes and had to take them off, Flip brought his whistle and blew it in my ear the entire shoe removal process.  The lines on the field were barely visible from a full weekend of games so Flip decided to cross it and every time he did the referee let me know.  Vivian colored for a little bit before devouring her crayons and then crying because they were wet and unusable.  She then cried more when she spilled her water on her pants.  A few drops is enough for an all out melt down.  Flip and Vivian found a few extra soccer balls and were certain the players needed more on the field, so they kicked them out towards the middle.  Then they fussed and cried because I wouldn't let them retrieve the balls or go see Daddy.

Basically the fun night ended with me watching the kids who were outside the fenced in field literally on the ground crying for their dad.  Sadly, none of us really had a chance to watch the game.  As soon as the final whistle blew, I released the kids to their dad and headed to the car by myself. 

This experience will stay fresh in my memory until the end of next season when I will try again...