Too Hot

According to my phone, it's already 84 degrees (at 10:38 this morning) and it's supposed to go up to 105 today. And 102 tomorrow. And then it's supposed to "cool off" to 99 for a few days. I am submitting my prayer to the gods of air conditioning now:

Dear gods of air conditioning,

 Please let the second floor air conditioner work surprisingly well during this heat wave. Please also let the second floor air conditioner at our rental house work surprisingly well during this heat wave.

Amen.

The Boy and the Dog are Growing

Mid-Week Update

1. Mysterious sore throat illness - Joel has been sick for a week with a mysterious sore throat/ cough, and now Ben has it. He stayed home from camp Monday and came home at lunch time yesterday. No symptoms except a bad sore throat and a hoarse voice / cough. I dosed him up and sent him back to camp again this morning, wondering if he'll make it through a full day this time...

2. A hearty congratulations to our friends Eric and Joanna, who finally sold their house after a little over 3 months and 72 showings. (I cannot imagine going through 72 showings, I called it quits in the 30s somewhere).

3. Work - it's crazy busy! I was looking over my notes from yesterday in preparation for today's weekly meeting, and realized I worked on 12 different things yesterday. This despite having to go pick up Ben in the middle of the day, and then having to go back out to get Rebecca at 4 and Caroline at 5. No wonder my head was spinning last night and I was wondering around the house doing random chores at 10pm because my brain would not settle down.

4. I can't think of anything else right now! Pretty lame blog post, oh well.

My girls

This was the first time I put both the girls in the tub together. It went very well until, shortly after I took this picture, an over-enthusiastic Rebecca splashed water directly in Caroline's face. Caroline was not perturbed, but I was slightly annoyed.

Birthday Sleepover

Yesterday was Ben's birthday sleepover - he and four friends spent the evening trading Pokemon cards, playing video games, trading Pokemon cards, watching a movie, trading Pokemon cards... Here they are, trading Pokemon cards with a pint-sized observer.... I have some other pictures that'll I'll get around to uploading at some point. They fell asleep at varying times ranging from 10pm to 1am, and were all up at 7. All things considered, it went very well - there were no arguments needing parental intervention, everyone seemed to have a good time, etc. And Joel and I survived having 7 kids from 3pm until 10am, which I consider to be quite an accomplishment... especially considering Joel was working this weekend so he went to bed early last night and got up early to go to work this morning.

Stickers

Rebecca decided Caroline's helmet could use a little pizazz- and what better way to add pizazz than with sparkly princess stickers?

Glow in the Dark

Toothbrushes.

Summer School

Ben's second grade teacher has offered her tutoring services over the summer, and I (along with apparently half the class at least) jumped at the opportunity to give Ben an hour a week one on one with his teacher, so that his brain doesn't turn to mush over the summer. Ben specifically will be working with her on handwriting mechanics, as well as math review to keep his math skills sharp during the summer. When I told Ben he was going to spend an hour a week with his teacher, he was actually thrilled! He LOVES his teacher. Today was his first session, from 4:30-5:30 at the South county library. I am embarrassed to say it was the first time I'd actually been inside the South county library, but I did take advantage of the opportunity by getting a library card, and letting Rebecca check out a bunch of books. When Ben was finished with his tutoring session, he also picked out a couple of books. Ben has some math review sheets and a writing assignment to do this week for his teacher. He was extremely good natured and amenable to the idea of homework over the summer. Wednesdays are going to be a long day, since I have to leave my desk at 3:30 in order to get all 3 kids and get to the library at 4:30, and get home around 6pm. As a result, I have work to catch up on this evening. But it's worth it to keep Ben's brain sharp over the summer!

Birthday Boy

My little man turns 8 years old today. We will celebrate with dinner at PF Chang's (his choice), and presents tonight. Since I assume he will not be reading my blog at camp today, he is getting Lego Batman 2, some books, an electric toothbrush (an odd birthday request from him but whatever), and a subscription to game fly (first two video games have already arrived). Uncle Mike and Aunt Kathleen sent him a gift as well, and some money/gift cards from the grandparents. He is also having four friends over on Saturday for a birthday party/sleepover (Yes I probably need my head examined for agreeing to this). This morning I stalked him with my cell phone saying "Smile for the camera birthday boy!" every 5 minutes until he got annoyed with me. Happy, happy birthday Ben!

First Day of Summer Camp 2012

Hard to believe this is our 6th summer at Camp Katan/Camp Mindy! And Rebecca is a Mindy-Lite this year.

6 Month Check Up

Caroline had her 6 month checkup today. She is 21 pounds, and 27 inches long, putting her >97th percentile for weight, and over 90th percentile for length. She is falling behind Ben though! Ben was 22 pounds at 6 months. But since Ben was a lot longer, Caroline seems fatter :) If only she could enjoy now all those compliments she gets on her chunky thighs! The only time in life that chunky thighs are admired :-) Enjoy it while it lasts, Caroline!

Rebecca's Belk Theater Debut/Father's Day

Rebecca had her dance debut at the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center's Belk Theater today. That is like, a real venue! (The premier venue in Charlotte in fact). She performed with her classmates from Miss Donna's School of Dance, which has four dance studios around Charlotte. Miss Donna has been teaching dance in Charlotte for over 50 years. In addition to her four studios, she also has a class at the JCC on Wednesday afternoons, which Rebecca and some of her school friends have attended this whole past year. There were students of all ages participating in the recital; many were very accomplished dancers! Rebecca's class, of course, was one of the youngest (though not quite the youngest; I think there were even a couple of two year old classes who performed). The recital was really long, like probably 3 hours, though we left after Rebecca's performance, two hours in, because we were all STARVING (the show started at 1 and we had not eaten lunch). The house was packed with an estimated 3,000 people, so Joel and the rest of the crew sat at the balcony level, and I managed to find my way into a single third row seat after dropping Rebecca backstage, so I stayed there. My video camera angle was not the best, since I was to one side of the stage and Rebecca was on the other side, but I did the best I could...

Here is the video of her performance --



And here is my little dancer after the show! Way to go Rebecca & friends!

After we left we walked down the street to Ri-Ra for a late lunch / early dinner, which was an appropriate restaurant choice for the occasion and for father's day, because the last time Joel and I were at Ri-Ra was the night before Rebecca was born. How nice to return with our amazing daughter over 4 1/2 years later! After we ate we had one more stop to make on the way home, which was to the Apple store where we treated Joel's Dad to a new MacBook Pro as a combination late birthday/father's day gift. (Joel's father's day present is a Kindle, but unfortunately it's not arriving until later this week). Happy father's day all!

The Crabs Meet an Untimely Fate

So yesterday on the beach the kids collected some cool shells, the only problem being the shells were occupied. Another beach-goer helpfully let us know that it was easy to get the crabs out of the shells if you boil them, and use a  pair of tweezers or pliers to pull the crab out ("It comes out really easily," he assured me). So, not really pausing to think about the act of boiling a crab to death and then pulling it out of its shell, I told the kids they could keep the shells and we'd boil them at home.

The kids were very happy about this, and we put the shells into a plastic bag to keep them until we got home. I left the bag on the kitchen counter when we got home last night, having decided that I didn't feel like dealing with them until we got home to Charlotte. This morning when I went into the kitchen I immediately noticed that the bag was tipped on its side, empty. Uh oh. The crabs, sensing their fate, had tried to make a break for it. I called the kids in and we hunted all over the kitchen and dining room until we located all four of them. After that we kept a closer eye on them, until after we got home and I couldn't delay the inevitable any longer. I told the kids to go get their crabs. They produced three of them, and after persistently asking them where the other one was, they eventually located it. ("Where was it?" "In Miller's driveway").

So after apologizing to each crab individually I dropped them into boiling water and then used pliers to pull the crabs out. It is worth mentioning that the thought of a shell-less crab is totally disgusting to me, and when we had a hermit crab as a pet as a kid I used to have nightmares about it coming all the way out of its shell. Just totally gives me the heebee geebees. Anyway, I successfully got 3 of them out, trying not to look at them closely. The fourth one unfortunately, may be a bit stuck in there. I don't think all of it came out.

YUCK!!! The kids were very happy with their shells, though.

Home

We left Hilton Head at about 10:15, and after stopping for gas, stopping for an ill-fated lunch at Cracker Barrel where a waitress dropped a tray of food on Rebecca's head, stopping for 3 bathroom breaks, and stopping to disentangle Rebecca from her seat belt* we FINALLY made it home at about 4:30. You do the math - over 6 hours for a trip that should really only have taken four and a half. Everyone was a bit tired and grumpy by the time we got home. After unpacking (mostly), starting some laundry, ordering pizza, welcoming Clara home from her week long stay at camp, boiling the kids' crabs**, baths, etc, everyone is feeling a bit better I think. Caroline is asleep and the kids are in their pjs watching golf with Joel. I'm sorry vacation is over, but it is good to be home.

* Somehow she managed to wrap the seat belt around her leg which was somehow hoisted up over her head, and it locked in place so every time I tried to pull on it to get some slack I actually made it worse, so Joel had to pull over and we both spent 5 minutes wrestling Rebecca (screaming) out of her seat belt.

** The subject of another blog post.

Last Day at Hilton Head

For our last day at Hilton Head we decided to give the kids a choice of activities. Instead of going to the beach they chose to go to Harbor Town, which has a variety of shops / restaurants / things to do. So we headed there after breakfast. The weather was AWESOME today, cool (around 80) and sunny and DRY - no humidity. At Harbor Town we signed up for an alligator tour for later in the day, and then killed some time on the beach next to the lighthouse, where the kids hunted for shells and crabs and where (it was rumored) some little sharks had recently been spotted offshore (but we didn't see them). The kids did find several cool shells with live crabs still inside them - a guy there who was also hunting for cool shells told us we should boil them to get the crabs out, so we can keep the shells. So I put them in a bag, and since I have not gotten around to boiling them yet, occasionally when I walk by the bag gives a little rattle...

ANYWAY, after that and having a snack, we set off on the alligator tour. Rebecca had to be bribed to get into the boat, but once there she was fine. The tour did not start off very auspiciously, and did not improve much from there. We saw only one alligator after quite a while of looking, which our captain swore up and down has never happened before. Then he got the boat stuck on a sand bar, and couldn't get it off. Which he also swore had never happened before. He got in the water and tried to push the boat off the sand bar, but then claimed he felt a gator under the water, hopped back in the boat, and refused to get back in the water. (At the mention of a gator by the boat, Ben got very hopeful, still wanting to see one close up. The captain threatened to throw him in the water, and he may only have been half joking by that point). He ended up having to call the park rangers to come in another boat and tow us off the sand bar. The whole process of getting unstuck took about 45 minutes, during which time the captain did not act very professional, and called various people he was talking to on his cell phone "retarded" and "morons", complained about what a bad day he was having, etc etc. So what does Joel do at the end? Not only does he NOT ask for our $120 back, he tips the guy $15. Go figure.

After the alligator tour fiasco, we came home and changed and went out to dinner at a restaurant right on the beach, which had live music and a great view and was FREE because the restaurant was in the Palmetto Dunes development where we're staying, and we'd gotten a $200 gift card upon our arrival that we still had $140 left on to spend. To wrap up the day, Joel and his dad took Ben and Rebecca to see an outdoor kids concert where they have face painting, tattoos, balloon animals, and all that stuff. And I put the baby to bed and then starting doing laundry/packing for our trip home tomorrow. (I don't want to go home tomorrow!! Where did this week go?? SIGH).

Here are some pictures from today.

Cool Shells. Crabs Included.

Beach Pictures, Round 2

Savannah

Had some internet issues here at the beach house the last couple of days, so haven't been able to keep up with the blogging. It seems to be working again. Tuesday was a rain off-and-on-again kind of day, so instead of going to the beach we decided to drive to Savannah for the day (about an hour from here). We went to a wildlife preserve, where we had to shelter under a convenient awning during a brief but prolific downpour, which seemed to drive most of the animals into hiding. Ben complained bitterly about not seeing the cougar or the alligator that were supposed to be there. It was hot and there was about a thousand percent humidity, AND we were in the wetlands, so everything was, well, very muggy and sticky. After that we drove into downtown Savannah and had lunch at the Pirate House restaurant, which was built in the 1750s and allegedly was the home of real pirates at some point. The kids seemed to enjoy that, though Becca complained that there were not real pirates there (apparently she was expecting some). After that we attempted to walk along River Street, where the old city is and all the tourist shops are now, but the kids would have none of it and eventually mutinied - Joel had to go get the car and pick us up after the kids parked themselves on a bench and would not move an inch further. We managed to bribe them with some ice cream from Leopold's, an apparently well-known ice cream shop, and then since it started raining again we drove around the historic sections of Savannah in the car while they ate their ice cream, so we at least got to see a little bit of the city that way. Joel has added this trip to the List Of Reasons Not to Leave Hilton Head when we come on vacation.

Some pictures:

Great Beach Day!

We stayed until the tide came all the way in and was lapping at our feet! A good 5 hours, during which time the kids entertained themselves very nicely, baby was totally chill as usual, and I got lots of reading done!

Vacation Pictures, Round One

We arrived in Hilton Head late Saturday afternoon, after a four and a half hour car trip full of "are we there yet?" and "I have to go to the bathroom!" Since arriving we've been enjoying the beach, though as you'll see from the pictures a tropical storm a week or so ago dumped a bunch of crap up onto the beach which hasn't been cleaned up yet. It does not seem to bother the kids. Ben seems to have gotten over his usual worries about sharks, etc and had fun boogie boarding with Joel, and Rebecca had fun splashing in the shallow water and digging holes in the sand. The baby had fun napping in her car seat and sitting on a beach blanket playing with toys. She has not gone into the water yet. As for me, I am sunburned and covered in mosquito bites already, and it's only Monday ;)

Here is a first round of pictures, including Caroline splashing in the tub after dinner (actually her first bath where she sat unassisted instead of in the bath seat, which I guess means she has officially outgrown it).

Not Exactly Sure Why we Need This...

But it's cool...

PT Follow-up

Caroline had her first appointment with the therapist since obtaining her stylish pink helmet 2 1/2 weeks ago. (With all the extended family members visiting last week for the funeral, I had this conversation about a thousand times: THEM: "Oh she's so adorable! What is the helmet for?" ME: "It's because she's symmetrically challenged." THEM: [blank stare] . ME: "Her head is not quite round in the back. It's to reshape her head." THEM: "Oh! I thought it was a fashion statement." ME: "No, my fashion sense is not that bad.")

ANYWAY... :) Caroline is showing dramatic improvements in her symmetry, now being only 4 millimeters off between the sides of her head, instead of 10 millimeters like she was before the helmet. Way to go Caroline! A couple more weeks and I am sure the helmet will be a thing of the past! You know, taken out only at your bat mitzvah and in front of all your boyfriends...

List of Things I am Not Prepared For

1. Vacation - I need to buy a new charger for my camera battery, an extra suitcase to pack for Caroline's first trip, a beach umbrella, and countless other things that I'm probably not going to have time for this week considering that  I have to work, take 2 kids to doctor appointments, attend Ben's end of year class party, etc.

2. Ben's birthday - Ben's birthday is 3 days after we return from Hilton Head. I have not done any shopping yet and only minimal birthday party arrangements (he is having a sleepover with 3 or 4 of his friends the Saturday after his birthday).

3. Rebecca's dance recital - Rebecca has a dance recital at the Belk Theater uptown the day after we get back from Hilton Head. From what I understand, there's going to be like thousands of people there. Although I've got Rebecca's recital costume and vague instructions, she is going to miss the dress rehearsal and thus will probably be appearing rather confused and shell-shocked on stage.

4. Summer camp - summer camp starts 2 days after we get back from vacation. I need to get the kids' camp supplies together (sunblock, non-Croc water shoes, large ziploc bags, stuff to pack lunches, etc).

This list was supposed to help me get organized so that I can prepare for these things. Unfortunately all it's doing so far is making me hyperventilate just a little bit more than I already was...

House Update

On the house front, our renters moved in yesterday. Or rather, they arrived yesterday and their stuff arrived today ;) Hopefully they are getting unpacked/settled in nicely. We walked over to give them the keys etc yesterday and brought them a couple of pizzas, since they were arriving around dinner time. Rebecca met their daughter, who is her age, so hopefully they will be friends! And hopefully nothing will break and the whole renting-our-house-and-moving-3-doors-down thing will work out well! Fingers crossed.

Catching Up

This last week has been very hard on everyone, but we're trying now to get through with the last week of school for the kids, and then heading to Hilton Head for a week on Saturday. The kids have dealt with their grandmother's passing differently; Ben has been scared to go to sleep at night, even almost pulling an all-nighter a couple of nights last week. He stayed home from school Tuesday because he was too tired after not sleeping Monday night, and stayed home Wednesday for the funeral.

Ben and Rebecca both came to the funeral and seemed to handle that aspect of things pretty well. We tried to sit down with them that morning and explain everything that would happen ahead of time, so there wouldn't be any surprises.That seemed to help. Despite the circumstances, they enjoyed their first limo ride, and especially the ride to the cemetery, where we had a police escort and got to run all the red lights. That kept them distracted/entertained for a while.

At home we've had about a million visitors bearing food, neighbors bringing dinner, etc. I am hoping this is coming to an end soon, although the kids seemed to enjoy the visitors, the disruptions to their routine and the reminder of why the people were here seems to make things more difficult for Ben's sleeping habits. He seems to be improving and now is only requiring someone to sit with him for a few minutes extra at bed time. Rebecca seems a lot less scared/more matter-of-fact, due to her age I think. Hopefully this week will bring a return to some normalcy, and next week, a much-needed vacation.

We will miss you, Nanny.

Ready to Swim

In an effort to get the kids back into a more normal routine and take their minds off the loss of their grandmother, we returned to the pool this weekend for the CJP annual end-of-year pool party. Here's Rebecca, all decked out and ready to swim with her buddies.

Early Birthday Party

Since this is Ben's last week of school (!) so he won't get to celebrate his actual birthday at school with his friends, we celebrated today at lunch by bringing him lunch from Chik-Fil-A and sharing a cookie cake with his classmates.

Joan Ruth Kaplan - November 7,1943- May 28, 2012

Joel's Mom passed away unexpectedly last Monday. It has been a very difficult week for Joel, his Dad, and the whole family. I will catch up on the blogging as time allows over the next few days.