If only....

uncle Eric could ride with us on every car ride!

Preschool

I've often stood around wishfully talking about the day that my little boy would go off to school, and dreaming of what I'd do with all the free time, thinking of how long my house would stay clean...... And then....that day came...

I excitedly talked about school as I puledl him out of his crib, I ask him what he wanted for breakfast on his very special day, and he replied chocolate bagel, and I of course comply, we talk about what he's going do at school, how much fun he'll have and all the kids he'll meet. I quickly realize that it's not him that needs the pep talk for school.

I get him dressed in first day of school outfit, comb his hair, pack his backpack and hand him his lunch box. I try and snap a few pictures, but he's being a toddler and has no interest in standing still. We pile into the car, and head in the direction of school.

We arrive early, first ones in the classroom to be exact. He immediately begins to play and I talk to the teacher. Not long ago, I was the one that parents were approaching nervously, and I can't believe I'm on this end of the conversation now!

I nervously watch him walk around the room, picking things to play with. Soon, other children begin to arrive and I want to walk over to them and tell them what an awesome friend my little guy is and somehow convince them to go over and play with him. I don't, but I do say a prayer that they will find that out on their own and choose to be a kind friend to him. Pretty soon his best friend Bella walks in, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that someone who knows him and loves ( it will break my heart when they move away in October) will be there to keep him company today when I can't. He settles in and John nudges me and I know that now is a good time to go. We both say goodbye to him, but honestly, he can't be bothered, he's having too much fun. Initially it makes me sad, but quickly my heart begins to sing because he's a confident little boy who is ready for this not so small milestone.

We leave, but I keep making up excuses to go back to the room, just to make sure he hasn't started to cry ...he hasn't .

I can't help but think of him a million times this morning. I've done multiple loads of laundry, cleaned most of my house and spent a little time searching for the end of the Internet, but ooh nelly is it quiet around here.

Bram is sleeping, and I keep looking at the video monitor burning into my memory his little face, the sounds he makes when he sleeps and looking forward to seeing his smile when he wakes, because today I found out just how quickly the time I get him all to myself goes.

Ketchup day

I had a teacher that would slam a bottle of Heinz ketchup down on her desk and declare that "today is ketchup day."

So here I am, slamming my imaginary ketchup bottle on my kitchen counter, and declaring it "ketchup day" on my blog.

We took a much needed vacation ( reference the crying at a total stranger in the airport) to the lake back in the beginning of July. Here's our trip, in pics :)

John and I celebrated 7 years of marriage while out there.

While there, we also celebrated the 4th of July. In true lake fashion, people shot fireworks days prior to the 4th as well as days after, and of course it was done well into the night. I'm all about wishing America a happy birthday, but in a way that doesn't wake my sleeping children.

Ambrose absolutely LOVED being at the lake. The last time we took him he was 4 months, and really couldn't participate in any of the traditional lake activities. He made up for it this time and boated, swam and fished his little heart out.

Bram's lake experience was much like Ambroses first lake experience, a lot of sitting on the dock, a short dip in the pool and frequent eating and sleeping breaks.

It would not have been a vacation without Pia (John's mom) around! While there I didn't cook a single meal, wash, dry or fold a stitch of dirty clothes (and there were plenty!) and I had ready and willing hands to hold a crying baby anytime day or night! It was AMAZING, so thank you mom Fisch, it would not have been the relaxing vacation it was without you and your ever present helping hands.

This one here is showing more and more of his personality. He smiles all the time, which is a far cry from a month ago and a change from his older brother.

A little behind?

Why yes, yes I am.

shortly after we came back from the lake, John left for 3 TDY's almost back to back. Needless to say, things here were busy, and any down time I had, I wanted to sleep!

In that time, this little guy turned 3 months.

*Look at those blue eyes!*

Ambrose still loves his Strider, and we are in the desert monsoon season *insert eye roll here* which means that it rains a little more often then never, and with the cloud cover/rain comes cooler temps. So, we went to the skate park with Ambrose and let him ride his Strider. He wasn't so sure at first, but he warmed up and had a great time!

Home sweet home

We're back. the return travel....wait for it....... wasn't so bad.

For starters, Mr. carseat hater eased up a bit and actually slept for over an HOUR on the drive up to Kansas city. That folks, is a big deal.

We arrived and rather than waiting in the outside check in line, which was a balmy 90 degrees, Pia (grandma) let us sit in her air conditioned car in the loading/unloading area, and we just jumped out when John was at the front of the line.

Boarding the flight went much smoother,largely in part because we bought our way to an earlier check in. Southwest allows( aka scams)you to pay 10.00 and you can board earlier. I did that with my ticket, I boarded and quickly found a middle seat. Conveniently Bram begins to scream, and wouldn't ya know, those two seats beside me stayed open until John and Ambrose could board.

The actual flight itself was pretty good, but what made the trip totally awesome was the fact that our flight to Dallas continued onto El Paso, so we didn't have to deplane, didn't have to chase our two year old through the airport, didn't have to dodge every candy stand, didn't have to take said toddler to bathroom and listen to a play by play of all the bathroom activities taking place...fan freaking tastic idea Southwest!!. We make it back, all luggage arrives and kids are fairly happy.

the drive back involved some crying, but nothing that makes me want to rip my ears off, we drive through Mc Donalds, and we finally make it back home.

The trip....TOTALLY worth it!

I am trying to upload some pics, but for some reason Blogger is on the fritz...I'll be back later.

Travel

We begin our lake vacation with the 1.5 hour drive to El Paso. Bram, the car seat hater, begins to cry about 10 miles outside of town and when I say cry, I mean face turning purple gasping for breath and sweating kind of crying.... like this.

When I say this kid hates his carseat with the fire of a thousands suns, I'm not joking. Usually, a child who is working up a sweat with all the crying would tire himself out and fall asleep due to sheer exhaustion and sleep the rest of the way, but since it's my child, you'd be wrong. He does fall asleep, however, it's for 6 minutes, and after his brief nap, he begins to scream the rest of the drive. My other little guy doesn't think it's quite that bad.

We arrive in El Paso, John unloads all of our luggage, car seats, pack n play, carry on's and our two wonderful children curbside, while I wait looking like the ring master of a three ring circus. Bram has yet to ease up on the crying, and every passer buyer is saying things like, "bless his heart," "oh, poor guy," when in reality, I know that they're praying that I'm not getting in line to board their flight.

John parks the car, and joins us in the Southwest line where we stand beside many people dressed in suits and business attire and I'm sure they all begin to scramble on their blackberries trying to figure out the cheapest and fastest way to switch their flight.

We get to security, where, in my stressed out state I almost pick a fight with the TSA guy over taking my wrap (baby carrier, carrying a screaming baby) completely off. John, being a little more level headed encourages me to go ahead and unwrap Bram and put the carrier through the machine. I give the TSA guy the stink eye, and walk through the xray machine thingy.

We make it through security and start walking to our gate. Bram is still screaming blue murder while attached to me and I loose it. I begin to cry. The thought of traveling with this baby who just will. not. stop. crying gets the better of me. John of course says some encouraging words that I completely scoff and mutter that I'm headed out for a walk through the airport. Not two steps away from John an incredibly nice older gentleman says something along the lines of "you've got your hands full" and I of course get tears in my eyes (not just in my eyes but down my cheeks) and he quickly says some kind words and offers to buy me a cup of coffee. I sputter something about traveling with my husband and I'll be fine, thanks for the offer. At this point I'm realizing just how bad I've needed this break/vacation. I pull it together and head back to the gate (where wouldn't you know, the kind older guy is waiting as well. I'm sure he's thinking, all aboard the crazy train...or plane as it would be).

This is our first time flying southwest, I've heard about their unassigned seating but have never seen it in action. I wasn't sure what to expect, but John seemed to know what he was doing and walked over to an area marked 25-60 and we all hovered (except for Ambrose, he was running circles around it shouting a string of unintelligible words) around it waiting. They call some numbers, half the line shuffles forward and I think that this might not be so bad. It's going a lot faster than other airlines I've flown, so I optimistically hold out hope that this is going to be the start of an easier traveling experience.

The Southwest guy calls some numbers and it's our lines turn to shuffle forward. We get our tickets scanned and are waiting at the door of the plane fairly quickly. I'm not exactly sure what I thought the finding seats experience was going to be like, but let me tell you, with a toddler and an infant in tow it's....well.....uncomfortable...to say the least. Let me set the scene for you. All those people in the line that shuffled through first are now sitting each in a window seat and an aisle seat, leaving a middle seat open. If we're particularly lucky, there might be two seats open in an aisle. So, John, with a wriggly toddler who just put on a "terrible two's" show out in the boarding area, and I, with a screaming infant board the plane and just stand in the front aisle of the plane and you can almost hear an audible groan. I felt like a teacher looking out \ at a roomful of students, all of whom were looking at the floor *praying* that I wouldn't pick them for the unknown answer. We walked down the aisle scanning all the heads of those digging in their purses, consumed by their book or looking out the window, deliberately not making eye contact in hopes that I would keep moving and not choose to sit by them. It is incredibly uncomfortable, at least I can blame it on the airline when I normally sit down next to an Innocent person, but man alive, choosing to ruin someones flight is a whole other story. Any who, we totally luck out and there was an off duty flight attendant that was traveling who got up and let us take her seat so we all could sit together. However, after we sat down the on duty flight attendant did ask if there was anyone who was willing to switch seats so that a mother and her young daughter could sit together. Um, what? I think after they sit the toddler next to an unsuspecting business man, he'll quickly be volunteering. Trust me, when flying with Ambrose there were plenty of times that I would have handed over the portable DVD player and car seat and wished someone else good luck on the flight while I went back and read a book. Hmm, maybe there is something to this free for all seating....I kid I kid, it's totally for the birds and I'm not looking forward to doing it again.

The flights are fairly uneventful, there's some kicking of the seat, some screaming and crying, tons of nursing and lots of DVD watching, but all in all, it went well.

The 3 hour drive to the lake however was a whole other story. After an 1.5 drive and 6 hours worth of airport time, getting in the car and driving an additional 3 hours is painful. Basically it involved three long hours of screaming. This kid really hates his car seat, and other than a 15 minute power nap, the screaming continued for pretty much the entire drive. Every one of my nerves was shot and I immediately questioned whether all this travel was going to be worth it.

We arrive at the lake, settle in for the night, and pray everyone sleeps semi decent so we can start over fresh the next day. We are 6 days into our vacation, and the traveling has been worth it, however, ask me again on our way back when all that's waiting for me is a million loads of laundry, 2 busy kids and a husband that will quickly be leaving for another work trip.

Goings on

Hopefully I'll find time to come back and share a little more about each of these events,but for now, here's the abbreviated version.

This little guy turned 2 months (three weeks ago).

We made it to the lake!
We enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July

Happy 4th