E: Oooh, Ralph! What's that? Look what I dropped! There you go, boy. Eat it! It's healthy, and it tastes much better than poop. AND, it didn't come from your bum! You should eat that, and then you won't have to eat your poop anymore!
Friday, March 30, 2012
I'll take spaghetti over poop almost any day of the week. But I'm not a dog.
Circumstances beyond my control (yet completely within my 3 year old's) dictated that E ate dinner alone last night, seated by herself at the kitchen table with Ralph laying close by. From upstairs I heard the following conversation:
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Must be nice
As you may know, I work part time. It's fantastic. Have I mentioned that recently? Fantastic. I love my job, I love that I don't do it too often, I love the freedom I have to get things done (or not) on my days off, and the time I get to spend with my family. I also love coming home from work on Monday and shouting TGIF!, though I'm pretty sure it makes my husband want to murder me in my sleep. But I don't feel guilty. Nope, not a bit.
So I started to realize something the other day. Here's what your average joe probably sees when he looks at me:
1. Wife of a doctor
2. Works part time
3. Kid in Montessori
4. Must. Be. Nice.
Now, I have embarked on a pretty solid mission to disregard what other people may or may not think of me, but if I could just tweak that a bit for the purposes of accuracy:
1. Wife of a resident doctor - who gets paid modestly, is frightfully overworked and mostly absent
2. Works part time - to aid in paying down $275K* of student debt and to avoid day care costs
3. Kid in Montessori - because we made it a priority over having a second car, buying a house, etc.
4. Yes. It is nice. But it's certainly not as it appears to most people.
We make less than most of our friends, we have astronomically more debt and less savings, and we have shockingly less family time. And if it weren't for the vast amounts of help we've received, we would be in very bad shape indeed. This was our choice, and I'm glad we made it. Someday we will be much more comfortable than we are now. But right now it's tough. It has been tough for about 5 years and it will be tough for another 4 or so.
Why am I mentioning all of this?
For perspective. Yours and mine. I do it all the time. I look at other people's lives from the outside and I say it. Must be nice. And then I hear it said to me and I cringe. So I've decided to take another route. Yes. It must be nice. Because it's my life and it's all I have. So it must be nice, because the other option is that it sucks and I'm not interested in getting to the end of my life and realizing that I spent it being envious of my perception of someone else's reality. Because that sounds like a wasted life.
On Tuesday (or, as I like to call it - my second Saturday), I made myself slow down and really enjoy the day. It was beautiful, sunny, and all mine. I lounged a little on the couch and read mom blogs. I went grocery shopping and lingered in the aisles. I bought freshly roasted coffee beans and a birthday present and blew off renewing my passport. I made dinner for my family before E got home so that I could take her to an after-school playdate without worrying about rushing home and trying to figure out what to eat.
That was one of the most important things I did - or rather, didn't do - all day. I didn't rush. We were a little late for school in the morning because a pint-sized version of myself has been digging her heels in pretty good recently. But the world didn't end when I showed up to the school 5 minutes later than usual, and I didn't feel like Sucky Mother of the Year for once, because I kept my cool and rode out the stubbornness. I was also a tad late picking her up (about 2 minutes, which would normally give me heart palpitations), but I didn't rush and when I did show up the kids hadn't even been dismissed yet. When I had the option to try to squeeze in folding the laundry and walking the dog in the time I had, I left the laundry and had a relaxing walk with Ralph. I know he appreciated it, and the laundry could care less. It's very ungrateful.
I eventually did fold the laundry and clean up the kitchen a bit in the evening, which gave me a little burst of satisfaction, and then I flopped on the couch and read The Help. I reminded myself to stop and breathe, I recited the things I am grateful for in the car, I smiled at my husband and my daughter whenever they looked in my direction, and I was happy. So happy.
So, you know what? Go ahead and must be nice all you want. I might just agree with you.
*Yes, $275K. No, I'm not exaggerating. And yes, that is just the student debt portion of our total debt. If we put $1000/month toward it, we'll have it paid off in 30 years. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Pass the wine.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Someone just figured out YouTube
Here's a video of E's first swimming-all-by-herself adventure. With floaties, of course:
Spring-a-ling!
Lots of outdoor fun was had last week, as the weather demanded that windows were thrown open and winter coats thrown off.
The first outdoor scooting experience:
The first, albeit modest, sandcastle of the season:
And, try though she might to deny naptime's call in favour of a few more minutes of sunshine, the inevitable is inevitable...
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Doggy Style
We have a few poses that we make regular use of in our house. Or rather, that E makes regular use of. "Downward doggin' it" is the preferred position for bum wiping. And "Froggin' it" is ideal for washing private bits in the bath. Mom came up with both of these, and E quite enjoys them. But it turns out that even tried and true parental genius can be improved upon by an especially creative 3 year old.
In the bath last night...
In the bath last night...
M: Okay, time to wash your bits. Frog it please!
E: Actually, I'm going to Dog it.
M: Downward dog isn't so safe in the bathtub babe, let's Frog it instead.
E: Not Downward dog, mama. I said Dog it.
M: What's Dog it?
E: Like this...proceeds to get on all fours and lift one leg up to the side, planting her foot on the side of the tub...I'm Doggin' it!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Brace yourself, this is a long one!
It's a borrowed title - borrowed from one of my own emails...so does that count as borrowed? - but I felt it a propos for a couple of reasons. The first is fairly obvious. This post is a long one. The second is that I stumbled upon an old email this morning while searching for something else, and it provided the inspiration for today's post. It was a lengthy (obviously) description of our 4-day trip to London, England in the spring of 2007, and it was simply delightful to relive the experience in such detail. Which got me to thinking about the fantastic trip we just took to Burlington, Vermont over March Break and how, in a couple of years, I'd really enjoy looking back on a lengthy email of that adventure as well. And with any luck, you'll enjoy it right now. And so...
Imagine, if you will, embarking on a late-winter trip to one of the top 10 skiing destinations in America - or the world, depending on who you ask - with no intention of setting foot on the slopes, armed with nothing more than a pair of wellies and a smile. Well, that's exactly what the Cowfam did, with wildly fantastic results...
Day 1 - Monday (Packing day...no wait...Go Time!)
We leave tomorrow. But wait, J doesn't have to work today on account of being banned from the hospital until he's been diarrhea and vomit-free for 48 hours after a touch of the Norwalk...so why don't we start the vacation early? After a quick trip to have some stitches removed (poor Dr. J has had a rough go of it recently), and the most frantic and disorganized attempt at packing you've EVER seen, we were off! Time: 1:30pm. ETA: 4:30pm. Free food and drinks at the hotel: 5:00-7:00pm. We were in good shape.
Here's the route to our destination a la GoogleMaps:
View Larger Map
And here's how our (not so) trusty GPS took us:
View Larger Map
Moral? Short of removing your GPS from the safety of her holster and rubbing her nose in the asphalt of a Montreal highway at rush hour while you're stopped anyway with an hour to kill in a useless attempt to discourage her from any similarly brilliant ideas in the future, I recommend printing out that GoogleMap before leaving the safety of your couch and keeping one step ahead of that tricky trickster on your dashboard. But I digress.
Naively assuming that Montreal would be our biggest problem, because of course once I realized my passport is expired we dutifully called a Customs official at the border crossing we thought we would be taking, and he assured us that it was maybe possible that we might still be allowed into the country, so what else could go wrong?? (yep, still on the same sentence), we breathed a sigh of relief once we left the city limits, tempered only by a vague uncertainty as to why we were still heading East, when surely by now we would have to backtrack to Burlington. After a couple of resets to ensure that, in fact, we were going to Burlington, VT and not Burlington, NS, we gave ourselves over to blind faith and plodded on. Speaking of deep breaths, those fumes we were smelling were all that continued to propel us forward as we had intended to fill up with gas as soon as we got the the US, on the other side of Cornwall, ON, and not Philipsburg, QC (you know you're deep in the middle of nowhere in QC when the towns names are English), a difference of about 190km.
So, a quick stop for gas and some more driving got us to the border, where only a couple of cars stood between us and...another half hour wait. Turns out the customs official wasn't concerned so much with my expired passport as he was with Ralph's questionable health status. After dutifully carrying all of Ralph's records back and forth for several years, we finally decided that - having never been asked for them - his vaccination records were not all that necessary. Actually, it may have had more to do with the frantically disorganized packing mentioned earlier than anything else. In any case, we pulled over and called the vet, asked them to fax his vaccination records, and chased each other around the office for, oh I don't know, 50 laps or so, and then continued on. Time: 5:20pm. ETA: 6:05pm. Estimated time remaining to consume free food and alcohol: 00:55. We were getting antsy.
But don't worry folks, it's all good news from here. We did, in fact make it to our destination and we did, in fact, partake in about 45 minutes of free wine, local beer, chowder and salad, and we did, in fact, get a dip in the pool and hot tub before completely abandoning any attempt at a regular bedtime for baboushka. After all, we're on VACATION!!!
Day 2 - Tuesday (I'm so full...what can we eat next?)
Did I mention the actual reason we came to ski country when there was no snow to speak of and balmy 60 degree temperatures? Why to visit friends, of course! Good friends from our medical school days L-dawg and A-money, their son A-monkey and brand new-ish daughter Squishy were violently ripped from their sunny California roots and transplanted to the harsh reality of the Northern East Coast for Dr. A-money to complete his residency in Neurology. There are obvious benefits to this arrangement, sad though they were to be taken away from family and the possibility of getting a natural suntan before June. The first is that it has cut down the distance between us by about 4200km, which definitely saves on gas. The second is that they have been fortunate enough to have been carefully deposited approximately a half hour from the front door of the home of Ben & Jerry. Who needs sun when you can have ice cream? I mean really. What would you choose on a desert island? Oh, shut up.
So we were there to visit friends. We couldn't give a whoop about skiing. Take that, Vermont.
On Tuesday morning A-monkey had his first day at a weekly farm class, so we met L-dawg and Squishy at the farm for a roam while A-monkey tapped trees for syrup and cuddled baby animals. E showed Squishy some baby sheep and chickens and sang Christmas songs while Squishy practiced enunciating her vowels, and the ladies and J caught up with each other. When class was over, E and A-monkey hugged and chased each other and pushed and pulled and fell down and got muddy all the way back to the cars. It was love at second sight. We had only met him once before at graduation in June, but about 2 minutes after our reunion he turned to me and said "I missed you!". That's about as sweet as it gets. Unless you count Squishy McGigglepants and her perpetual smile. The two of them together damn near made my ovaries explode. Throw them in with E and...well, that kind of has the opposite effect of solidifying my I WILL NOT HAVE THREE KIDS rule, but cute nonetheless.
By the time the Calvalcade of Silliness made it back to L-dawg's residence it was time to wake up a sleepy Dr. A-money from his post-night shift slumber and make our way to Stowe. Not for skiing though, as I think I have already established, but for the most delightfully not-at-all-relaxing-but-excessively-fun-in-an-oh-my-god-why-are-we-always-missing-one-kid kind of way culinary scavenger hunt. First was lunch at a cafe in downtown Stowe, followed by some foot measuring in a nearby shoe/clothing/toy/gardening/souvenir shop. With full bellies it only made sense to continue on to the town of Waterbury, where we followed the apples on the floor to free apple cider. If I could just make one suggestion to the proprietors of the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, it would be that while I am immeasurably impressed by and grateful for the giant vat of apple cider that is available to patrons for free in unlimited quantities of tiny cup refills, I would advise placing the spout at a height above 24" from the ground to avoid the irresistible temptation of young ones to pull the tap just to watch the cider flow down into the overflow grate. Yes, I know that it is my responsibility to supervise the under 4' set in their unending quest for entertainment, but they really do start to move pretty quickly around 3 years of age and when there are multiples of them and I would just like to sample this delicious-looking apple butter and my husband is distracted by his search for coffee and maybe it wouldn't be so hard to just elevate the damn thing a little, no? But again, thank you for your generosity and my, those cider doughnuts really are as good as I imagined. Also, swinging benches really aren't as relaxing as I remember them to be. Although that might be down to user error on A-monkey's part.
Even more full than before but spurred on by a surge of glucose in our collective bloodstream, it was time for ice cream. Just down the road was Ben&Jerry's, complete with hippie bus and giant playground in which to deposit children and adults experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of sugar-induced mania. I enjoyed Phish food, while E sampled a bit of everyone's including her own Strawberry Cheesecake and J stuck with his weakness, Milk & Cookies. Imagine my exultation when E tired quickly of the ice cream-a-thon (What the?) and I was left to finish two bowls on my own. Wheeee!!! We then followed the kids up the hill to the playground and let the dads manage injury prevention while L-dawg and I did our best impressions of negligent gossipy playground moms. We were naturals.
Eventually we had to grab the kids and go as, though we had just spent the last 2 hours eating, we realized that it was almost time to hit the free food and booze party at the hotel.
Have I told you about our hotel yet? Let's talk about that.
Part of me doesn't want to tell you, because if everyone finds out about it and starts going then maybe they'll raise their prices or get so booked up we won't get a room next time. But I'm a sharer, so I'll risk it.
Green Mountain Suites. $119/night on Expedia. Two rooms, two TVs, kitchen with full-size fridge, stovetop and dishwasher. Pool and hot tub. Pet friendly. Free hot breakfast every morning with apple and cheese-stuffed crepes, spinach and feta scrambled eggs, danishes and just about everything else you could want for breakfast. Freaking dried cranberries for your granola! And real Vermont maple syrup. Obviously. And then. Oh, and then: every weeknight evening from 5-7pm there's an open bar serving wine and beer, and free dinner. Yes, dinner. Something different every night. With a salad bar every night. All delicious. Don't tell them that we brought our friends two out of the four nights and we saved a bundle on eating out at restaurants. But man, did we get our money's worth.
After a post-dinner swim and hot tub, we called it a night and E made it to bed about 2 hours after bedtime. I had a fleeting thought before nodding off that I wasn't sure I could handle another 3 days of so much excitement. But then I had to get to sleep because my next free meal was in a few short hours.
Day 3 - Wednesday (aka Midpoint Meltdown)
Wednesday was the day we checked out the town of Burlington. We went downtown and, after a delicious lunch with two delightfully behaved 3 year olds and one blissfully unconscious infant, we were schooled on the effects of disregarding the importance of naptime. Think screaming in race cars and elevators, writhing while screaming in Macy's and parking lots, coupled with the general exhaustion that accompanies vacations with kids, beer at lunchtime and only one cup of coffee a day. We wisely decided to dial down the evening to include a short walk/ride on mom's back to the grocery store for Ben&Jerry's and an early bedtime. Mom and dad each had an extra beer and a pint of ice cream to wash away the humiliation.
Day 4 - Thursday (aka Back in the Saddle)
The day mama had been waiting for. Lunch date with L-dawg. As rare and lovely as Cowfam family vacation time is, there is an occurrence that may be rated even lovelier by it's sheer near-extinction-like scarcity, and that is girlfriend time. And not the playdate kind, where you can usually paste together 5 minutes of conversation amid the mayhem, or the fragmented Skype conversations sprinkled with frozen screens and even more toddlerific disruptions, but pure, unadulterated, uninterruped one-on-one girlfriend time. Preferably with food.
But first - skating! L-dawg told us about a fantastic kiddie skate where they put little toys on the ice and the kidlets push crates around and fill buckets with toys. What a super-awesome way to burn some energy and do a little skill-building without breaking mama's back or cracking one's skull! Plus, there was a zamboni!
After skating, we returned to wake up Dr. Sleepy around noon. Then we warmed the kiddies up with The Gruffalo (A Gruffalo! Why didn't you know?) before handing off three dubiously obedient offspring to two overly-confident dads - who tried to apply reverse psychology with their zen calmness - and getting the heck outta dodge. We arrived at a cheerful little bakery/cafe whose sandwich selections were exceeded only by the dessert case, and complimented with free coffee and iced tea refills. My kind of place. We dined on pork sandwiches with pineapple chutney and greens followed by rich fudgy chocolate heaven and light and fluffy peanut butter and chocolate meringues, and lingered over our limitless beverages. When the vacuum cleaner switched on, we took it as our cue, more out of being afraid of being put to work than anything else. Two moms sitting for long periods of time, chatting idly and clearly enjoying themselves must be entirely too tempting for your average adolescent cafe employee. So we scooted off, returning to the glorious scene of a smiling baby, 3-year old #1 playing gleefully in the yard and 3-year-old #2 napping blissfully in a nearby stroller while two intact dads chatted amicably. Purrr-fection. And just what this mama needed.
I'll give you one guess about where we headed from there. Italian sausage night at the hotel! Avec beer. Followed by swimming, where A-monkey and E showed off their newly honed and terribly impressive swimming skills.
Day 5 - Friday (Adieu, mes amis!)
Not satisfied with limping away from our vacation, we decided to pack as much fun into the last few hours as possible. And what's more fun that bowling with toddlers? Nothing! Except maybe using the toddlers as bowling balls, but you might not be with me on that one. In any case, I beat the pants off of my husband (who failed to break 100) with my score of 113, while A-money and A-monkey each earned turkeys. (It's worth noting that the kids' lane had bumpers, which, somehow, didn't stop my little E-monkey from getting a few gutterballs. Must take after her dad.)
Then we were starving and not satisfied with bowling alley fare, and so we stopped at one more cafe before hitting the road. Then there was some picture taking (until the battery died) and lots of hugging (until the kids got antsy) and just like that, we were off.
If you are ever in the Burlington area feel free to print out this hefty missal and follow in our footsteps, insofar as you can follow them from my descriptions. If you shoot me a question about it I'll even do my best to answer it accurately. I guarantee that (as long as you adhere to naptime where appropriate) you will have an awesome time. We were lucky to have had great friends who made it even awesomer, but they're mine and I won't share them with you.
Love
Imagine, if you will, embarking on a late-winter trip to one of the top 10 skiing destinations in America - or the world, depending on who you ask - with no intention of setting foot on the slopes, armed with nothing more than a pair of wellies and a smile. Well, that's exactly what the Cowfam did, with wildly fantastic results...
Day 1 - Monday (Packing day...no wait...Go Time!)
We leave tomorrow. But wait, J doesn't have to work today on account of being banned from the hospital until he's been diarrhea and vomit-free for 48 hours after a touch of the Norwalk...so why don't we start the vacation early? After a quick trip to have some stitches removed (poor Dr. J has had a rough go of it recently), and the most frantic and disorganized attempt at packing you've EVER seen, we were off! Time: 1:30pm. ETA: 4:30pm. Free food and drinks at the hotel: 5:00-7:00pm. We were in good shape.
Here's the route to our destination a la GoogleMaps:
View Larger Map
And here's how our (not so) trusty GPS took us:
View Larger Map
Moral? Short of removing your GPS from the safety of her holster and rubbing her nose in the asphalt of a Montreal highway at rush hour while you're stopped anyway with an hour to kill in a useless attempt to discourage her from any similarly brilliant ideas in the future, I recommend printing out that GoogleMap before leaving the safety of your couch and keeping one step ahead of that tricky trickster on your dashboard. But I digress.
Naively assuming that Montreal would be our biggest problem, because of course once I realized my passport is expired we dutifully called a Customs official at the border crossing we thought we would be taking, and he assured us that it was maybe possible that we might still be allowed into the country, so what else could go wrong?? (yep, still on the same sentence), we breathed a sigh of relief once we left the city limits, tempered only by a vague uncertainty as to why we were still heading East, when surely by now we would have to backtrack to Burlington. After a couple of resets to ensure that, in fact, we were going to Burlington, VT and not Burlington, NS, we gave ourselves over to blind faith and plodded on. Speaking of deep breaths, those fumes we were smelling were all that continued to propel us forward as we had intended to fill up with gas as soon as we got the the US, on the other side of Cornwall, ON, and not Philipsburg, QC (you know you're deep in the middle of nowhere in QC when the towns names are English), a difference of about 190km.
So, a quick stop for gas and some more driving got us to the border, where only a couple of cars stood between us and...another half hour wait. Turns out the customs official wasn't concerned so much with my expired passport as he was with Ralph's questionable health status. After dutifully carrying all of Ralph's records back and forth for several years, we finally decided that - having never been asked for them - his vaccination records were not all that necessary. Actually, it may have had more to do with the frantically disorganized packing mentioned earlier than anything else. In any case, we pulled over and called the vet, asked them to fax his vaccination records, and chased each other around the office for, oh I don't know, 50 laps or so, and then continued on. Time: 5:20pm. ETA: 6:05pm. Estimated time remaining to consume free food and alcohol: 00:55. We were getting antsy.
But don't worry folks, it's all good news from here. We did, in fact make it to our destination and we did, in fact, partake in about 45 minutes of free wine, local beer, chowder and salad, and we did, in fact, get a dip in the pool and hot tub before completely abandoning any attempt at a regular bedtime for baboushka. After all, we're on VACATION!!!
Day 2 - Tuesday (I'm so full...what can we eat next?)
Did I mention the actual reason we came to ski country when there was no snow to speak of and balmy 60 degree temperatures? Why to visit friends, of course! Good friends from our medical school days L-dawg and A-money, their son A-monkey and brand new-ish daughter Squishy were violently ripped from their sunny California roots and transplanted to the harsh reality of the Northern East Coast for Dr. A-money to complete his residency in Neurology. There are obvious benefits to this arrangement, sad though they were to be taken away from family and the possibility of getting a natural suntan before June. The first is that it has cut down the distance between us by about 4200km, which definitely saves on gas. The second is that they have been fortunate enough to have been carefully deposited approximately a half hour from the front door of the home of Ben & Jerry. Who needs sun when you can have ice cream? I mean really. What would you choose on a desert island? Oh, shut up.
So we were there to visit friends. We couldn't give a whoop about skiing. Take that, Vermont.
On Tuesday morning A-monkey had his first day at a weekly farm class, so we met L-dawg and Squishy at the farm for a roam while A-monkey tapped trees for syrup and cuddled baby animals. E showed Squishy some baby sheep and chickens and sang Christmas songs while Squishy practiced enunciating her vowels, and the ladies and J caught up with each other. When class was over, E and A-monkey hugged and chased each other and pushed and pulled and fell down and got muddy all the way back to the cars. It was love at second sight. We had only met him once before at graduation in June, but about 2 minutes after our reunion he turned to me and said "I missed you!". That's about as sweet as it gets. Unless you count Squishy McGigglepants and her perpetual smile. The two of them together damn near made my ovaries explode. Throw them in with E and...well, that kind of has the opposite effect of solidifying my I WILL NOT HAVE THREE KIDS rule, but cute nonetheless.
I missed you!
By the time the Calvalcade of Silliness made it back to L-dawg's residence it was time to wake up a sleepy Dr. A-money from his post-night shift slumber and make our way to Stowe. Not for skiing though, as I think I have already established, but for the most delightfully not-at-all-relaxing-but-excessively-fun-in-an-oh-my-god-why-are-we-always-missing-one-kid kind of way culinary scavenger hunt. First was lunch at a cafe in downtown Stowe, followed by some foot measuring in a nearby shoe/clothing/toy/gardening/souvenir shop. With full bellies it only made sense to continue on to the town of Waterbury, where we followed the apples on the floor to free apple cider. If I could just make one suggestion to the proprietors of the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, it would be that while I am immeasurably impressed by and grateful for the giant vat of apple cider that is available to patrons for free in unlimited quantities of tiny cup refills, I would advise placing the spout at a height above 24" from the ground to avoid the irresistible temptation of young ones to pull the tap just to watch the cider flow down into the overflow grate. Yes, I know that it is my responsibility to supervise the under 4' set in their unending quest for entertainment, but they really do start to move pretty quickly around 3 years of age and when there are multiples of them and I would just like to sample this delicious-looking apple butter and my husband is distracted by his search for coffee and maybe it wouldn't be so hard to just elevate the damn thing a little, no? But again, thank you for your generosity and my, those cider doughnuts really are as good as I imagined. Also, swinging benches really aren't as relaxing as I remember them to be. Although that might be down to user error on A-monkey's part.
Apple cider addicts.
Even more full than before but spurred on by a surge of glucose in our collective bloodstream, it was time for ice cream. Just down the road was Ben&Jerry's, complete with hippie bus and giant playground in which to deposit children and adults experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of sugar-induced mania. I enjoyed Phish food, while E sampled a bit of everyone's including her own Strawberry Cheesecake and J stuck with his weakness, Milk & Cookies. Imagine my exultation when E tired quickly of the ice cream-a-thon (What the?) and I was left to finish two bowls on my own. Wheeee!!! We then followed the kids up the hill to the playground and let the dads manage injury prevention while L-dawg and I did our best impressions of negligent gossipy playground moms. We were naturals.
Eventually we had to grab the kids and go as, though we had just spent the last 2 hours eating, we realized that it was almost time to hit the free food and booze party at the hotel.
Have I told you about our hotel yet? Let's talk about that.
Part of me doesn't want to tell you, because if everyone finds out about it and starts going then maybe they'll raise their prices or get so booked up we won't get a room next time. But I'm a sharer, so I'll risk it.
Green Mountain Suites. $119/night on Expedia. Two rooms, two TVs, kitchen with full-size fridge, stovetop and dishwasher. Pool and hot tub. Pet friendly. Free hot breakfast every morning with apple and cheese-stuffed crepes, spinach and feta scrambled eggs, danishes and just about everything else you could want for breakfast. Freaking dried cranberries for your granola! And real Vermont maple syrup. Obviously. And then. Oh, and then: every weeknight evening from 5-7pm there's an open bar serving wine and beer, and free dinner. Yes, dinner. Something different every night. With a salad bar every night. All delicious. Don't tell them that we brought our friends two out of the four nights and we saved a bundle on eating out at restaurants. But man, did we get our money's worth.
After a post-dinner swim and hot tub, we called it a night and E made it to bed about 2 hours after bedtime. I had a fleeting thought before nodding off that I wasn't sure I could handle another 3 days of so much excitement. But then I had to get to sleep because my next free meal was in a few short hours.
Day 3 - Wednesday (aka Midpoint Meltdown)
Wednesday was the day we checked out the town of Burlington. We went downtown and, after a delicious lunch with two delightfully behaved 3 year olds and one blissfully unconscious infant, we were schooled on the effects of disregarding the importance of naptime. Think screaming in race cars and elevators, writhing while screaming in Macy's and parking lots, coupled with the general exhaustion that accompanies vacations with kids, beer at lunchtime and only one cup of coffee a day. We wisely decided to dial down the evening to include a short walk/ride on mom's back to the grocery store for Ben&Jerry's and an early bedtime. Mom and dad each had an extra beer and a pint of ice cream to wash away the humiliation.
Tantrum in 3...2...1...
Day 4 - Thursday (aka Back in the Saddle)
The day mama had been waiting for. Lunch date with L-dawg. As rare and lovely as Cowfam family vacation time is, there is an occurrence that may be rated even lovelier by it's sheer near-extinction-like scarcity, and that is girlfriend time. And not the playdate kind, where you can usually paste together 5 minutes of conversation amid the mayhem, or the fragmented Skype conversations sprinkled with frozen screens and even more toddlerific disruptions, but pure, unadulterated, uninterruped one-on-one girlfriend time. Preferably with food.
But first - skating! L-dawg told us about a fantastic kiddie skate where they put little toys on the ice and the kidlets push crates around and fill buckets with toys. What a super-awesome way to burn some energy and do a little skill-building without breaking mama's back or cracking one's skull! Plus, there was a zamboni!
Look at that form!
And skill!
After skating, we returned to wake up Dr. Sleepy around noon. Then we warmed the kiddies up with The Gruffalo (A Gruffalo! Why didn't you know?) before handing off three dubiously obedient offspring to two overly-confident dads - who tried to apply reverse psychology with their zen calmness - and getting the heck outta dodge. We arrived at a cheerful little bakery/cafe whose sandwich selections were exceeded only by the dessert case, and complimented with free coffee and iced tea refills. My kind of place. We dined on pork sandwiches with pineapple chutney and greens followed by rich fudgy chocolate heaven and light and fluffy peanut butter and chocolate meringues, and lingered over our limitless beverages. When the vacuum cleaner switched on, we took it as our cue, more out of being afraid of being put to work than anything else. Two moms sitting for long periods of time, chatting idly and clearly enjoying themselves must be entirely too tempting for your average adolescent cafe employee. So we scooted off, returning to the glorious scene of a smiling baby, 3-year old #1 playing gleefully in the yard and 3-year-old #2 napping blissfully in a nearby stroller while two intact dads chatted amicably. Purrr-fection. And just what this mama needed.
I'll give you one guess about where we headed from there. Italian sausage night at the hotel! Avec beer. Followed by swimming, where A-monkey and E showed off their newly honed and terribly impressive swimming skills.
Day 5 - Friday (Adieu, mes amis!)
Hug-a-baby. This went on a lot.
Ringer.
Then we were starving and not satisfied with bowling alley fare, and so we stopped at one more cafe before hitting the road. Then there was some picture taking (until the battery died) and lots of hugging (until the kids got antsy) and just like that, we were off.
If you are ever in the Burlington area feel free to print out this hefty missal and follow in our footsteps, insofar as you can follow them from my descriptions. If you shoot me a question about it I'll even do my best to answer it accurately. I guarantee that (as long as you adhere to naptime where appropriate) you will have an awesome time. We were lucky to have had great friends who made it even awesomer, but they're mine and I won't share them with you.
Miss Squishy
A-money and L-dawg
Constant motion
Hold-a-baby...sing-to-baby...Miss Squishypants was very accommodating
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
ATE Episode #2: A little of this, a little of that
1. What is the most important thing you should do when you cross the road?
A: Hold someone's hand.
2. Who is a better driver - Mama or Dada?
A: Mama, because you steer the wheel very well.
3. What is your favourite thing to do after school?
A: Paint.
4. If you were to make a movie, what would you call it?
A: I believe I would call it Winter Fun!
5. What would happen in your movie?
A: Bad parts would be in there but good parts too.
6. If you could have any kind of animal for a pet, what animal would it be?
A: A zebra
7. Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner?
A: Breakfast, because I really love what you make.
8. What is your favourite word to say?
A: My name.
9. What would you like to be for next Hallowe'en?
A. A giraffe, because I love them. Actually, I'm going to be Mater.
10. If you could pick anyone to be your Valentine, who would it be?
A: Dada, because I love him.
A: Hold someone's hand.
2. Who is a better driver - Mama or Dada?
A: Mama, because you steer the wheel very well.
3. What is your favourite thing to do after school?
A: Paint.
4. If you were to make a movie, what would you call it?
A: I believe I would call it Winter Fun!
5. What would happen in your movie?
A: Bad parts would be in there but good parts too.
6. If you could have any kind of animal for a pet, what animal would it be?
A: A zebra
7. Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner?
A: Breakfast, because I really love what you make.
8. What is your favourite word to say?
A: My name.
9. What would you like to be for next Hallowe'en?
A. A giraffe, because I love them. Actually, I'm going to be Mater.
10. If you could pick anyone to be your Valentine, who would it be?
A: Dada, because I love him.
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