Not one of my Finer Moments

Earlier this week I put the kids in the car to take them to camp, and discovered I could not find my keys. I could have sworn I'd seen them in the front door the evening before, so I immediately called Joel and accused him of accidentally taking my keys with him to work (which he had done once in the past, so it was not an entirely out-of-the-blue accusation. Joel checked his pockets, his car, and insisted he did not have my keys and that it had been his set of keys that had been in the front door the night before.

I didn't quite believe him, but at his suggestion I ransacked all the kitchen drawers till I found a spare car key so I could get the kids to camp. By this time, half an hour had elapsed, putting me significantly behind in my morning schedule and making me very irritable!

I walked back into the house, dropped my purse on the counter, and then all of a sudden spotted my keys -- in my purse. They had fallen into an inside pocket instead of just loose on the bottom where they normally are. Oops.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yep, today's my birthday. Thanks to everyone who posted happy birthday messages on facebook. When I went into Rebecca's room this morning, she sat up in her crib and started singing Happy Birthday to me! It was so cute that she remembered. That girl loves to sing Happy Birthday! Ben didn't remember until I was walking him into camp, but that's okay.

Some highlights of my special day --

1. Unclogging a drain

2. Sewing an ear back onto a favorite stuffed animal (yes, it was the first time I'd sewed anything since 7th grade and yes, it showed, but Ben was happy).

3. Having a repairman out to look at our A/C (and it was also our cleaning service day so I had two girls in here cleaning and a guy outside messing with the A/C while I was supposed to be on a conference call)

4. Arriving to pick up Ben after camp to discover that he had just spiked a fever and was feeling miserable

5. Pizza and birthday cake! Joel's parents came over and we had a yummy dinner. I got cards, cash, and

6. A DVR!! Joel is finally letting me revolutionize my TV viewing ;) It's not getting installed until Monday though. How Joel managed to avoid paying the $200 charge for it is another story! (And very Joel-like). Since he felt bad after talking the DirecTV rep out of making him pay for it, he did sign up for the extra charge to make it so we can watch our DVR'd shows from any TV in the house, though.

All in all, a great birthday! Ben's going to be home sick tomorrow unfortunately, though after falling asleep on my bed for two hours he did rally for some pizza and cake. On Saturday night we're swapping babysitting with some friends -- they are watching Ben and Becca and then another time we will watch their two kids -- and Joel and I are going to PF Chang's for dinner and Pinkberry for dessert. YUM!

Way Too Hot!

That was the overriding theme of the weekend - way too hot. It was 98 degrees both Saturday and Sunday and it has been very humid lately so with the heat index, it's been feeling like 105 or something awful. Not sure if it's the combination of the heat and humidity, but neither of our central air units (upstairs and downstairs) seemed to be working very efficiently this weekend. The upstairs one is as old as the house (13 years) so expecting to have problems with that one from time to time, but the downstairs one we replaced when we moved in, and this was the first time it started acting up.Anyway, our usual chilly indoor haven wasn't all that chilly this weekend.

Saturday afternoon while Rebecca napped I took Ben to the pool, and the pool water was like, I don't know, 90 degrees at least... it felt like entering a warm bath. Totally un-refreshing. We only stayed about an hour. There weren't all that many people there either -- guess it was too hot even for swimming!

Later in the afternoon Joel's parents came over to babysit and Joel and I had dinner at Brio, dessert at Pinkberry, and then saw the movie Inception. Pinkberry and a movie was a good way to beat the heat, at least! But yesterday was just as hot, the air conditioners were just as tired, and Rebecca was complaining of not feeling well so aside from grocery shopping we spent most of the day holed up at home trying to stay cool.

Looking forward to some (for the most part) cooler weather this week -- I only see one high temp past 94 in the ten day forecast ;)

Peachy

Fro Yo

Ben, Jared, Becca and Evan enjoying the below-mentioned frozen yogurt.

Fire, Ice, and a 9 Hour Playdate

Fire.

Saturday night we took the kids out to a hibachi restaurant. Now, I did remember from our last hibachi experience that hibachi restaurants are not Rebecca's favorite thing. Last time, she was scared, but was okay -- didn't try to run out the door screaming or anything. But age seems to have increased, not decreased, her fear of flame. So as soon as we walked in and sat down and she saw the fire flare up at one of the other tables, she clapped her hands to her face a-la MacCauley Culkin in Home Alone and gasped loudly. Then she burst into tears, yelled "We have to get out of here!" and tried to run out of the room. Somebody's teaching that girl good fire safety, anyway. Joel ended up spending the whole time that our food was being prepared sitting at the bar with Rebecca. Once the "fire man" (as she called him) had left our table, she was okay to come back and sit down, but was still nervous and only picked at her food. Cross hibachi off the family-restaurant-night list for a while.

Ice.

After the hibachi near-disaster we took the kids to the new TCBY that opened up this summer. For some reason, all the frozen yogurt places discovered Charlotte at once, and there's now 2 Yoforia franchises and a TCBY that opened earlier this summer, and a Pinkberry franchise is opening later this week. Anyway, this particular TCBY (probably copying off the others) is the first self-serve TCBY in the franchise's history. I learned that when you give a 6 year old a cup in a self-serve frozen yogurt shop and tell him to, well, serve himself, he comes back with blackberry and pistachio swirl topped with M&Ms, gummy bears, Oreo pieces, sprinkles, caramel sauce, and marshmallow topping.

The 9 hour playdate.

Yesterday morning I was woken up at 8am (yes we were all still asleep at that hour minus Joel who was at work) by the dad of one of Rebecca's classmates, asking if I could come pick up Mira, since her mom went into labor with baby #2 a couple weeks ahead of schedule. They live in our neighborhood, about two minutes from us, and Becca and Mira have known each other since they were babies. They actually both attended the same day care when they were infants, and now the same preschool. So I brought Mira over to our house, and she made herself right at home. Her baby sister was born mid-afternoon (though Mira seemed underwhelmed by that news), and her grandmother eventually arrived from out of state and picked her up. After getting to spend all day with Mira -- including going out to lunch together and taking a nap together -- Becca was very disappointed to see her go! Congrats Mira on your new baby sister!

Another Fun Weekend

1. Becca would like to say "thank you" to Grandma for the cute clothes she sent her last week -- thanks Grandma!

2. I took the kids to Old Navy with me Saturday morning, trying to find myself some shorts and t shirts - Rebecca ran around the store shrieking, and Ben pulled down a mannequin's shirt to "look at her boobies". (Children? What children? I didn't bring any children in here...)

3. We had friends over for dinner Saturday night, who Becca referred to as "People." Where are People? I want People to play with me. There were actually 4 Peoples, two of the grownup variety and two of the child variety, and the four kids played great together while the grownups drank and talked and drank some more. We had Make Your Own Sundaes for the kids for dessert, and the kids managed to use an entire can of whipped cream in creating their concoctions. It was a very fun evening.

4. This morning we headed for the pool, then home for lunch, and one of Ben's friends called to invite him over to play. Love it when that happens. Joel dropped Ben off, I put Rebecca down for her nap, and we had almost THREE HOURS of peace and quiet. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY! How great is that? Then Joel's parents came over for a barbecue, so we ended the day with more food and more fun!

He Just Keeps on Growing

Ben had his 6 year old well exam this afternoon. On the way there he reminded me that last year he got 5 shots (he remembered the exact number!) and that this year, he wasn't supposed to need any. Fortunately, he was correct. The only torture we had to endure was waiting half an hour in the exam room because the doctor was running behind schedule. For some reason Ben refused to play his DS (which I had brought along SPECIFICALLY for such an event) and instead occupied himself by contorting himself into a pretzel on the exam table, whining, and trying to climb the walls (literally). When our doctor finally came in, Ben was absolutely delighted to see her.

Ben continues his tall-and-skinny trend, measuring at 50 pounds and 50 1/4 inches tall. (I think their scale is heavy though - I think he's not more than 48 pounds, personally... he was kind of jiggling on the scale.). That puts him at 75th percentile for weight and off the charts for height, exactly where he's been at for the last at-least-three-years. I did finally get her to concede, after 3 years, that he could use a little more meat on his bones, and that if I wanted to give him a carb-heavy bedtime snack to try to add 5 pounds, it was fine with her. So starting tomorrow I'm going to make him a milkshake by combining vanillia ice cream and pediasure. Will see if that adds any weight to my skinny man.

4th of July

We met up with our friends Eric and Joanna and their kids Jared and Evan (Jared is Ben's best friend) for dinner last night before heading to see the fireworks show uptown. We timed everything quite nicely - a late lunch and a late nap for Rebecca (she woke up at 5pm) so she wouldn't be too tired to stay up for the 9:30 fireworks show. We had dinner at Hawthorne's and then found a baseball field near the fireworks that people seemed to be congregating in with lawn chairs and blankets. We set up our own chairs and blankets and the kids ran around and played tag for an hour or so until it got dark and the fireworks show began.

Last year you may remember, we went to the fireworks show at Providence country club and Ben ran screaming into the clubhouse the moment they started. This year, perhaps emboldened by the presence of his friend, he enthusiastically watched the whole show yelling "AWESOME! OH YEAH! THAT WAS AWESOME!" for the entire half hour. Rebecca on the other hand, watched the show also on my lap, but she was very quiet, her hands were sweaty, and I could feel her pulse racing. Every time I asked her if she was okay, she would say "yeah" very quietly and kind of hoarse. She didn't cry though, and clapped when it was over along with every one else -- and then broke down and started crying and shaking for a couple of minutes after it was over. So I felt pretty bad for her at that point, but it only lasted a minute and then she calmed down and seemed fine as we were getting ready to go.

Leaving the downtown area where the fireworks were was a bit of a problem though, as the lot where we parked was so crowded it was impossible to even get out of our parking spot. It took us about 45 minutes before we managed to back out, get out of the lot, and away from the traffic. At about this time that we were home free and breathing a sigh of relief, Ben announced that he had to pee. Which was kind of expected since he drank a large bottle of Gatorade while we were waiting for the fireworks, with no bathroom access.

Unfortunately Ben is very bad at holding his bladder once he decides he has to pee. So I handed an empty cup back to him and told him if he really couldn't hold it, to use the cup. I should also mention that Ben has such horrendous aim that he almost always sits down to pee, because he doesn't make a mess that way. So peeing into a cup while sitting buckled in his seat proved to be far too difficult a task for him, and soon I heard him shout, "Oh no! It's going everywhere!" And then I FELT it going everywhere, and so did Joel -- yes Ben somehow managed to pee on my arm, and on the side of Joel's face, from the back seat. Cudos to Joel, who somehow managed to keep driving while being peed on.

So we arrived home at 11pm, with 3 of the 4 of us covered in pee. (Rebecca somehow was spared).

I'm still going to put this adventure down in the "successful" column though.

Down the Slide!

On Friday during swimming lessons at camp Ben earned his "green band" -- that is, a green wrist band that allows him access to all areas of the pool including the diving well. They have "free swim" every day in addition to swimming lessons, and Ben has wanted this green band very badly because without it, you can't go down the new slide (which empties into the diving well). When his swimming ability was first tested when camp started, he got a red band, which meant he was only allowed in the shallow part of the pool. To get a yellow band, the swimmer must be able to swim half a lap freestyle and half a lap backstroke. To get the green band, the swimmer must be able to swim a lap freestyle and a lap backstroke. Ben, out of sheer determination more than anything else I think, passed the test for his green band on Friday! (Skipping right over yellow). He stopped and treaded water a couple times during his test, which is allowed, as long as you don't touch bottom/sides. We are very proud of him! And so now -- down the slide!

Pool Playdate

This afternoon we went to a barbecue/ pool date at our friends' house. Whenever we go there ("there" being Fort Mill, SC so really, in the middle of nowhere) I get pool envy. Their community pool is pretty awesome. We had a great time.

Park Playdate

A beautiful sunny Saturday morning in Charlotte - and not too hot or humid! We met friends at Freedom Park for a bike ride/play date and then headed to a delicious lunch at Big Daddy's Burger bar.