LOST in Suburban Bliss

Nothing In Life is Free

We spent the afternoon in the city last weekend, an event which is always an eye-opener for our kids. The lights, the buildings, the river, the lake, the people, the traffic, the honking, the cabs, the EL, the stores, the busses...they gulp it all in. Going to the city with kids in tow is an event for Hubs and me as well, as most of our favorite city memories don't exactly include our kids. Thus, we are trying to create new, improved memories. Ahem. 

Anyhow, after taking part in various family-friendly activities, we decided to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, a cozy neighborhood joint a mere two blocks from where we used to live BK (Before Kids). It's a little surreal bringing the kids here, but it's sort of like we've come full circle. That, and we can't pass up the burgers and the giant warm-chocolate-chip-cookie-smothered-in-vanilla-ice-cream-and-hot-fudge dessert, kids or no kids. 

"Neighborhood joint" usually implies no parking (because really, who drives when going to neighborhood joints in the city? sigh...), so after driving around for a while, Hubs gave up and handed the keys to our minivan over to the valet. After a filling meal of carbs, cheese, and meat (it was good, despite that description), a meal during which the girls never argued once (jackpot!), we bundled back up and headed outside. There was our van, squeezed between tiny Jettas, parked directly across the street. As the valet found our keys, he glanced over at how close the car was, and glanced back at us. Hubs shook his head and told him we'd get the car ourselves, and then handed him the tip and started across the street. 

Chuckles watched this exchange and then declared,

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Wow! You have to pay just to cross the STWEET around here?????

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Ah. Welcome to the city, Chuckles. 

Friday Foto

On the road again, like a band of gypsies we go down the highway...

We are on the road again, heading to Ohio to visit family. It seems as if my main activity this summer has been packing. Not a bad problem to have, right? I'm not sure if I will be able to post anything in the next week or so, but if I don't, I'll be back the following week. Until then...

Happy Travels, and of course...

Happy Friday. 

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

There are several different types of vacations one can take. 

There is the type that epitomizes relaxation, you know, lounging on the beach with a fuzzy drink paired with the obligatory umbrella which usually ends up poking your eye out as you try to sip slowly (or quickly, depending on how great your need for rum to erase everyday life).

Then there are the more educational vacations, those that are taken to learn about a new place, new people, new food. I knew that our vacation to California with the kids AND in-laws would be this sort. A romantic weekend in Napa with Hubs would have to wait. 

And our trip was educational. We learned that Disney World totally rules over Disneyland (sorry). We learned about the mission in Carmel. We learned how a cable car works. We learned about Chinatown. We went to Alcatraz and learned about its storied (and freaky) history. We saw the Golden Gate Bridge in person instead of just seeing it on TV. We went to Muir Woods and learned about the redwood forest. I've learned that a baseball game is just as enjoyable even if your home team isn't playing. We even learned some family history and met relatives that we had only heard about. 

I learned a few more things, as well. 

I learned that just because a hotel has the word "castle" in its title doesn't mean it is a castle. 

I learned that you should never shove Chuckles in the very back of a van on a long, winding road. I've learned how to clean up 3 gallons of chunky puke with 4 paper thin tissues, all while consoling the puking child, reassuring her that it is OK to vomit in a van on the way to Carmel, a van that 4 adults and 2 children need to use for the rest of the week. I learned that stopping at Costco can be advantageous when one must clean up puke out of said backseat. I've learned that throwing away vomit-y clothes is much smarter than trying to clean them. 

I've learned that one daughter is exactly like her daddy, and I've learned the other daughter is a clown. I've learned that the ocean brings out the child in everyone. I've learned that my girls want to love baseball, just so that they have something to share with their daddy. That, and because they realized that ballparks = cotton candy.

I've learned that Poonch can overcome her fears and ride Space Mountain, and even love it.  I've learned that Poonch is inpatient only because she is so passionate and has no time for things other than her current obsessions. 

I've learned that Chuckles, in contrast, is one of the most patient humans around me, even at just 5 years old. I've learned that she is brave enough to go into the D cell at Alcatraz, and happy and innocent enough to come of it it smiling while the adults came out sober. 

I've learned that my girls can be the best of friends and the worst of enemies, and they can cycle through that 13 times a day. (Well, I already knew that.)

I've learned that stealing a little time for an Irish coffee and a nighttime cable car ride with Hubs can take us back to when it was just me and him against the world. 

I've learned that my family drives me crazy, and I've learned that I'd go crazy without them. 

It was a good trip. Puke aside, of course. That I could have done without. 

Yo Ho Ho

The landscape went whizzing by as the train rocked back and forth, turning more and more urban with each train stop. Staring out the window, I couldn't help but think about J.K. Rowling and how a train ride home from work one night was her inspiration for the Harry Potter series. 

Mom, are we going to have time to go to the American Girl Place? 

Sighing, I turned away from the window. There wasn't going to be any new series inspired on this trip, I could tell. 

No, we are going to the Field Museum. To see the pirate exhibit. Doesn't that sound cool?

Kind of. But will we be able to go to the American Girl Place, too?

Ummm, I doubt it. 

But maybe?

We'll see. 

The train pulled into the station and we stopped at a cafe for lunch. As we ate, we people-watched. Chuckles started laughing because one table over a business man had become so inspired that he was writing on a banana. She and Poonch giggled for 10 minutes over this as I ignored banana-man and stared out the window, thinking that this would be a great place to sit with my laptop and a coffee for the afternoon. 

Poonch interrupted my reverie. Is it time to go to American Girl Place?

Nope, but it is time to go to the Field Museum. 

Once at the museum, we headed to the pirate exhibit. 

Mom, are we going to see real pirates? 

Nope, but I heard we will see real treasure. 

It took a while to find the treasure. We had to go past the slave ships, shackles, neck collars, guns, cannons, knives, jugs of rum (without any cute little umbrellas like there should be on a spring break jaunt) before we actually got to the treasure. But even Poonch and Chuckles were in awe over seeing the only pirate treasure ever discovered.

Now can we go to American Girl Place?

Nope, now it is on to the dinosaurs. 

After the dinosaurs, it was on to the ice age...wooly mammoths, sloths and saber-toothed tigers. 

Then we hit the underground exhibit...bugs, worms, bugs, worms, and more bugs. 

There was not a princess or doll in site. Talk about refreshing. 

Now can we go to the American Girl Place?

Nope, we have to catch the train back to the burbs. But we do have time for the gift store. 

Running through the store, past the swords, bug catchers, snakes, Poonch and Chuckles stopped at the crystal necklaces...the girliest item in the store. Are you surprised? I'm not. 

Digital World

When I moved to Chicago 12 years ago, I figured I'd be here for a year or so and then move back to Ohio. You know, just like a silly PG-13 comedy...scratch that itch, get that restlessness out of my system, experience city-life, get lost on the subway, and then move back. 

Um, didn't exactly happen that way. Three short weeks after moving here, I met Hubby. From that day on I had an inkling that I wouldn't be moving back. Of course I didn't let this on to my mother. However, it didn't take long for her to figure out that my year-long-experiment had turned into something so much more. 

When Hubby and I got married, I made him promise to visit home with me whenever I wanted, no complaining, no whining. He obliged. 

When Poonch came along, I knew that these road trips would become all that much more important. And a pain in the ass. 

Driving 6 hours with a baby involved a lot of gear. Diapers, wipes, extra clothes for those diapers that exploded without fail in the car, baby food jars, travel baby spoons, travel baby dishes, bottles, nursery water, burb cloths, more wipes, diaper creme, binkies, rattles, pretend car keys, stuffed animals, board books, books that make noise, a couple of those god-awful kiddie CDs, and our favorite, a bottle warmer that plugged into the cigarette lighter. 

I remember that first trip home with Poonch at 3 weeks old. She was sleepily ensconced in her infant seat in the rear seat (middle, of course, because we read that was the safest place in the car, too bad for when Number 2 comes and they have to sit next to the doors, they're both just screwed), Hubby was driving, and I sat in the passenger's seat. We drove along, thinking this might not be that bad. Ten minutes later Poonch was screaming and I was trying to get into the back seat to try and soothe her. Traveling seventy miles an hour on the highway, I turned and shoved one foot back and tried to boost myself out of the front seat. Of course I got lodged with my ass smooshed against the windshield, stuck until Hubby gave me a shove and I went flying into the back. 

After that trip, we decided that even though we said we'd never buy a minivan, we were going to buy a minivan. 

Years have passed, and although our road trips have gotten easier as the girls have grown, we haven't figured out a way to cut down on all the stuff we bring. However, instead of hauling what I like to refer to as paper products...diapers, wipes, burb cloths, etc, we have moved on to digital products. 

This past weekend we made the trip again.  At one point somewhere in the middle of Indiana, I looked around at the mess that we call a van, frowning at what I saw:

the case that holds all the girls' DVDs (because bringing a few movies just isn't good enough)

the DVD remote

a black iPod

a white iPod

3 CD mixes 

Hubby's phone

Hubby's blackberry

my phone

the charger for my phone

the charger for Hubby's phone

the charge for the iPods

a Nintendo DS

a leapster

headphones for the Nintendo

headphones for the leapster

different headphones for the DVD

headphones for my phone

charger for an old phone we don't have anymore

Wow. We certainly have come a long way. Hello Digital World. And to think we thought plugging the bottle warmer into the lighter was so cool. Man, we were nerds. 

Sometimes Nothing Is A Lot

My hubby didn't spend a dime on me for Valentine's Day. We went absolutely nowhere. We had no babysitter. But I had one of the best Valentine's Days ever. 

The day started with us sleeping in. Well, let me rephrase...the girls got up and played nicely for about 30 minutes and let Hubby and me sleep in. For a little. We talked about what we wanted to do and where we wanted to go. Maybe bowling. Maybe a movie. Maybe the dreaded roller skating. 

In the end, we went nowhere. 

We didn't even venture out of our house to get the mail or the paper. 

But we did head to our family room where we spent almost 5 hours playing the Wii, Connect Four, and Uno, reading magazines, and just vegging by the fire. 

We spent absolutely no money. But we had some really great meals...Poonch's favorite cinnamon rolls for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and a 5 cheese penne pasta that I pulled off thanks to a recipe from my Barefoot Contessa cookbook, along with some salad and a nice bottle of wine for me and Hubby. 

Our phone never rang (thanks to our phone service being messed up) and we spoke to absolutely no one all day. Except to each other: talking about the games we were playing, chatting about our week, planning for next week, discussing books and movies. 

We didn't spend a dime. But you couldn't put a price on this day. A day where no one argued, no one whined, no one was sick, and no one felt even the tiniest bit guilty for not doing something more, well...productive. There was no basketball game, no ballet class, no gymnastics, no soccer, no homework, no laundry, no work on the Basement Project. 

Nothing. 

Our dinner was one of the best dinners the four of us have ever had together, not just for the food, but for how much we laughed. My family is really funny. I mean, really funny. And as we were all sitting there laughing at something Chuckles said, I looked around the table and wondered if it will always be like this. When they are older, will they still have fun hanging around us? Will they still do whatever it takes to get us to laugh? Will they still be open and honest and willing to talk? Will they still like us?  

Only time will tell. But for now, I will cherish that day and that dinner for a long time. It was my favorite Valentine's Day ever.