We're Leaving On A Jetplane

The amount of planning and laundry and folding and packing that are going into this vacation is just so vast... I mean, its been a week of tedious preparations and I have a sinking feeling that I am forgetting something really important.  But, once we're there, I'm going to sit back and let other people hold Miles for hours at a time.  And take Owen to the playground. 

I'm planning on sipping gallons of ice tea, maybe sleeping in, definetly getting in a couple of date nights with my handsome husband.

And I feel like crying right now just because there's all this stuff just lurking out there... Sippy cups.  Formula.  Enough diapers to get across the country.  Snacks.  Change of clothes.  Breathe.  In and Out.  In and Out.  In and Out.

See you all soon!

And don't forget your sunscreen!

So we dodged a bullet.  A big, scary, moley bullet.

A while back (like a few months ago) Owen was at his two-and-a-half-year check-up with his pediatrician, and I happened to mention that he had a funny looking mole below his diaper line that I wanted her to look at.  She was particularly interested because she had just had a melanoma removed from her leg.  She looked at it, said "I'm sure it's nothing, but go see a pediatric dermatologist." So, off we went to make appointments with a pediatric dermatologist, who saw it said "I'm sure its nothing, but go ahead and call a pediatric plastic surgeon to have it removed."  So, off we went to make appointments with a pediatric plastic surgeon, who saw it and said "I'm sure its nothing, but let's make an appointment at the end of the summer to have it removed."  So a few days later, I get a call from the surgeon, and they had an appointment available for 3 days later.  I snatched that appointment up, stewed with worry for those three days over the general anesthesia he'd be under, and come Monday morning, we drove into Fairfax, and marched our little boy into have a very, very minor surgery.

After the surgery, the doctor asked us to make a follow-up appointment for two weeks later to make sure the site was healing well and to go over pathology.

Two weeks later was two days ago, and I was battling traffic, dealing with cranky kiddos, and needing a nice hot cup of coffee when we finally arrived at our appointment.  Dr Oh came breezing in on his way to a surgery looked at Owen's site, told us it was healing nicely, then said "Its a good thing we had that mole removed, because the cells came back atypical."  Heart stops.  "What?!" I say to him.  Nothing to worry about, he assured me, but we have to watch Owen like a hawk.  This mole on his abdomen had never been exposed to sun.  He's never had a sunburn.  He wears SPF 70.  How does this happen?  My crappy genes.  That's how.  Poor kiddo.

Anyhow, we're thankful that we were pro-active and we're thankful that we had this reality check.  Now, go forth and lather up!

Strawberry Picking

How The Weekend Was Won

We had a Weekend.  Like deserving of capital letters weekend.  I felt like a great mom, a great spouse, a great friend.  How great is that?

So to begin, we spend a lot of weekends milling about, without a plan, without any really cool things happening.  We clean the bathrooms, and fold laundry, and watch bad TV.  And then every once in a golden while, we hit one out of the park.  This was a home-run, folks.  I swear a big part of it was that we were still in the no TV zone, which means we didn't get sucked into the vortex.  Instead we did cool stuff as a family, and our time didn't zoom past us.  We just enjoyed every single minute of our time together.  And my husband didn't talk about work, which was won.der.ful.

To start, Saturday morning we went to pick strawberries at Butler's orchard.  http://www.butlersorchard.com/  It was super humid, and the air was almost foggy and it was in the mid 80's, so it looked hazy- like a battlefield.   But a battlefield of delicious goodness.   We picked around 8 pounds of berries, consumed another couple in the fields.  It was magic.  Made it home for naps, dinner, a walk to see fireflies.

Sunday was another great day.  We decided to play at Cabin John Park and on the way we stopped at the grocery store to pick up sandwiches, some iced tea, and crunchy red grapes.  We arrived at the park a few minutes later, found a lovely spot under the trees to have lunch.  Ben and Owen spent a really good amount of time running from playground to playground and when Miles got hungry, I sent Ben and O to the miniature ride-on train for a ride around the park.  We had one very happy camper on our hands.

Monday morning, I was feeding Miles at about 6:30 when we got a phone call from Sander.  His dear Martha was in labor and we were on-call to watch Thomas while she was at the hospital. So at 7am, the Otte family arrived at our house with one cranky 15 month old for Owen to play with, and once again, the morning was great.  The whole time, we were wondering what was happening at the hospital, and at about 1:30, Sander arrived at our door to pick his son up, and he proudly announced that they had a beautiful new baby girl- Sophie.  I was so glad that we were able to help them out and proud to be a part of the whole process.  Years from now, when the kids ask about the day they were born, we'll be a minor part of the story!

 When it was back to just the 4 of us, we packed up the car and headed to the splash park to cool off a bit.  Owen was fearless.  He just charged out into the spray and had a grand ol' time.  Ben wanted to read and to watch Miles, so I followed Master Owen around for the next 45 minutes until his lips started to turn purple and he couldn't stop shivering.  That was my cue to wrap him up in a cozy, cozy, cozy beach towel and head on home.  Thank goodness Ben had been to the store earlier in the day for Memorial Day hot dogs and corn, so we grilled up our food and sat down to eat.  Owen at one point looked at us, after eating his second corn on the cob, and said "This is good stuff!".  Huzzah kiddo!  Huzzah!

TV Free- The Life for Me... At least for a week. Kinda.

So in all relationships, the key to health and happiness and understanding is...(Say it with me!) communication.  Well, it seems I needed some help with this, and Ben suggested we go without the TV for a week.  I have a hunch that it will last longer than that.  Except when I am nursing Miles during the day and Owen is down for a nap.

We have been in survival mode at our home since Miles arrived.  For me, its been pretty good during the day, but by the time Ben gets home from work, say 6-ish, I'm spent.  I've put in an 11 hour day of mommyhood and I just want to lay like broccoli.  Well, that does a number on a marriage.  Zoning out in front of the television isn't exactly a great way to keep the romance alive.  So, we are going on a TV diet.  Last night, we put Owen to bed, came downstairs and laid on the couch together reading and it felt so much more connected than having the hum of conversations between actors in the background.  How is it that just laying together, each in our own worlds can feel romantic?

Years ago I visited my friend Corryn in Portland and she hosted a bunch of friends at her house that weekend.  On Sunday morning after we'd all eaten our breakfasts and were sipping our mugs of coffee or tea, we all gravitated toward the living room with books in-hand, all found a place to curl-up, and we all started reading.  There must have been like eight of us all sitting there in this room, sprawled all over the place, united in our individual absorption.  It was one of the simplest, loveliest moments of my early adulthood, and I remember it clearly.  Dan said he wished we all had thought bubbles like in comic books, and its just a very clear visual I have.

Reading is a good mind-stretching activity.  I'm just starting a book called "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan.  It is about Frank Lloyd Wright and his love affair with one of his clients.  Ben is reading "Pillars of the Earth" and I couldn't be happier.  I've been trying to get him to read it for a while now, and he's already getting emotionally tied up with the characters.  I've never hated a character so much as when I was reading Pillars.  I hope he keeps reading because I really want to share books with him.  When I finally read my first Patrick O'Brien book, a new connection developed with Ben because he loved Steven and Jack so much.  It kind of feels like a secret shared.  Why is that?

So for the time being, the Happy Hum around our house has nothing to do with TV.