Running!
Snuggling
First tube slide
First Chucks
Chalk art
Parks
Baseball
Cloud gazing
NYC in August (Loved!)
But I was so happy to see my city again
I swear he grew 3″ while I was gone
A week at “grandma & grandpa camp” and suddenly she’s this big kid
Watching The Avengers blow up CLE
Pretending she’s a teenager
16 months = endless entertainment
What have you been up to this summer?
A few weeks ago I was invited to a blogger day at a local outlet mall. I had never been to Lodi Station Outlets before but we pass it on every trip to my parents’ house. Every time we pass we talk about stopping but the kids are never cooperative. So this invite was a great way to finally check it out.
As a parent I was thrilled to see all the kids’ stores on the list of shops: Gap Kids, Carter’s, OshKosh, etc. My husband wanted to check out adidas & Levi’s. I couldn’t wait to be let loose in Kitchen Collection. (Why yes, we are quite the stereotypical cast of characters aren’t we?).
I went to Lodi Outlets on a mission to replace our 10-year-old hand-me-down blender. I was prepared to spend up to $75 on a new one. I had done my homework and knew what I was after. I’ll cut to the chase – the deals at Lodi were great. Here’s what $100 bought:
Matilda got a pair of Reebok running shoes and a pair of Buster Brown sandals at Famous Footwear Outlet. I got tongs, pure Madagascar vanilla extract, a leave-in meat thermometer to replace one that just died and my pièce de résistance – a Cuisinart SmartPower 7-Speed Electronic Blender – all from Kitchen Collection. When I found this Cuisinart for $39 I grabbed it so fast that Mark’s head spun. It was 30% off regular retail. Plus I had picked up some coupons in the food court so I only spent $34 on it – nearly half off regular price.Just so you know that I wasn’t the only one burning through cash, Mark also scored some great deals from the Father’s Day sale at adidas that aren’t pictured above. A runner can never have too many socks or tech shirts.
The best part about Lodi Station, and a big reason why we will go back, is the things for kids to do there. This is a great spot to shop with the family because mom & dad can take turns – one shops while the other explores with the kids. There is a very nice playground and grassy area near the parking lot. They also have 2 custom-made classic trains that ramble around the property all day and Matilda could not wait to get on one.
Another thing I found was that the staff was extremely kid-friendly. From the Lodi Station Outlet staff working in the food court area to the staff at the shops we visited, everyone was super-nice. Our last stop of the day was in Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some ice cream. Matilda had $2 burning a hole in her purse and she decided that she wanted to spend it on chocolate. The RMCF staff was so sweet – helping her find what she could afford and what would be the best value for her money. She decided on 4 chocolate coins for $1, went to the counter to pay for it herself and they made such a fuss over her. She was so proud of her first transaction and held on to that receipt like her life depended on it.
The Madman wants you to know that parents & kids can relax at Lodi Station
Matilda has already asked to go back to “the train mall” a few times. And I’m pretty sure the next trip to my parents’ house will include a stop at Lodi Station; Mark can take the kids on the train while I shop!
Disclosure: I was invited to have lunch, ride the train and shop at the Lodi Station stores. I was given a gift card to do so along with a swag bag of items from some of the shops. All opinions are, of course, my own.
In recent conversations, both in-person and online I have been amazed at how many people (both men and women, for the record) who don’t know how to do what I would consider “basic skills”. For instance, the amount of people who drive a car daily but don’t know how to change a tire is fascinating.
I learned how to do it in Drivers Ed because, just like putting gas in a car and checking the oil, it’s part of basic maintenance and operation of a vehicle. And yes, I’ve changed a tire more than once. I’ve also called AAA; but I know that there are times and places where I won’t have cell reception and I am going to be responsible for myself.
Anyway all of this got me thinking of what skills I want my children to have by the time they go to college. This is ever-evolving, of course, but here’s what I have so far:
Car care/operation: Change a tire, check tire pressure, check/add oil (and/or whatever new technology brings), how to read a paper map
Clothes: sew a button, fix a hem, iron, operate a washer and dryer without ruining the clothes. Bonus – if either kid wants to, I will teach them to use a sewing machine.
Home & Garden: start and use a lawn mower, paint, plant flowers, operate a drill and other basic tools, how to install new locks.
Cooking: make perfect chocolate chip cookies, cook a variety of proteins, make bread, make our family’s favorite recipes, make a good marinara sauce, cook perfect eggs, how to follow a recipe, starting a charcoal grill, cooking on a grill.
Maybe part of it was being the youngest of 3 and having “tired” parents, but I did all of these things by the time I was in high school. I mowed the grass in late elementary school. By 4th grade I was let lose in the kitchen without supervision and became the chief cookie and zucchini bread maker for the family. The summer between my 8th and 9th grade years I removed wallpaper and painted several rooms in our new house. I learned to sew from my mother and my middle school required Home Economics* so I furthered my skills there.
I remember being dumbfounded by a college classmate who had no idea how to use the dorm washing machines. I don’t want either of my children to be “that kid”. Beyond that I think that most of these things are simply basic parts of being a functioning adult and it’s my responsibility to teach my kids how to do them.
What “basic” skills do you want to teach your kid? As an adult, what skills do you wish you had?
*we were also required to take Shop where I learned things beyond basic tools like a drill press, table saw and metal working tools. Those classes were the best! I wish schools still required this.
We still have boxes in our basement that haven’t been unpacked. We moved here almost 4 years ago. Our unfinished basement was reaching Hoarders level of STUFF so when my parents were here 2 weeks ago Mark and I tackled the task.
Luckily most of the STUFF could be trashed or donated. Many of the unpacked boxes were of the last-minute variety – those 3-4 boxes of random crap you throw together as the movers are loading the truck. Those were easy to go through. But there were a few treasures to be found. Like the cute baby snowsuit that I searched and searched for this winter, swearing that I would not have given it away. I haden’t but now it’s outgrown so I will.
But the best discovery was a box of my old t-shirts which my parents saved. Behold the beauty of the late ’80s and ’90s:
First up… concert t-shirts from elementary school. We were apparently a patriotic bunch.
I remember most of the songs and dance moves from this concert
When I was in 5th grade I went to Walloon Lake, MI with a friend’s family where we lived like feral children for a week while her parents sat on the dock drinking wine. I remember falling asleep on a raft that was tethered to the that dock. It was the best trip ever:
My grandparents went to Acapulco and brought back this horribly tacky, bright orange fringed shirt. Of course, I wore it nearly every day (4-5th grade):
Hangin’ Tough….mmm, I wonder if anyone going to the New Kids/Back Street Boys concert wants to buy this from me? (6th grade)
Now this is a shirt I was so excited to get. For whatever reason, getting a shirt made when you got braces was a BIG DEAL in our town. And yes, I went to a shop so I could pick out the “perfect” iron-in for my shirt. We went to the iron-on store straight from the orthodontist. I wore this shirt with such pride. I just offered it to my niece who got braces and she declined – I wonder why? (6th grade)
Nerd alert! This one was customised at the iron-on store with my name on the back. Of course it’s spelled KT instead of the much too laborious Katie (8th grade):
I would have never saved these on my own but it is kind of fun that my mom kept them. Matilda loves wearing the smaller ones as night shirts.
Did you or your parents save anything from your childhood that makes you laugh?
This past weekend we picked up the kids from school early, loaded up the station wagon and drove the 4+ hours down to Cincinnati for Mark’s 1st marathon. To say it was a great weekend would be an understatement. You might think that only runners can write race reports, but spouses who spend hours planning and organizing the logistics of an out-of-town race also have a story to tell…
Such a great traveler (thank god for travel DVD players)
My parents also drove down for the weekend which was not only a nice thing to do (coming to cheer for their son-in-law) but also turned out to be an invaluable asset. The extra hands to help wrangle the kids was a godsend for me as I stressed about getting around on race day. I can’t thank them enough for giving up their weekend and helping out.
On Saturday they took MAD while Mark, M and I headed to the expo. It’s a bit overwhelming being a first timer, but M had a great time checking out the booths and getting freebies. As a runner Mark got a nice backpack and a tech shirt. After we left the expo we decided to check out a bit of the course. It ran right past our hotel at about mile 6.5 which was smack dab in the middle of a major uphill climb. In fact I was worried at the steepness and length of the hills. Mark did a good deal of hill training but the terrain in Cleveland can’t compare to that of Cincinnati. In fact, miles 3 to 9 were all uphill. He wasn’t worried, though. On our drive I tried to scope out where I would cheer and we saw some really beautiful neighborhoods.
Bib secured, pigs ready to fly
We grabbed lunch at nearby Mt. Adams Bar and Grill, which was a very cute and accommodating place with good food. (Once we found parking. Mt Adams is a darling area, but parking is really hard to find). Afterwords Mark and MAD took a nap while my mom, M and I checked out the beautiful Eden Park which was across the street from our hotel. We soaked up the sunshine and warmth while we could – the Sunday forecast had a 90% chance of rain. As it was my first time in Cincinnati-proper I was really impressed with the parks, houses and architecture. Cinci has much more to offer then I had thought.
My mom doesn’t usually have a spout of water coming out of her head
For dinner we headed over to Kentucky for dinner at Pompilio’s. I had researched pasta places extensively and had called the restaurant earlier in the week. While they wouldn’t take reservations they insisted it would only be a 30-45 min wait at 6 PM, even with the Reds game and the marathon. We got there and saw crowds waiting outside. I made my way through the (smokey – I forgot not every state has the same wonderful smoking ban that OH does) bar and the hostess told me it would be a 3 hour wait! Thank goodness for smartphones because we were looking for a new place immediately. We ended up at Martino’s On Vine near the UC campus. It was a great place; not crowded, fantastic service and good prices. My cousin, Carrie, who lives in Blue Ash and my Aunt (from Columbus) came down to join us and it was great to catch up with them. Mark got his big plate of spaghetti and meatballs and was a happy camper.
My parents, wonderful people that they are, offered to take M to the hotel pool then have her sleep in their room on the pull-out couch so Mark would get good sleep. We eagerly accepted since the night before no one really got any sleep with all 4 of us in a single hotel room. I was able to keep MAD pretty quiet all night so Mark was able to get a pretty solid 6 1/2 hours of sleep before is alarm went off at 4:30 on Sunday morning.
Race day is a whole other story…
M didn’t sleep through the night until probably 22 months. For her 1st year she was up to eat at least once a night (2-3 times a night for the first six months); I was breastfeeding and she refused a bottle so I was always the one up with her. I perfected the half-awake stumble to her room and would fall asleep in the rocker with her in my arms. I can still clearly remember the first time I got an interrupted 8 hours of sleep when she was a toddler – I felt drunk! I was a bit woozy and light headed and happy all from a single night’s sleep.
Around 6 months we started to try anything anyone suggested. We gave Weissbluth, Ferber, and Hogg each a month each with no improvement. I read Babywise and The No Cry Sleep Solution but they were no help. We spent months going “by the book” but it always made things worse. She would scream for hours on end. Everyone says “give it a few days! It will get shorter every night!” It didn’t. For about 6 months, each night we’d go through the complicated dance of bedtime, following this rule or that one, and she would always wake up and demand attention. We eventually gave in and came up with a solution which basically gave her 10 minutes to go back to sleep and if not one of us would go in, tend to her and be back in our bed in a few minutes. We got used to the interrupted sleep. And around the time she was 2 she slept through the night; around age 3 we could go in her room and check on her – something unheard of in her light-sleeper infant days.
When we got pregnant with MAD I told the universe it owed me a good sleeper.
MAD slept his first straight 8 hours at 6 weeks. By 8 weeks that 8 hour stretch at night was consistent. At 12 weeks he was clocking 9-10 hours a night without a wake-up, even when I would go in and checks on him. It’s was awesome and I thanked the universe.
He’s always gotten up once to eat…in those beautiful weeks when he was sleeping he’d go down between 6 and 7 PM and wake up around 2 or 3 AM to eat, then sleep another 3-4 hours. I would go to bed at 10 and get about 6 hours of sleep before feeding him and another 2-3 hours after. Life was pretty good.
At about 14 weeks it all changed.
MAD started waking up about every 3 hours to eat. Although he’ll take a bottle Sir Stubborn refuses formula of any brand or type. It’s all boob juice all the time (even though he had formula every day for the first 60+ days of his life…at some point he just started refusing it). By this time I was back at work and barley pumping enough to keep up with his daycare bottle needs so the limited supply couldn’t be used at night. I chalked the extra feedings up to a growth spurt and wearily soldiered on.
At 6 months we started some “sleep training” because I was literally falling asleep work from the sleep deprivation. We tried letting him cry. We tried bottles of whole milk (our pediatrician’s suggestion) and water to get him weaned off those night feedings. We tried stuffing him full of food before bed. NOTHING WORKS. This kid needs to/wants to eat every 3-4 hours around the clock. During the day he gets solids and bottles but at night it’s all me. His cry is more of a scream and he’ll scream himself hoarse before he falls back to sleep.
Now we’re staring down 11 months and he STILL gets up twice a night. Usually around midnight and then around 3 or 4. Sometimes Mark can get him settled back to sleep at the second wake-up, but more often than not I have to go in and feed him at some point.
I’ve done the math and thanks to the joy of pregnancy night trips to the bathroom, I haven’t slept more than 6 consecutive hours in over 13 months. I get weepy when I think about it, because all I want is sleep.
Lately M has been somewhat obsessed with aging, “being old” and the elderly. She talks about getting old and dying and acts like an “old person” during pretend play. Let me tell you there is nothing like a 4 year old pretending to walk with a cane to make you laugh! I’m not sure what triggered this; maybe it’s because the beloved dog of family friends died, or because she’s been looking at her baby book with photos of her and her now deceased great-grandmothers. Perhaps it’s just an age-appropriate curiosity about life-span. Whatever it is, it makes for some interesting conversation so I recently recorded a conversation we had on what it means to get old.
Tell me what do old people do?
Well, when you’re old you need a cane to help you walk. And old people fish. They fish a lot. And they hold a cane to walk to the lake like this [demonstrates walking, hunched over, with a pretend cane]. Then they catch a fish and eat it in a tent.
I have no idea where she got this concept or where this is going…
So, like they’re camping? What kind of food do old people eat?
Well, mama, they need soft camping food. Like marshmallows and fish. Then they go in the tent and eat barbeque. They live in the tents.
Can you just imagine a retirement campground? For some reason all I can think of is the campsite in Walking Dead. Can’t you see it: Zombies vs. Elderly!
How do you get to be very old?
You have to live a looooong time. A long, long, long, long time. Until you’re 100!
Who are some old people you know?
Well, Busia! She’s old. But she died. And Dziadzia! But he died, too. They’re both dead because you die when you get very old.
Busia & Dziadzia are my maternal grandparents. Busia died at age 91 when M was 8 months old. Dziadzia died when I was 5 – I barely remember him and M has only seen a few pictures so I’m shocked she brought him up.
Do you know anyone old people who are still alive?
Yes! Aunt Wid and Uncle Dave!
her great aunt and uncle who are both in their 70s
And Daddy! Daddy is very old.
since Mark is 5 years older than me I find this hysterical!
And me! [rocking in her rocking chair] I’m VERY old. Like 30 years old!
Do old people like rocking chairs?
They need to take naps in the middle of the day so they rock themselves to sleep. Sometimes they cover up with a blanket – all the way to their chin!
Can I be an old person right now, please?
They don’t take naps in their bed?
No! They need to sleep in their rocking chair. The bed is not safe for old people – they might fall out! Maybe they need old cribs to sleep…. a bed with tall walls. That would be very safe.
To keep out the zombies, of course.
And then she lost interest in the conversation and started talking about lions.
I don’t know about you, but as a decidedly NON-CAMPER I’m not looking forward to my twilight years. Fishing and living in tents? I’d rather go to a nursing home!
I can’t believe it’s time for another wrap-up post. When it comes to my adult life, 2010 just flew by faster than any other year I can recall. While I may not me the most prolific blogger or keep to any kind of schedule, I’m so happy I have this place to chronicle our life. I love this family to pieces and this year I feel like we are complete. So, here is 2010 in review:
2010 was a great year for many reasons. I’m sad to see it go but can’t wait to see what 2011 has to throw our way! Happy New Year!
As I mentioned last year, we do our big family Christmas gathering before the day itself. Last weekend we were in Lima where M got to go crazy with her cousins and MAD got to meet his oldest cousin for the 1st time. While we were there shots were taken
cousins were met and adored
cookies were decorated
cracker houses were constructed
and the snow was played in
And that was just one day! More family came to visit on Sunday and we all came home exhausted but happy.
With family obligations out of the way, it gave us the last 2 days to just relax at home and make our own traditions and memories. One tradition is that we open gifts from my college BFF “Aunt Linds” on Christmas Eve. She spoils my kids rotten.
Last night Santa stopped by and loaded up the tree.
And this morning M was thrilled to find a stocking full of Christmas books (one of the things she asked the big guy to get for her) and tickets to see Toy Story on Ice
From us she got more books including a beautifully illustrated Nutcracker to mark her 1st year of seeing the ballet. And she also found a brand new musical jewelry box under the tree. She has been fascinated with the old beat-up one from my childhood so we decided she needed her own. She was delighted
MAD got several board books from Santa, much to his gnawing pleasure.
From us he got a “fill and spill” toy and… more books. We are a nerdy bunch.
Overall it was a wonderful holiday, which wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory pajama shot:
Family Fun Fest at Patterson’s Fruit Farm
October 2010
Making applesauce with the fresh-picked apples
Ka-Ka-Ka-Katy 
