And my sister's baby:
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Sundays In My City
And my sister's baby:
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The Day My Nephew Was Born
Yesterday was a day similar to a ride at an amusement park. There were times when I was squeeing with delight and then there were parts where I was practically in tears. Actually at some points I was crying at the good parts. It was one of those days to remember if I ever get bored this summer because my days are too quiet.
3:30 AM: My sister updates from the hospital where my brother and sister-in-law are in the midst of having their first baby. Where there had been a lot of action for awhile, things were at a standstill and everyone involved was exhausted.
So, we texted back and forth for a few minutes and then I attempted to go back to sleep.
5:30AM: Probably about when I fell back to sleep.
6AM: Alarm. Time to get 3 kids out the door, 2 for finals and one for 2nd to last day of school.
7:45AM: On my way to Target to get usual stuff and specific going to camp stuff for B who leaves on Sunday. (BTW, Target is an hour away from my house. One disadvantage to Cape Cod.)
10:00AM: How does 3/4 of a cart cost so much money. Damn razor and tampon companies.
10:30AM: On my way back to the Cape, get news my little nephew has been born. A healthy 8lb 9oz specimen of joy. My brother had cancer almost 10 years ago, so you can imagine the excitement surrounding this little boy. He is the 5th in a honored line of men, so his nickname is Fin. Who knew that Fin was a nickname for a 5 dollar bill? See, you can still learn something every day.
11:45AM: Race into house and dump Target bags on kitchen floor.
12:00PM: Pick up K and B who had finals. Drop K at home, pick up P's friend, drop P and friend off downtown and go to Middle School.
12:30PM: Sitting in auditorium where they are having an afternoon of excellence similar to the one the HS had last week. B wins 4 awards: 2 math, 1 High Honors all year and 1 for being a leader in the school (voted on by the teachers). Had no idea that she was winning all these awards. While she is winning these, I am texting/updating my parents who are on their way to see the new baby for 15 minutes (2hrs away). My mom sends me one text that leaves me fighting back tears: "You are a great mother!".
2:00PM: Pick up B and bring her home.
3:00PM: Drop K at work and pick up 'new to me' grill a friend did not need.
4:00PM: Leave with B for Pediatrician's office to discuss asthma for the 3rd month in a row.
4:10PM: Secretly hang up a Good Luck sign at an ex-jumprope friend of Brooke's because he was on his way to Nationals and it's the first time in 3 years that we are not joining them. (Because Brooke is not jumping rope anymore.)
4:30PM: Dr's appt. Discuss B's lungs and decide to send her to an asthma/allergist professional and to get an EKG to make sure it's not something with her heart. Also need to get x-ray because she has my good fortune of having scoliosis. Dr says she is the healthiest "sick" person she has seen all day.
5:15-6:30PM: Go to Home Goods and Pier One with B because we are in the same town she has swimming in, so it was useless to go home. We had each other pealing with laughter over the dumbest things. Seriously, we were hysterical. I would write down some of the things we were saying, but they all go in the "had to be there" category.
7:00PM: Sitting in a bar with one of my best Swim Mom friends. No need for the treadmill last night, I felt like I had been on one all day.
8:00PM: Watching B swim when I get a tweet from K who had recently gotten home from work. "That moment when your mom forgets to feed you dinner....#thanksmom @ascapecodturns." Before you call child services on me, there was leftover dinner from the night before, but she "doesn't eat leftovers". So I tweeted her back this, "for the twitter record, I did not "forget". Think of it as a test of your survival skills."
9:00PM: On couch with popcorn watching Dance Moms. See cute pictures of Fin and a little too much of my sister in law. Next time, let's wait until after the baby's cleaned up to take the pictures.
10:00PM: Realize that my day, even though busy, was much calmer and pleasant than the life of the Dance Mom moms.
The 3rd, the 4th and the 5th.
3:30 AM: My sister updates from the hospital where my brother and sister-in-law are in the midst of having their first baby. Where there had been a lot of action for awhile, things were at a standstill and everyone involved was exhausted.
So, we texted back and forth for a few minutes and then I attempted to go back to sleep.
5:30AM: Probably about when I fell back to sleep.
6AM: Alarm. Time to get 3 kids out the door, 2 for finals and one for 2nd to last day of school.
7:45AM: On my way to Target to get usual stuff and specific going to camp stuff for B who leaves on Sunday. (BTW, Target is an hour away from my house. One disadvantage to Cape Cod.)
10:00AM: How does 3/4 of a cart cost so much money. Damn razor and tampon companies.
10:30AM: On my way back to the Cape, get news my little nephew has been born. A healthy 8lb 9oz specimen of joy. My brother had cancer almost 10 years ago, so you can imagine the excitement surrounding this little boy. He is the 5th in a honored line of men, so his nickname is Fin. Who knew that Fin was a nickname for a 5 dollar bill? See, you can still learn something every day.
11:45AM: Race into house and dump Target bags on kitchen floor.
12:00PM: Pick up K and B who had finals. Drop K at home, pick up P's friend, drop P and friend off downtown and go to Middle School.
12:30PM: Sitting in auditorium where they are having an afternoon of excellence similar to the one the HS had last week. B wins 4 awards: 2 math, 1 High Honors all year and 1 for being a leader in the school (voted on by the teachers). Had no idea that she was winning all these awards. While she is winning these, I am texting/updating my parents who are on their way to see the new baby for 15 minutes (2hrs away). My mom sends me one text that leaves me fighting back tears: "You are a great mother!".
2:00PM: Pick up B and bring her home.
3:00PM: Drop K at work and pick up 'new to me' grill a friend did not need.
4:00PM: Leave with B for Pediatrician's office to discuss asthma for the 3rd month in a row.
4:10PM: Secretly hang up a Good Luck sign at an ex-jumprope friend of Brooke's because he was on his way to Nationals and it's the first time in 3 years that we are not joining them. (Because Brooke is not jumping rope anymore.)
4:30PM: Dr's appt. Discuss B's lungs and decide to send her to an asthma/allergist professional and to get an EKG to make sure it's not something with her heart. Also need to get x-ray because she has my good fortune of having scoliosis. Dr says she is the healthiest "sick" person she has seen all day.
5:15-6:30PM: Go to Home Goods and Pier One with B because we are in the same town she has swimming in, so it was useless to go home. We had each other pealing with laughter over the dumbest things. Seriously, we were hysterical. I would write down some of the things we were saying, but they all go in the "had to be there" category.
7:00PM: Sitting in a bar with one of my best Swim Mom friends. No need for the treadmill last night, I felt like I had been on one all day.
8:00PM: Watching B swim when I get a tweet from K who had recently gotten home from work. "That moment when your mom forgets to feed you dinner....#thanksmom @ascapecodturns." Before you call child services on me, there was leftover dinner from the night before, but she "doesn't eat leftovers". So I tweeted her back this, "for the twitter record, I did not "forget". Think of it as a test of your survival skills."
9:00PM: On couch with popcorn watching Dance Moms. See cute pictures of Fin and a little too much of my sister in law. Next time, let's wait until after the baby's cleaned up to take the pictures.
10:00PM: Realize that my day, even though busy, was much calmer and pleasant than the life of the Dance Mom moms.
The 3rd, the 4th and the 5th.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Frag'n Friday
Welcome to the last Friday of the school year. 3 1/2 days and counting!!! Yes, Midwesterners, we are still in school..... Go check out Mrs. 4444's for random thoughts from lots of good people.
*Bear news: The bear was taken off the Cape earlier this week and relocated to Central Mass. I hope he finds lots of girl bears there. The reason they wound up taking him off Cape was not because he was causing any trouble, but too many people were trying to get a glimpse of him! Celebrity Stalkers!
*This is a YOLO (you only live once) face, if you wanted to know. This is what happens after you do a project for school of how to make and eat crepes and you've had just a little too much sugar and there is a swim bag laying around.....
*Just want you to know how classy I am. I needed another table for P's party last weekend, so I used 2 saw horses and an old shower door. Maybe I should just call myself creative? And yes, I put a lovely table cloth on it, voila!
*I was watching the news this morning and listening to how many millions of dollars Obama and Romney made in fundraising dinners just last night. Is it just me, or do you think it is a little silly to raise all this money for a campaign where the money could go to much better use in so many other places?
*Chatham celebrated it's official 300th Birthday on Monday (there are 300 days of things to do, so you haven't technically missed all of them). There was a lovely ceremony at the band stand and later in the afternoon they opened a time capsule that had been "buried" 50 years ago at the 250th celebration. It was funny how unexciting the stuff in it was. There were a lot of names of people in different groups around town, a plate celebrating the 250th birthday, a recording of a meeting, and a picture of a bunch of men in beards. In my eyes, the best things were a 4 cent stamp and a map of Chatham from 1962.
A new time capsule was filled with much more exciting stuff like photographs, menus from restaurants, church bulletins, information about fishing, books, an iphone and a guest book that everyone at the event signed. In 50 years, I can go to the next celebration and say, "I was there!", see there is my name.
*In exciting family news..... the high school had a night of excellence the other day( um, night). We knew ahead of time that K and P were getting an award. It was very exciting and a proud moment for me, but the real kicker was when K got the Blue and White award. Basically, the teachers picked a good for the school, good grades, all around good kid in each grade to win this award and they picked K!!!! She received a paper signed by our state representative and a gift card to Amazon! The look on her face was priceless! Total surprise and my faced mirrored hers!
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Groove Is In The Heart
The cure for the rainy day blues is to have a 21 month old come play for a few hours. R disappeared while I was folding laundry and when I walked into my room, this is how I found her (in my bed). If only she was a snuggler, I would have crawled in too.
However, she has more energy than anyone I know and decided that pretending to fall on my bed was way more fun than pretending to sleep.
I also introduced her to Barney. (Why do I still know all the songs?) She checked out K's sunglasses. And looked out the window every once in awhile to make sure it was still raining. She reminds me of Linus with her blankie.
I also recommend that your little ray of sunshine wear a groovy shirt.
However, she has more energy than anyone I know and decided that pretending to fall on my bed was way more fun than pretending to sleep.
I also introduced her to Barney. (Why do I still know all the songs?) She checked out K's sunglasses. And looked out the window every once in awhile to make sure it was still raining. She reminds me of Linus with her blankie.
I also recommend that your little ray of sunshine wear a groovy shirt.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Frag'n Friday
Fridays are perfect for fragments!! Just ask Mrs. 4444s!
*Perhaps you have seen our Cape Cod Bear on National News! Last night with Diane Sawyer and today on Good Morning America! Want a peak, check it out! The twitter feeds are hysterical. If you watch the video, you will notice the absence of the canal that the bear swam across on the map. Who edits these things? Also at about a minute into the feed, you will see a familiar site; my brother in law's boat which is also my header! Cool, right?! Can I stretch it and say that my blog was sort of on GMA today?
*It's graduation weekend around these parts! We are going to a graduation party tomorrow for a friend of ours that is going to UMass in the fall. I figured he would get plenty of cash, so I went with something different. I bought a UMass t-shirt and a throw pillow and sewed the t-shirt over the pillow. Too cute!
*I know I haven't gone on and on about my garden lately, but it is looking quite nice! Remember before:
Here is the latest:
Blooming flowers, planted by me! Seriously, I never thought I would get excited about this. EVER! And yes, I know I need some more mulch.
*1 1/2 weeks until school is out. I know the girls cannot wait and I think it might be double for me!
*Happy Graduation Weekend to my Fantastic Nephew Sam!!!
*What are your weekend plans? Hope they are fun!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Common Sense Technology
There has been a lot of talk lately on whether children under the age of 13 should be on Facebook. Also, should children have their own emails, computer, etc.. There is no right answer, but I will give you what has worked for us so far. (With technology, something that works today, may be old school tomorrow, just sayin'.)
Cellphones:
K got a cell phone in 5th grade. It was basic and the real reason that I got it for her was for her to be able to call me when she was done at the barn. She fondly remembers it as her "hippo", it sort of looked like one. What works for one, works for the other. B got her phone in 5th grade, but really did not use it too much.
Honestly, I don't know what we did before cellphones. P has not had a cell phone while she has lived with us and at times it is tricky. I have had to rely on K knowing some of P's friends to find out where and when she needed to be picked up. K and B both now have iPhones. They have locks on their phones which I do not know. Does this worry me? Yes. Do I wish I had made the rule of give me the lock number or no phone? Yes. If I had their code, would I spy on them by reading their texts? If their moods changed and something seemed off with them and they weren't talking about it, then yes. Is this like our parents reading our diaries when we were young, probably. Some might find this horribly wrong, I see it as safety first.
And the house rule is no cellphones at the dinner table.
Facebook: Both girls got Facebook accounts in 6th grade. The rule there was I had to know their password and be friends with them. This still is a rule today. I do not ask their friends to be friends with me, but if their friends ask, then I usually accept. I try to stay off of commenting all over their pages because that is "so uncool", but monitoring works for me.
Twitter: We all have twitter accounts. I had mine years before they got theirs. Twitter seems to be the big thing for high schoolers these days. Say what you have to in 140 characters. Soon kids will be talking out loud in code. One of my daughters' (freshman) friends said, "Ugh, your mom is following me on twitter. She is going to see me drunk tweeting." Heads up kids, whether we are friends or not, I can look you up and see your drunk tweets. Twitter is not very private.
Instagram: They have instagram accounts, I do not because they have iphones and I haven't been upgraded to one yet. One of these days I will get an iphone and when I do, I will be on Instagram too.
Tumblr: K has one, B thinks it's confusing. I do not have one. The only way I can see what K does on Tumblr is if she leaves it open on my laptop.
I am lucky that my girls are not into gaming sites. They never had Nintendo or DSs or hand held type gaming systems. We have never had a TV in the car, but sometimes on long trips I wish we had. However, we got by playing the license plate game or I Spy. I also had made them magnet boards to use in the car. Anyway, did this make them not like games? Or is it the fact that they are girls? All I know is that killing zombies is of no interest to them.
Our computer has always been in the family room. My laptop is always around the couch. Things got tricky when the girls had ipods and could get internet on them. They were often in their rooms so I did not know what sites they were on. We definitely have an open stream of conversation and they know that they can come to me with anything.
One article I read today, talked about kids and porn on the internet(amongst all this other stuff). This is something I had not really thought about. I think it is more of a boy thing.... (I hope). All I remember is being in my middle school library and someone had Judy Blume's book Forever. There were some descriptive sex scenes in there that I remember us all giggling about. I am figuring that this type of thing is natural for kids and now instead of a book they have the entire internet which is a little scary.
Both girls are going to sleepover camps this summer. They are not allowed to bring their cellphones or computers. This thrills me to no end and paralyzes them. I am thrilled because they will be focused on camp activities, being outdoors, learning, laughing and meeting new friends. They will not be able to worry about who is dating whom, what so and so is wearing, what anyone did last night unless their friends write them a letter and mail it in a mailbox. Now THAT would be something!
Sometimes, the immediacy of everything is a little overwhelming. However, sticking our heads in the sand as adults is not the right thing to do. The internet, cell phones, etc are not going to go away. The best way to combat this is knowledge. Get on Facebook, talk to your children about what is OK and not OK to write, and try to stay one step ahead of them.
Also, it is good to torture them with a nature walk once in awhile.
Cellphones:
K got a cell phone in 5th grade. It was basic and the real reason that I got it for her was for her to be able to call me when she was done at the barn. She fondly remembers it as her "hippo", it sort of looked like one. What works for one, works for the other. B got her phone in 5th grade, but really did not use it too much.
Honestly, I don't know what we did before cellphones. P has not had a cell phone while she has lived with us and at times it is tricky. I have had to rely on K knowing some of P's friends to find out where and when she needed to be picked up. K and B both now have iPhones. They have locks on their phones which I do not know. Does this worry me? Yes. Do I wish I had made the rule of give me the lock number or no phone? Yes. If I had their code, would I spy on them by reading their texts? If their moods changed and something seemed off with them and they weren't talking about it, then yes. Is this like our parents reading our diaries when we were young, probably. Some might find this horribly wrong, I see it as safety first.
And the house rule is no cellphones at the dinner table.
Facebook: Both girls got Facebook accounts in 6th grade. The rule there was I had to know their password and be friends with them. This still is a rule today. I do not ask their friends to be friends with me, but if their friends ask, then I usually accept. I try to stay off of commenting all over their pages because that is "so uncool", but monitoring works for me.
Twitter: We all have twitter accounts. I had mine years before they got theirs. Twitter seems to be the big thing for high schoolers these days. Say what you have to in 140 characters. Soon kids will be talking out loud in code. One of my daughters' (freshman) friends said, "Ugh, your mom is following me on twitter. She is going to see me drunk tweeting." Heads up kids, whether we are friends or not, I can look you up and see your drunk tweets. Twitter is not very private.
Instagram: They have instagram accounts, I do not because they have iphones and I haven't been upgraded to one yet. One of these days I will get an iphone and when I do, I will be on Instagram too.
Tumblr: K has one, B thinks it's confusing. I do not have one. The only way I can see what K does on Tumblr is if she leaves it open on my laptop.
I am lucky that my girls are not into gaming sites. They never had Nintendo or DSs or hand held type gaming systems. We have never had a TV in the car, but sometimes on long trips I wish we had. However, we got by playing the license plate game or I Spy. I also had made them magnet boards to use in the car. Anyway, did this make them not like games? Or is it the fact that they are girls? All I know is that killing zombies is of no interest to them.
Our computer has always been in the family room. My laptop is always around the couch. Things got tricky when the girls had ipods and could get internet on them. They were often in their rooms so I did not know what sites they were on. We definitely have an open stream of conversation and they know that they can come to me with anything.
One article I read today, talked about kids and porn on the internet(amongst all this other stuff). This is something I had not really thought about. I think it is more of a boy thing.... (I hope). All I remember is being in my middle school library and someone had Judy Blume's book Forever. There were some descriptive sex scenes in there that I remember us all giggling about. I am figuring that this type of thing is natural for kids and now instead of a book they have the entire internet which is a little scary.
Both girls are going to sleepover camps this summer. They are not allowed to bring their cellphones or computers. This thrills me to no end and paralyzes them. I am thrilled because they will be focused on camp activities, being outdoors, learning, laughing and meeting new friends. They will not be able to worry about who is dating whom, what so and so is wearing, what anyone did last night unless their friends write them a letter and mail it in a mailbox. Now THAT would be something!
Sometimes, the immediacy of everything is a little overwhelming. However, sticking our heads in the sand as adults is not the right thing to do. The internet, cell phones, etc are not going to go away. The best way to combat this is knowledge. Get on Facebook, talk to your children about what is OK and not OK to write, and try to stay one step ahead of them.
Also, it is good to torture them with a nature walk once in awhile.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Frag'n Friday
It's Friday and the first day of June and National Donut Day and Mrs. 4444s 200th Friday Fragment Post!!! Could this day get any better?!
*The Cape Cod Bear has a twitter account. You can follow him at @BearSwimmer . He has all the local news media following him which is just hysterical. B and I tweeted him on the way to swim practice last night and he even answered back! Talk about making our night!
*The bear has traveled into Orleans today. I feel badly that he skipped Nickerson Park in Brewster because I bet he would have loved it there.
*There are stuffed bears and signs popping up all over Rt 6A. Here's one from a local watering hole: The Woodshed.
*In other news, all my test results came back normal. The conclusion from this: Toughen up, you (meaning me) are getting old. And thanks to some friends on Facebook, I realized that I graduated from HS 27 years ago. Ugh.
*It's funny reading about how other states are finishing school this week when we have 2 1/2 weeks to go. Emotionally, I think the girls have been done since the middle of May.
*The Harwich/Chatham Middle School is putting on a production of Fame tonight(6:30) and tomorrow (2:00) in Harwich. I know that they have been working very hard on this!
*My nephew graduates from High School next weekend. It's hard to believe since I can remember taking this picture like it was yesterday.
Funny that there is a bear in the picture too :)
*Side note, don't be hating the overalls. I miss them so much, but not the white Keds.
*Happy Weekend!
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