Circus Week, Santa Cruz

we just returned from a week of bliss in santa cruz. my two good friends from seattle reunited for the first time since jack was a babe. we have talked about it since i moved, referring to the gathering as nothing less than a circus. it was. we cosied up in a three-bedroom condo with six adults and three children.

highlights include:

• spending really good time with wonderful friends!
  

• sunshine
  
• two days with just one child!!!
• seeing jeremiah's art - wow! i wish i had taken a couple more photos. he builds surfboards, paints them incredibly. he had a series of art on display at the local coffee shop - really fantastic stuff using a mixture of paint, fabric, paper, glass...wow. claire loved playing under this little table, beside one of jeremiah's surfboards and beneath a painting.
  

• diverse beaches - one had endless sand, another was rocky and full of muscles, seaweed and treasure-hunting, another was a small beach right up to the cliffs - beautiful, remote feeling.

• seeing baby A while he is still so little!

• time to talk, actually complete conversations, with two precious friends
• really good coffee, every morning. i am looking into buying an aeropress
  
• a walk in the redwood forests - the serenity only slightly interrupted by the dog carriage and doggy bjorn.
• really amazing meals - chicken "fish" tacos, gourmet pita pizzas, fancy sausage hogies...

• a ridge walk along the coast - reminding me of the cliffs of Dover
• donuts

• first family vacation - we love visiting family in seattle, but this is the first time we've travelled to see friends! it was so good to play, to rest, to catch up.
  

• watching our kids experience the ocean for the first time. jack was careful, hesitant and certainly didn't want to get cold in that water. he loved looking for treasure (sadly, our sandbox just isn't revealing the same quality of treasures) claire couldn't get enough - she'd sit right down in the chilly water, in her clothes. she didn't want me to hold her hand, because she wanted both hands to dig in the sand. sand in her butt, sun on her cheeks, and freezing legs, she was a happy napper at the end of the day.
  

my favorite quotes of the week?
claire, "switch sides" instead of mama's milk, milk please, or just plain milk, its right to switching sides.
jack, "i need to call my dad. my OTHER dad, he's home, smoking"


and then to return home to spring, lovely!

simply crocs, and contests

one of my favorite blogs, simplemom.net, is celebrating 10,000 subscribers!
that is crazy. i think maybe 10 people read my blog, hey!
anyhoo, she is celebrating in my style! spreading the word about something great.
i got my first pair of Crocs while i was prego with zoom. they were given to me by my two good friends. my first thought? geeez, those things are ugly, at least they are pink. oh! you mean the pink shoes i am STILL wearing, right now, in fact!? these would be the ones!
it didn't take more than a couple minutes to realize how absolutely cushy comfy they were. they have become our house shoes, and mine are finally wearing thin. i've actually been considering a new pair, but there are so many wonderful color options and new styles! so when i saw that simplemom.net was having a little giveaway with Crocs, i jumped.

i guess i am a compulsive contestant, just like my mama taught me.
who, by the way, is in route as we speak...hurrah for grammy time!

but seriously, simplemom.net has saved me many a time, with organization ideas, meal planning, and general helpful ideas.

down with the sickness, it is disturbing

my body finally succumbed to a winter cold - ha! now that winter is over.
i am so thankful to have made it this long, but wow, this sucks.
the kids have had runny noses for a couple weeks, and the past few days it has turned into non-stop nasty nose and hacking cough (the kind where you just want to cough for them, it sounds so ineffective!)
during the kids nap time, i kept thinking that i should lay down too, my head beginning to throb and my eyes hurting, but i am not a napper. and for crying out loud, nap time and bedtime are my ONLY time alone! i'll spend them awake even if i don't feel great, thank you!
as the day progressed, my voice grew weaker and weaker, until it finally disappeared. zoom kept telling me to talk normal, and then asked if i would ever talk normal again.
what was really disturbing to me was how often i wanted to raise my voice, but literally could not! do i really yell this much or was this an extra special day of testing mom? to think i actually wondered if maybe my whisper voice would command their interest in a new way! on the contrary, they acted as if they couldn't hear me. some times they probably couldn't. but pulling out the old tricks like yelling in the house, when our "outside voices" has been long established. i found zoom ON THE DINING ROOM TABLE!!! he has never done that before. it is the little lady's new trick, that stealthy climber, no i am sure he was just copying her, but he knows better! he was putting her pacifier in his mouth, climbing on furniture that is not for climbing, pushing, grabbing, and not using manners.
when i asked him to spend some time in his room for a misbehavior, he did a common meltdown, where he yells and throws himself around. do i usually raise my voice in that situation so that he hears me over his own yelling? is there another way? today there had to be. i couldn't yell louder. practicing some of the love and logic philosophy was easier, i guess. i really was sad for the choices he was making. and i was sad at how badly i wanted to YELL at him!
this has felt like a big part of the long winter. i feel like he is constantly testing. i am constantly on guard. i don't want to assume that he will misbehave, but i fear that i notice those moments so much more quickly and often than good behavior.
sigh.
my mom is coming tomorrow. that is always a welcome relief to feeling outnumbered. i hope to have a date with zoom, even just a walk to the park, and enjoy some goodness from the old times.
i really want to go to bed.
i hope we all feel better tomorrow.

silly fools

flipping thru a magazine yesterday, i landed upon a short article of ideas for april fools pranks. i had no idea it would create such fun for us!
zoom got it in his head to unplug someones computer down in the office. since he slept in until a blissful 10am, the office was already in motion by the time we headed down. zoom spilled the beans,
"mom is having ANOTHER baby!", he announced to my mother-in-law, who works for hubby. she looked up at me and asked, "was i supposed to hear that?". "do you think we would tell him something that we hoped would remain a secret?" was my response.
"AAAPRIL FOOOOOLS!!!" zoom blurted out!
hardly relishing in his success, he moved along. "now let's go unplug dad's computer!"
i was a little leery of unplugging anything in the office, but i figured we could unplug the keyboard. his is wireless - even better. we removed the batteries from the mouse and replaced them with a little note "april fools".
snickering like crazy, we headed upstairs.
the morning provided us with many opportunities to discuss the difference between LYING and telling an april fools day joke. thankfully for a mother of a child, it is just one day.
teasing your little sister by holding out a toy, then pulling it away crying "april fools", is not okay.
it seems the only one fooled by my facebook status update, "i'm feeling the effects of morning sickness" was my mother and her friends. she called me after receiving calls about me being pregnant. really mom? you think i would tell EVERYONE on facebook before you?
multiple times today zoom tried to tell hubby about our evening prank, but i was able to keep him quiet until bedtime.
he gets that he can joke with others, but doesn't get that telling the person about the joke keeps it from being a joke!
zoom was in bed and i told him he could sit up and listen for dad, who was heading to bed as well.
the giggling that erupted from his bedroom when he heard hubby in the bathroom was awesome! hubby came out with a questioning look and i directed him to the patiently waiting zoom, who was sitting up in bed, laughing.
"why is there a little piece of poop in my toothpaste?" he asked.
zoom got serious and said, "no dad! it isn't poop, it's a raisin!!!!! AAAPRIL FOOOOOOLS!" then busted up laughing and fell down on his bed!