Toddler Travel

So. Our first hotel stay with two toddlers.

We started the hotel experience early on, Luke was about 7 weeks old when we took him down to Norfolk for a Rugby tournament. We did the travel while pregnant and with a baby thing. We did the travel with a baby and a toddler thing.

Now? Two toddlers. I was apprehensive.

I was nervous about the sleeping thing. Luke is in a bed, and Julia in a crib. Gone are the easy days of co-sleeping. We got two attached rooms ~ One for the kids and one for us. Jules goes to bed at 7 and Luke at 7.30. I didn't know how it was going to go with not being able to read to Luke in his bed like we do at home. I just could not picture it all. Motherhood is SUCH a constant learning process. Just when you think that you have things "figured out" things change.

We left on Wed, right at nap time, and the kids slept the entire way down. We took them to Nate's office to see everyone, then on to the hotel where we hit the pool. The pool was the other thing that I had worried about. Traditional lap pool type pools are impossible for me right now alone with the kids. I didn't realize that Landsowne had put in a whole new pool area, with several pools, and even a part with a beach like entrance, that was pure heaven. We fed the kids dinner at the pool, took a walk, and then went up. Got cleaned up and ready for bed and I put down Jules while one of Nate's coworkers arrived to babysit for us while we went out with friends. We came home and Luke was in his bed sound asleep, and both kids slept till well past seven. Again, heaven.

Restaurants have gotten fun these days. Still busy, but fun now as Luke is fully conversational and Jules chimes in with her funny little asides throughout the meal. Way more food goes in their mouths than on the floor. They have become little PEOPLE all of a sudden. THey say please, and thank you, and generally amaze me with how much fun they are. Nate and I kept looking at one another with a bit of astonishment at how generally easy and truly fun it all was. Its nice to step outside of the routine of home and to get to watch your kids experience new things. Its nice to feel as though the hard work of parenting does pay off when you sit around the table as a family laughing your ass off at how cute your kids are being.

Thursday we had breakfast together, then dropped Nate off at work. THe kids and I hit the pool again until noon, when I got them ready for naps, and me ready for golf. I put Jules down as Nate and our friend Sarah showed up ~ Sarah was kind enough to watch the kids for us while we played. We got in a HOT round on a beautiful course, and then met up with Sarah and the kids so that we could get the kids fed. They had a putting green at the resort ~ and we had brought Luke's putter with us, and the kid went NUTS putting. It was like Luke's version of heaven ~ golf balls and holes everywhere. We repeated the routine of the night before, as Caroline was again watching the kids so that we could have dinner with friends. Again, we came home to find Luke safely tucked into his bed and both kids sleeping away in their room.

Today we repeated the morning routine, visited friends, and then went to a burger place before we started the long trek home. Luke looked like such a little man downing down his burger next to his Daddy. The kids slept the whole way home, and I am utterly exhausted.

Travel with two toddlers, check. I've got it all figured out............. until tomorrow, anyway ;)

Obsession and Depression

Luke got his very first set of golf clubs this weekend. It's for 2-5 year olds and has the cutest little golf bag, a putter, driver, and an iron. I have honestly never seen a child as obsessed with something as Luke is with golf and golf balls. That's the obsession part of the post. He had 5 golf balls in his bed this morning. They come to the store, to the park, to playgroup (Where it gets left in a car). There are yellow golf balls, white golf balls, pink ones, wiffle ones. We never used pacifiers. He never had a "lovey". Instead, this, it appears. Its all that he wants to play with when we are outside. He throws, drops, kicks, chases and putts golf balls everywhere and anywhere. I can't wait to figure out how to download video of him hitting it, yelling "Luke hit it in da hole!" after every putt. (there is no hole, but this does not seem to deter Luke). As fun as it is to see him enjoying them, its also pretty (EXTREMELY) annoying to hear "Mama, where Luke golf ball go?" no less than 3,000/day.

That brings me to the depression part of the post. It's been raining. Its been cold. LOTS of raining. The house behind us flooded on Saturday night. There was an unbelievable quantity of water pouring into the house, and several feet of it in the basement. Lots of excitement around here as we cooked dinner and were astonished at our new found waterfront deck.

Bad weather is so annoying when you have to drive in it to work, or not work because of it, or whatever. Bad weather is a special sort of hell to a mother of two toddlers. Its been hard, I've been impatient. The kids seem to be taking annoying pills. Everything is muddy. The kids were wearing SWEATSHIRTS AND JEANS yesterday at play group. It all just feels so wrong. One of my good friends just had a new baby, her 2nd son. I was talking to her on the phone yesterday, and we were talking about things were going, and she said "We forgot how easy a newborn is! How on earth did this seem hard the first time around?". Its so very true. Babies never tested my patience. Babies never said NO. Babies never tried to assert their independence, or color on my walls. Babies never made me honestly have the need to give myself a "time out" before I react to them. Toddlers are just a special sort of hard. Toddlers stuck inside due to pouring rain are pent up balls of destruction just waiting to unleash their touch on every available surface. It's constant chatter (I hear the same phrases over and over all.day.long) its constant mess, and diapers, and food on the floor and reading books and mess and mess and mess. Messy hands, messy faces, dirty feet, sandy bodies, dirty diapers etc etc etc. The weather, and the constant in house mess making, is driving me mad. I desperately need the sun to come out. I love being a Mom. But I would be lying if I didn't admit that after days and days of 1:1 with two toddlers, this job is HARD. Infinitely more rewarding, and infinitely harder than anything that I have ever done.

Chillaxin

Saturday we celebrated spring with our first full fledged cook out-eat on the deck night. Having spent the entire day barring nap time outside, it was a great day.

A cheeseburgers on the grill-french-fry-tabbouleh-baked bean-corn fest followed our day in the sun, then a trip to Rita's for our first Gelotti of the season. While we were getting dinner ready Luke crawled up on this bench and just laid there, taking in the breeze, the view, the weather, and kicking his little feet in relaxed, worn out pleasure. I envied his work free little perch, and his ability to simply savor the moment. I find myself wishing that I could freeze time on these do-whatever-suits-you spring days.

Spring is a whole new universe of wonderfulness with toddlers.

The belligerent NO

This sweet little thing, this kind kid, this child who shares, and kisses, and hugs, and generally complies.....has grabbed a hold of the belligerent NO with both hands. He discovered it this morning, and promptly saw fit to use it about 20 times throughout the day. I alternated between wanting to run out the house screaming, and curl up in the fetal position crying.

The NO thing. Argh. It's here. Advice welcome.

Why do we buy toys?

New favorite things.

Plunger ~ (it was brand new, maybe by my third child they will be playing with, um, non-new plungers, but not yet ;)). About 1 hour of straight fun.

Toothbrush ~ An easy 1/2 hour of joy every single day. The only bad part of the toothbrush is that at some point I have to take it away. DRAMA!

Any thing or everything the kid can climb up on. He's amazing. And dangerous.

I'm still pregnant! I think that last weeks tease got me very impatient for a day or two, but now I am feeling great, and relaxed, and greatful for this time while Deuce fattens up and Luke and I have some extra time alone together. Luke is 13 months old today. So my kids will officially be MORE than 13 months apart. Not hard at all, right? I can't wait to me a Mama to two.

Sock it to me

Luke is a great helper. He loves to "help" with all sorts of mundane household tasks ~ Like unrolling papertowels, making toilet paper mountains on the floor, pulling out and inspecting each and every piece of tupperware that I own, taste testing different varieties of dog food, and performing random safety testing of our kitchen drawers by pulling them out and sitting inside of them. One of his greatist joys is "helping" me fold the laundry. The dryer is Luke's blushing bride ~ the recipient of countless wet Luke kisses as she spins her day away drying our clothing. My laundry baskets double as sleds, wagons, and general "great things to sit in/on/around". The clothing that they contain, straight out of the warm lovin dryer, is enough to send Luke into a lustful frenzy ~ Running around the upstairs hallway happily screeching and waving clothing around like a tiny cheerleader with pom poms on some sort of illegal substance. Cute, funny, etc......but not so much when its the already folded clothing that he attacks.

This morning I was trying to get a load of laundry folded when I came up with a brilliant game. It's amazingly simple in concept. It's free. It only requires two socks. Put the socks on the hands of the baby ~ and watch the fun unfold! Baby cant grab anything! Folded clothes are safe! Baby commences to run around the upstairs totally amazed that his hands are somehow there....yet, not there at the same time. Gosh I'm getting good at this mothering thing. It's all about imposing your will and making it seem fun at the same time :)

Luke is a toddler

So we went and did our will on Friday. Its strange contemplating your death, your money, your children's life without you. Its weird putting your "net worth" down on paper for a stranger to wade through. Its strange considering what they called the "A bomb scenario" in which we both die, Luke dies, and all of our estate goes to someone else. Hell, just hearing the phrase A-Bomb is strange, when is the last time you heard that one?

Anyway, I am officially declaring Luke a toddler now. He is no longer a baby, somehow. He walks everywhere he wants to go. He understands more words and phrases. He has opinions, and can make his wants pretty clearly known. He knows what it is to be tempted (I swear I can almost SEE the angel sitting on one shoulder and the devil on the other every time Luke so much as looks in the direction of the dog food bowl), and he is starting to learn who the heck everyone is (mom, dad, dog, etc). We went out to lunch today after a scintillating trip to Home Depot and Luke officially ate his first Cheeseburger (and even a french fry and a taste or two of chocolate milkshake, if you are going for the experience, might as well go all in). I cant even tell you how big my little man looked sitting there at the table, shoving cheeseburger into his face with both hands. Lets just say it was a big hit. I was kicking myself for not having the camera with us!