Interesting happenings today.
My son is an interesting kid. He is passionate about singing and dancing and performing. Today, I convinced him that he should just go ahead and audition for Seussical next week. He has been hesitant about wanting to do it because he is nervous about the audition. I think he will be okay once he gets there if he is doing something he knows really, really, really well, so I made the decision for him - he needs to sing "Do Re Mi" from Sound of Music, because that is the show he is currently working on, and that is the song he knows best. Besides, he is only auditioning for a Who, so he just needs to show them what a cute little singer and dancer he is.
So, how did I convince him? This morning he watched an episode of Veggie Tales about a kid who doesn't want to use his gift. Eventually, the kid uses his gift and all kinds of good comes of it. I reminded Vinny about this show and told him, "You have a gift. You are a gifted singer and dancer. You need to use your gift." Tonight, when discussing it with Marc, he added, "and director! I'm going to be a gifted director when I grow up." He very well might be. He is such a sweet, unique kid... even if he is kind of making me crazy lately.
He is a very emotional kid. He is sensitive and he cries a lot. Particularly lately. Sigh. I am not this type of person.
Our family is not big on traditional gender roles. It is not like I am a super feminist or anything, we are just... different. Out of the two of us, Marc is the sensitive one. I think it is usually the other way around, but not in our relationship. Marc is also probably the more nurturing one. I don't wake up if the kids awake in the middle of the night. It is not that I wouldn't; it is just that I sleep really hard. When I was pregnant, I told my mom I was afraid of this, and she assured me it would change when I had kids... but it didn't. Thank goodness for Marc. He is really good with kids. There are some ways in which I am traditional. I cook. But I sure as heck don't clean. I'm not good at it, and I don't like it. This summer, we would not have had clean laundry half the time if it wasn't for Marc.
Anyhow... back to traditional gender roles. Tiana is a pretty traditional little girl. Vinny was not really a traditional little boy. Sure, he liked cars, but never as much as most boys. He loved Disney princess movies and collected Disney characters. In fact, his Disney action figures are still probably his favorite collection. Vinny is not really into Transformers or other things that his friends are into. He is a bit of an odd duck. Tiana is pretty typical. She is not even two, but she is obsessed with babies and doll stuff. Today, I bought her a doll stroller with a doll. I bought it for the stroller, but I didn't realize it came with such a cool doll. Dolls sure have come a long way. This one cries, drinks, sleeps. She makes sucking noises and blinks when she eats. If you feed her enough milk, then she falls asleep and snores. Its kind of a trip.
Vinny was crazy jealous. He spent the evening crying and emotional that he didn't have such a cool doll. At dinner, my sister made some comment about the fact that dolls are girls toys. My mom and I were quick to come back with a "So what?" My mom pointed out that boys today grow up to be very involved dads, and there is nothing wrong with him wanting to play with dolls. He now wants one for his birthday, and my mom said she would try to get him one. I think my dad was a little concerned, but I reminded him that he did his share of tights wearing in high school and college, and I think he moved on.
But I know it bothers people. So what if he loves toys that are traditionally female? He is an amazing person, and there is nothing wrong with his preferences. Perhaps there is just something wrong with a world that is so judgmental.
A blog about my life as a teacher of 100+ high school students and mom to two rambunctious little ones.
The Author
- Niki
- I am a high school English teacher, and mother of two charming little ones of my own. I teach in a high poverty urban charter school, while I live in a typical American suburb that has frequently been rated one of the safest cities in the country. It is a paradox I struggle with constantly, but it is my life.
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Back to Work
So, today I went back to work. For those of you new to reading my blog or new to my life, let me explain why I am back at work in July. My school has two semesters, which are close to traditional semesters: August-December and February-June. I get two breaks each year: summer and winter. So... while most teachers are still enjoying their long summer breaks, I am back at work, which is somewhat hard; however, while most teachers are returning to work just days after New Years each year, I am just settling in to my winter break at that time. I love my January off, so I try to remind myself of that when I am walking into school during the last week of July.
Today was meetings meetings meetings. I didn't even touch my classroom. A lot of progress was made on important topics, and I feel that my school is really geared up for this upcoming school year, so this is all good, but I feel so unprepared for next week. I don't have students until Wednesday, but I can already tell that the staff development schedule for the next two days is just very full, and there is just not going to be much time. I have so much to get ready to conduct my Masters research this semester, to teach my English classes, and to co-direct a musical. Yikes. Thank God I don't have classes for graduate school for several more weeks.
I just am having difficulty shifting into school gear. I was mostly "on" while I was on campus today, but I know I will only be really ready if I get some work done at home over the next few days, but I just don't feel like it. I feel like sitting in my backyard reading a book. I feel like going out to dinner with friends (okay, I'm gonna do that anyway). I even feel like continuing my "spring cleaning," but I just don't feel like lesson planning. Yikes.
Vinny has been difficult lately. He's just lacking structure. I am hoping that my return to work helps. It will probably help that he is going to vacation bible school all day next week. This will provide structure for his day, and he really like structured activities. As much as I know my mom is looking forward to summer days with him, I am thinking about putting him in theatre camp the week after that, just because it is relatively cheap and the structure might be good for him. Well, we'll see how next week goes and then decide.
Today was meetings meetings meetings. I didn't even touch my classroom. A lot of progress was made on important topics, and I feel that my school is really geared up for this upcoming school year, so this is all good, but I feel so unprepared for next week. I don't have students until Wednesday, but I can already tell that the staff development schedule for the next two days is just very full, and there is just not going to be much time. I have so much to get ready to conduct my Masters research this semester, to teach my English classes, and to co-direct a musical. Yikes. Thank God I don't have classes for graduate school for several more weeks.
I just am having difficulty shifting into school gear. I was mostly "on" while I was on campus today, but I know I will only be really ready if I get some work done at home over the next few days, but I just don't feel like it. I feel like sitting in my backyard reading a book. I feel like going out to dinner with friends (okay, I'm gonna do that anyway). I even feel like continuing my "spring cleaning," but I just don't feel like lesson planning. Yikes.
Vinny has been difficult lately. He's just lacking structure. I am hoping that my return to work helps. It will probably help that he is going to vacation bible school all day next week. This will provide structure for his day, and he really like structured activities. As much as I know my mom is looking forward to summer days with him, I am thinking about putting him in theatre camp the week after that, just because it is relatively cheap and the structure might be good for him. Well, we'll see how next week goes and then decide.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Disneyland
So, we had a wonderful family trip to Disneyland this week. We really made great decisions that resorted in a great trip overall. We chose to stay at the Howard Johnson on Harbor. This was actually a PERFECT place to stay. It was priced like a hotel, but was very much like a resort. There was a great water play area for the kids, with a hot tub in the kids play area. I am very much a fan of being able to watch my kids while jacuzzing.
We spent the first day just playing at the hotel. We were able to check in early and we ordered lunch from the Mimi's next door. Later than evening, we spent some time at Downtown Disney and had dinner at Rainforest Cafe. We made it back to the hotel in time to put the kids down to bed and watch the fireworks on our balcony while eating dessert. Perfect, perfect day.
We hit the parks early and made a very long day of it. We initially thought we would try to do the Cars land rides because we got there so early, but that was just madness. We were able to make it to the Tow Mater ride in the evening. Once I realized that it is a spinning ride, I quickly made the decision to just watch, so Marc took the kids on. It was probably Tiana's favorite ride of the whole day. Watching her on it was making me nervous at first (it really whips around!), but when I saw her face, it was just so cute. She was smiling this open mouth smile and giggling and squealing. So, so cute.
It is funny, when we arrived at the park in the morning, Vinny wanted to know how long we would stay, and I told him we would stay until bed time. He loved this idea... until around 4:00, when he asked if we could go back to the hotel and play in the water again. Marc and I jumped at the suggestion. In fact, we even decided to save some money on dinner and order a pizza to eat in the room. The way Tiana has been lately, any time we can avoid a sit down dinner with her, we do.
After dinner, we went back to the park and made an evening of shows. We saw World of Color, during which Tiana crashed. What a cool show. My one criticism was the whole, "This is a standing show" thing. I would rather they squish less people in and let people sit, more like Fantasmic. If I am going to get a fastpass for a show in the morning and get there an hour before, I think I should get to sit down. I mean it is kind of a long show. Little kids are particularly tired by 9:00 after a long day at Disneyland. After the show, we boldly made a mad dash back to Disneyland to attempt to see Fantasmic. Vinny saw it for the first time with Grandma earlier this year, and he wanted to see it again, so we did our best. We actually ended up with great seats.
Of my favorite new experiences at Disneyland this year was Big Thunder Ranch. Its an all you can eat bbq with entertainment. It was very cute and a good place for small kids. Its a table service restaurant (they serve you food, not buffet style, which is good because buffets kind of gross me out), but it is outside and very relaxed, so they totally didn't care that Tiana just wanted to run around the table.
My favorite improvement was the cell phone charging lockers. Yea! In this new world of smart phones that do so much for being at the park (being able to take photos and share them, use MouseWait app, do business in line, etc.), it stinks that using them often means a dead phone by the end of the day; however, we were totally happy to give them up for 45 minutes to be able to have full batteries to take photos for the rest of the day. Totally worth $2.
We decided to do Goofy's Kitchen this morning as one last bit of fun before heading back to the real world. This was not a good decision. First of all, it used to be cheaper for breakfast than dinner. That is not longer the case. It is not just as expensive, which is silly, because breakfast is just not as big of a meal. We barely ate anything. $100 for the three of us. Also, Tiana is still a little young for this; she loved the characters, but she did not understand that they were not all there just for her and that she had to stay seated. Plus, the last time we went 3 years ago, they stopped every 20-30 minutes or so and did a "Dance Party" with Goofy in the buffet area. That was Vinny's favorite part back then, and that didn't happen this time, even though we were there for like an hour. I guess it is a dinner thing? If so, they should definitely charge less for breakfast.
This morning was also just a bad morning. Vinny was completely melting down this morning over stupid things involving packing his suitcase back up, which is ridiculous, because it could not have been a more orderly affair. Very simple things can get very complicated with an OCD kid. These anxiety attacks are giving ME anxiety. They are turning me into a crazy person. He just grates on my nerves lately. Plus, Tiana was REALLY cranky. She was up all night teething, and when I changed her in the morning, I realized she had a bad diaper rash too (which, by lunch, resulted in me heading to the doctor, which actually resulted in antibiotics. Poor thing). This is probably partially my fault for lazily deciding to use disposables at Disneyland. I rarely, rarely, rarely use disposables on her. While cloth can be slightly inconvenient, it is usually not too bad. I store dirties in a plastic bag and bring them home. Not that big a deal. I even toted a giant bag of dirty diapers home from Arizona. But, when I thought about dragging dirty diapers home from Disneyland, and about how much room a day's worth of dirty diapers would take up in a backpack or in the stroller, I went ahead and bought some organic disposables. These usually are fine for her, but not this week I guess. It got bad. She's in so much pain and was so cranky today.
Overall, it was a very successful trip. The HoJo was fantastic. I want to plan a trip there every year. They even have a suite with bunk beds for the kids and a separate king size bedroom. I would like to book this on our next trip. :-)
We spent the first day just playing at the hotel. We were able to check in early and we ordered lunch from the Mimi's next door. Later than evening, we spent some time at Downtown Disney and had dinner at Rainforest Cafe. We made it back to the hotel in time to put the kids down to bed and watch the fireworks on our balcony while eating dessert. Perfect, perfect day.
We hit the parks early and made a very long day of it. We initially thought we would try to do the Cars land rides because we got there so early, but that was just madness. We were able to make it to the Tow Mater ride in the evening. Once I realized that it is a spinning ride, I quickly made the decision to just watch, so Marc took the kids on. It was probably Tiana's favorite ride of the whole day. Watching her on it was making me nervous at first (it really whips around!), but when I saw her face, it was just so cute. She was smiling this open mouth smile and giggling and squealing. So, so cute.
It is funny, when we arrived at the park in the morning, Vinny wanted to know how long we would stay, and I told him we would stay until bed time. He loved this idea... until around 4:00, when he asked if we could go back to the hotel and play in the water again. Marc and I jumped at the suggestion. In fact, we even decided to save some money on dinner and order a pizza to eat in the room. The way Tiana has been lately, any time we can avoid a sit down dinner with her, we do.
After dinner, we went back to the park and made an evening of shows. We saw World of Color, during which Tiana crashed. What a cool show. My one criticism was the whole, "This is a standing show" thing. I would rather they squish less people in and let people sit, more like Fantasmic. If I am going to get a fastpass for a show in the morning and get there an hour before, I think I should get to sit down. I mean it is kind of a long show. Little kids are particularly tired by 9:00 after a long day at Disneyland. After the show, we boldly made a mad dash back to Disneyland to attempt to see Fantasmic. Vinny saw it for the first time with Grandma earlier this year, and he wanted to see it again, so we did our best. We actually ended up with great seats.
Of my favorite new experiences at Disneyland this year was Big Thunder Ranch. Its an all you can eat bbq with entertainment. It was very cute and a good place for small kids. Its a table service restaurant (they serve you food, not buffet style, which is good because buffets kind of gross me out), but it is outside and very relaxed, so they totally didn't care that Tiana just wanted to run around the table.
My favorite improvement was the cell phone charging lockers. Yea! In this new world of smart phones that do so much for being at the park (being able to take photos and share them, use MouseWait app, do business in line, etc.), it stinks that using them often means a dead phone by the end of the day; however, we were totally happy to give them up for 45 minutes to be able to have full batteries to take photos for the rest of the day. Totally worth $2.
We decided to do Goofy's Kitchen this morning as one last bit of fun before heading back to the real world. This was not a good decision. First of all, it used to be cheaper for breakfast than dinner. That is not longer the case. It is not just as expensive, which is silly, because breakfast is just not as big of a meal. We barely ate anything. $100 for the three of us. Also, Tiana is still a little young for this; she loved the characters, but she did not understand that they were not all there just for her and that she had to stay seated. Plus, the last time we went 3 years ago, they stopped every 20-30 minutes or so and did a "Dance Party" with Goofy in the buffet area. That was Vinny's favorite part back then, and that didn't happen this time, even though we were there for like an hour. I guess it is a dinner thing? If so, they should definitely charge less for breakfast.
This morning was also just a bad morning. Vinny was completely melting down this morning over stupid things involving packing his suitcase back up, which is ridiculous, because it could not have been a more orderly affair. Very simple things can get very complicated with an OCD kid. These anxiety attacks are giving ME anxiety. They are turning me into a crazy person. He just grates on my nerves lately. Plus, Tiana was REALLY cranky. She was up all night teething, and when I changed her in the morning, I realized she had a bad diaper rash too (which, by lunch, resulted in me heading to the doctor, which actually resulted in antibiotics. Poor thing). This is probably partially my fault for lazily deciding to use disposables at Disneyland. I rarely, rarely, rarely use disposables on her. While cloth can be slightly inconvenient, it is usually not too bad. I store dirties in a plastic bag and bring them home. Not that big a deal. I even toted a giant bag of dirty diapers home from Arizona. But, when I thought about dragging dirty diapers home from Disneyland, and about how much room a day's worth of dirty diapers would take up in a backpack or in the stroller, I went ahead and bought some organic disposables. These usually are fine for her, but not this week I guess. It got bad. She's in so much pain and was so cranky today.
Overall, it was a very successful trip. The HoJo was fantastic. I want to plan a trip there every year. They even have a suite with bunk beds for the kids and a separate king size bedroom. I would like to book this on our next trip. :-)
Monday, July 23, 2012
Joie de Vivre


Tuesday, Marc left for a youth gathering in New Orleans, while I took off with the kids for a week with family in Arizona. We spent some time with my sister in law before heading off to visit my cousin Tracy and her kids. With my sister in law, we went to see some of her close friends who have kids around Vinny's age, and Vinny had a wonderful time hanging out and swimming with them. Much more swimming ensued at Tracy's house, as well as many other fun excursions. We took the big kids to see Alice in Wonderland at a local community dinner theatre. The food was mediocre, but the show was fantastic. Totally professional quality. I think people seriously underestimate what community theatre brings to the table. Most community theatres nowadays put on really solid shows.
On Saturday, I helped my cousins host a big pool party. We planned all week for it, and it was quite the success! We made alcohol infused cupcakes (that I have to say I was quite proud of), along with huge batches of beer margs and jungle juice, and a great buffet of Mexican food. The party was less than an hour away when Tracy ran outside saying, "Haboob!" A haboob is basically a giant dust storm. Think mini-hurricane, minus the rain, plus a bunch of dust. All week, Tracy had been saying she was just worried about the weather. I laughed it off. July in Phoenix is just miserably hot. A party at night with a pool was sure to go off without a hitch, but it is monsoon season there. Fortunately, we got all the outside furniture and stuff inside before the haboob came, and it came and went quickly and managed not to really cause any damage. The pool wasn't even that dirty. The cool thing about the haboob was that you could totally see it coming. It was a brown cloud on the horizon that just got bigger and bigger as it got closer and closer. Way cool to watch. Quite the experience. Plus, it ended with a beautiful rainbow.
It was an awesome party. I have a lot of family in Arizona, and most of them came to the party, and I have gotten to know my cousins' friends and their other family members pretty well over the years, so it was really awesome getting to hang out with everyone all night. Even though it rained a bit, it was more of a refreshing drizzle (water falling from the sky can really only be refreshing when it is 100 degrees) than anything else, and we went swimming anyway. I didn't climb out of the pool until about 2am. What a night!
The ride home was long. It took us about an hour and a half longer than the trip there, but it felt like more. We visited the world's worst Jack in the Box (seriously, we were in line at the drive thru for about 20 minutes, and there were stray pieces of hamburger meat in my chicken fajita pita), and Vinny waited until we got back on the freeway to tell me he had to go to the bathroom. The second time, he waited until after I had stopped for gas and gotten back on the freeway to tell me that he had to go to the bathroom again. Add a stop for coffee when I felt like I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, and that makes for FIVE stops. Changing a cloth diaper in a gas station restroom without a changing table is no easy feat. With all of this, the trip actually only took us about 7 hours, but it felt like much longer. Vinny whined that he wanted to be home all ready from Fontana until he finally fell asleep in Pasadena, around which time, Tiana threw her pacifier and her blanky and cried "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" until she finally fell asleep... one mile from our house. Yikes.
But you know what? There were some moments of beauty on the trip. Tiana was in a happy giggly mood most of the time, and Vinny enjoyed having my undivided attention to talk for 6 hours. There was no traffic at all, and the desert at sunset is a beautiful place. While we were driving, we listened to this CD of songs from old, old Disney shows and movies. Many of them Vinny and I had never even heard before. There is this one song from a movie I haven't even heard of (In Search of Castaways), that I think is my new theme song to life. It is called "Enjoy it."
I leave you with a piece of it.
If there’s a complication,
enjoy it!
You’ve got imagination,
employ it!
This world’s a cornucopia,
Why it could be, Utopia?
Voila, that’s right, enjoy
it!
Why cry about bad weather?
Enjoy it!
Each moment is a treasure,
enjoy it!
We are travelers on life’s
highway, enjoy the trip
Each lovely twist and byway,
each bump and dip
If there’s a complication,
enjoy it!
You’ve got imagination,
employ it!
And you’ll see roses in the
snow,
Joie de vivre will make them
grow,
Voila, that’s life, enjoy it!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Enjoying Summer

So, Monday, I took the Chinese girls and their student partners to Paradise Cove. I hadn't been there in a long, long time, and I had forgotten how nice it was. I didn't have the greatest meal experience the last time I was there, so I was sort of soured on it, but everything was wonderful on Monday, and I left thinking, "I need to come here more often." I was supposed to go with some of my girlfriends on Saturday, but that didn't pan out, and I was bummed, so today, when Marc got off early, and it was 100 degrees and muggy at home (humid heat sucks - I'll take an Arizona 100 any day, but this Florida style weather...yuck), I said, "Let's have dinner at Paradise Cove." Yea! We packed up quickly and set out.

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Right before the seagull incident. Note said chicken strip. |
Damn aggressive seagulls. It's because the tourists feed them. Not to be that person (because I welcome tourists, really, I do - I love sharing the beauty of our state)... but I can pick the tourists out from the locals on pretty much any California beach. The tourists are the idiots who leave their open Doritos sitting on their beach blanket. Or much worse - they hand feed the stupid seagulls, then look shocked when they are suddenly mobbed by the entire flock. Paradise cove is a very, very nice beach, which thus attracts a lot of tourists, and we witnessed several of them feeding the seagulls today. Thus, the seagulls at this beach have become these aggressive beasts who have lost their ability to eat naturally and rely on humans for food, and do so in a hunting-style.
Vinny is such a protective brother. He starts chasing them down and yelling at them that he is going to cut their beaks off and other such atrocities. I kind of wanted to laugh. He is so funny.
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The lifeguard who repaired T's finger |
In spite of the bird incident, it was a beautiful day. We loved eating dinner on this beautiful beach and taking advantage of a late afternoon beach day. I think we are going to try to take advantage of the summer and try to do this (well, probably not Paradise, since it is so expensive) on another Friday in August, like after I get off work. It stays light out so late, there really is no reason one can't hit the beach at 4:30 and stay for several hours. We could always pick up food on the way too.

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The sun setting over an old Western movie town on the way home. |
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Chinese Exchange Students

I have learned so much about people and culture and about teaching second language learners. The students I teach are also second language learners, but they hide when they don't know what something means; however, these students accept that this is foreign and don't feel they have anything to be ashamed of, so they do not hide when they do not understand, and it is very helpful. I have really learned a lot.
It is so interesting how things like insults do not translate at all. Apparently, the number 2 can be an insult in Chinese, and so can the number 250. ???? Random.
I made the mistake of choosing the story "The Ugly Duckling" as one of the mini plays we are doing, but apparently the word that duckling translates to in Chinese is a dirty word, so I had to promise one student I will not call him duckling, but just "birdie."
Another student was shocked that the "s-h" word is not the everyday word for excrement. She asked us, suprised,"Well, what do you call it?" She had never heard any other word for it, and when we said we usually call it "poop," she asked us to spell it and practiced saying it several times. It was quite the moment.
Some things are quite universal, like the fact that all children like to play house... and guess what? Teenagers really like to play like children again. I had them playing house (we called it "family") today, and it was the one thing that they couldn't seem to get enough of. Eventually, I asked them to move their "playing" on stage to be "plays," and follow the rules of stage movement for an audience, and the results were phenomenal. Adorably cute plays. One Chinese boy was a very humorous father and had us all hysterical with his perfect comic timing. Two quiet little Chinese girls became hyper children trying to convince their widowed mother that it was time to start dating again. I think this was the turning point of the entire day today. From the moment when I asked them to play family, I saw them transform into a family.
There are international romances bursting up all over. They are all just jokes (I think), but the Chinese boys are really enjoying flirting with my female students. When one student was supposed to insult the "ugly duckling," he says to her, "You are so ugly! I mean, you are very beautiful, but you are ugly duckling." So funny.
There have been such beautiful spontaneous moments too. I invited the partners (my students) of the two Chinese students I am hosting to join us for meals to help them really bond. Tonight after dinner, I heard them spontaneously teaching each other the parts of the body, and I was cracking up inside when I heard one of my students say, "Do you have a song to help remember this? Like 'head, shoulders, knees, and toes'?"
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Vinny has been so excited to have them here, and they have loved playing with Vinny too. They adored little Tiana, and she loved the Chinese goodies they stuffed her with. They make quite the sweet addition to my family, and I am not quite ready to send them off, but they are excited to see Disneyland on Thursday, and I am excited for them to see it. When I was in China, there were times that everything felt so foreign and far away, but on days like today, I think the Sherman Brothers got it right... it's a small world after all.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Just us girls
Tuesday night, when I was sitting here by myself with Tiana sleeping quietly while I watched a movie by myself, I probably never would have thought that today I would be thinking that this time without the boys has been nice, but you know what... it has.
Tiana was very attached to me her first year, probably because I nursed and she was very fond of nursing and wanted to nurse like constantly. After I weaned her, she became very much a daddy's girl. Recently, she has grown very attached to my mom, since she is T's nanny now. But, this week, we spent a lot of time together just us girls, both at camp and here at home. I really loved the time alone with her. She was more cuddly than she usually is, and she talked so much and had so much to say. I forgot what it was like to spend so much time with just one kid. I mean, Vinny was four-years-old before I had Tiana, so I had a lot of time with just him and was very, very happy with just him. I did not crave a second child, although I was happy to have her.
Anyhow, we had a wonderful time. On the fourth of july, she cuddled up in my lap and watched the fireworks show and I was able to focus on just her enjoying the show. It was really kind of cool. Vinny's friend Sean got to sort of play big brother to her that day, since Vinny wasn't around, and I think he might have enjoyed it a little too. Today, she and I went to the beach with my mom, and Tiana got 100% of the attention and totally loved it. It was also a perfect day at the beach. Not too hot. Not at all cold. Just tiny breezes, no bad gusts of wind. Loved it.
Nonetheless, I was thrilled to get my boys back this evening. Vinny came back talking all about camp and singing all of the camp songs and everything. He seems like such a big boy to me, it is almost kind of weird. Like, I don't have a little baby kindergartener any more... I have a big elementary school kid who is actually pretty good at archery and can make it to the top of the rock wall. This is odd to me, but exciting at the same time. I loved, loved, loved my years at summer camp growing up. They were very much part of making me who I am. I really miss those times, but it is exciting to me to see that Vinny will get to grow up going to a really awesome camp. The staff there were great - all very kind and loving - and I could tell they all cared very much about the kids, which means a lot.
Just a few weeks left of summer, and they are pretty packed. If anyone is hoping to get in any hangout time before it is back to the rat race for me, let me know soon so we can schedule something!
Tiana was very attached to me her first year, probably because I nursed and she was very fond of nursing and wanted to nurse like constantly. After I weaned her, she became very much a daddy's girl. Recently, she has grown very attached to my mom, since she is T's nanny now. But, this week, we spent a lot of time together just us girls, both at camp and here at home. I really loved the time alone with her. She was more cuddly than she usually is, and she talked so much and had so much to say. I forgot what it was like to spend so much time with just one kid. I mean, Vinny was four-years-old before I had Tiana, so I had a lot of time with just him and was very, very happy with just him. I did not crave a second child, although I was happy to have her.
Anyhow, we had a wonderful time. On the fourth of july, she cuddled up in my lap and watched the fireworks show and I was able to focus on just her enjoying the show. It was really kind of cool. Vinny's friend Sean got to sort of play big brother to her that day, since Vinny wasn't around, and I think he might have enjoyed it a little too. Today, she and I went to the beach with my mom, and Tiana got 100% of the attention and totally loved it. It was also a perfect day at the beach. Not too hot. Not at all cold. Just tiny breezes, no bad gusts of wind. Loved it.
Nonetheless, I was thrilled to get my boys back this evening. Vinny came back talking all about camp and singing all of the camp songs and everything. He seems like such a big boy to me, it is almost kind of weird. Like, I don't have a little baby kindergartener any more... I have a big elementary school kid who is actually pretty good at archery and can make it to the top of the rock wall. This is odd to me, but exciting at the same time. I loved, loved, loved my years at summer camp growing up. They were very much part of making me who I am. I really miss those times, but it is exciting to me to see that Vinny will get to grow up going to a really awesome camp. The staff there were great - all very kind and loving - and I could tell they all cared very much about the kids, which means a lot.
Just a few weeks left of summer, and they are pretty packed. If anyone is hoping to get in any hangout time before it is back to the rat race for me, let me know soon so we can schedule something!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Enjoying Our Summer

This summer has been odd. I normally like my time alone with the kids a lot, but for some reason, this year, I am feeling really odd about being alone. I just feel the desire to be with people and doing stuff all the time. I really don't know why. Accepting all theories.
On Sunday, we all headed up to El Camino Pines with Marc for summer camp. It is a small Lutheran camp, and some of our church kids were going for the week, so Marc was going to be supportive and involved and volunteer. We were basically along for the ride. Vinny was really excited about the idea of going to summer camp, but he is too young to be an actual camper, so it was sort of neat for him that he got to somewhat experience parts of camp.
I was a little worried about how Tiana would do. Camp is not exactly toddler friendly. For the most part, it was fine. She loved, loved, loved being in the mountains. If you think about it, a toddler's world has so many boundaries. Backyards have fences, houses have off-limits rooms and shelves, etc. Just being in nature seemed very freeing to her.





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