The Brazilian steak house was a hit. The meat hangover was not so bad on Sunday but it may have been masked by the lack-of-sleep hangover. Somehow the kids didn’t seem to care that we didn’t get in bed until 3:00 on Sunday morning. Oh no! They were still up at 6:30 on Sunday morning wanting to watch cartoons! And eat breakfast! And other such nonsense!
So, the restaurant was pretty cool. (BTW: Cameron thinks that ‘cool’ is the ultimate word for awesome things. You can’t say that something is nice or pretty or neat. “You mean it’s cool, mom?”) Best service I’ve ever had! We never had to ask for drinks or more rolls or anything. Lots of meat. Most of it was really good but there were a few things I didn’t really care for. And…I’m one of those well-done-lovers which I’m sure is frowned upon by actual steak connoisseurs. Whatever. Overall, it was great and I would go again for a special occasion or with a group of people.
After dinner we headed to a smokey bar (WTF, right? I thought almost everyplace was smoke free now.) to see some great rock ‘n roll! The show was awesome but there was that unfortunate incident where the lead singer apparently felt I wasn’t rocking hard enough (AKA: jumping around like crazy and doing wild air guitar/drums like the rest of the people there) and he actually called me out in the middle of a song. He was actually very funny about it and gave me his guitar pick as a peace offering after ‘picking’ on me. I really was having a great time and totally enjoying the show but 1.) I was completely sober, and 2.) it’s just not really my style to dance with reckless abandon (especially when I’m sober). Of course, I spent the rest of the show trying to demonstrate that I was, indeed, rocking out and felt like I was being critiqued by not only the band but the people standing around me. Great fun!!
I’ve been thinking that I want to start writing on here more so there’s no time like the present to get started, eh?
We had a pretty pleasant weekend! We decided to take the kids to the Children’s Museum on Saturday afternoon for a couple of reasons. 1) it’s hot as blazes lately so that’s a nice cool indoor activity. 2) Our membership expires in August so we HAD to go at least one more time before then to get our money out of the membership. 3) We realized that they have a Rock and Roll exhibit right now which is right up Cam’s alley. AND…they had the KISS guy’s costumes on display which was beyond exciting for both kids. I have to wonder how many preschoolers are KISS fans solely because of Rock & Roll All Night, courtesy of Guitar Hero. Hmmm…
I mowed the grass (complete with weed eating! and blowing the clippings off of the patio!) on Saturday morning while Jason played Lincoln Logs with the kids. Somehow mowing the grass seems to have become my job this summer. I’m totally not complaining I just think it’s kind of funny for some reason. I view it as cross-training so if I can get in a workout and finish a chore all at one time I’m all for it. I love to multitask!
Sunday morning was pretty low key again. Jason ran 7 miles on the treadmill while the kids and I colored and danced and played monster trucks. Then we did the 30 Day Shred DVD together. Lily amazes me every time she does this with me! After naps we headed downtown to check out the youth theater production of Peter Pan. It was really, really good! I’m amazed at all of the hard work these kids put into the show. It clearly took a lot of time and dedication to get all of the dances, gymnastics, wire work (for flying!) and other details together to put on a great show.
The kids really enjoyed it too and Cameron rushed to find his Peter Pan costume as soon as we got home! Funny thing about Cameron this weekend is that he seems to have developed a sensitive side. Not that he’s never been sensitive before but songs have never really made him tear up until Sunday. I don’t know if he was just tired or what but the boy got all sad and teary on Sunday morning when I turned on a slow-ish Phish song (of all things) and then three times during Peter Pan he started to cry when they were singing lullaby or other sad sounding songs. It’s like he just got overwhelm with grief when the lost boys left to go back with Wendy and Peter curled up on the stage in despair. His bottom lip came out and trembled and he kept trying to take deep breaths and rub his hands over his face to keep from crying. I really didn’t know whether to cry or laugh, it was just so sad/cute. We have yet to see if this was just a Sunday thing or if this song sensitivity is a new phase we’re entering. Stay tuned!
Our weekend was a mix of lazy/busy. OK…maybe lazy isn’t the right word since we didn’t just lay around at all. Jason and I kicked off the weekend by each doing a 9 mile run. We had hoped to run together this weekend but never figured out what to do with those pesky kids so we ended up going solo. This was my new longest run ever and I was pretty proud of the pace I kept (9:28 or so)! This weekend I step it up to double digits with a whopping 10 miles on Saturday! EEK!
Once we got past the morning runs the rest of Saturday was pretty peaceful. Cameron didn’t even leave the house all day. Lily joined me on a couple of trips to Once Upon a Child where I sold some of Cameron’s baby clothes. The Great Baby Item Clear-out of ‘09 is underway…more to come on that later. Cam took a nice long nap on Saturday afternoon, Jason grilled out and Lily played her Dora game on the Wii. I’m amazed at how quickly she picked up the game. It was a Christmas gift and she struggled with understanding it a little bit at the time. She had a lot more fun playing with it this time. We got the kids in bed a little early and settled in to watch some college football. An all around good day!
Sunday we hit the road bright and early and headed to Kings Island for one last roller coaster adventure this year and to check out the Halloween festivities at the park. I just have to say that my kids are awesome! They did such a great job on the drive, watching movies with no complaints or arguments or “are we there yet” business. We got to the park and headed to the Fairly Odd Coaster at rope drop. Lily absolutely loves this coaster and would have ridden it 582 times yesterday if we let her. She gets SO excited! I love the way she tears off of the ride with Jason and runs to me saying, “Mommy, now I want to ride it with YOU!” Cam enjoyed the kiddie cars as always. He really impressed us by happily riding the Scooby Doo dark ride! When we were there in June he wouldn’t even go in the line. We told him to make a scary laugh to scare away the ghosts and that’s exactly what he did! “Ha, ha, ha” in a deep throaty voice! I hope this means that he’ll be agreeable to go on the dark rides at Disney! There was a Halloween area with a hay bale maze, ‘haunted’ house and pumpkin patch. The kids had fun going through that area and checking things out. Lily finally got her fancy face paint that she’s been wanting all summer! Both kids got to play a game and they each won new stuffed toys. We saw a music/dance show with all kinds of creepy characters (werewolf, vampire, mummy, etc) and the kids got turns on all of the rides. Lily even added a new ride to her portfolio. Some kind of spinning up and down thing that would have been sure to ruin the rest of my day. Thank goodness Cameron is still too little to ride things like that so I can continue to opt out for a couple more years. “That ride? Oh, yes I would LOVE to ride that but someone has to stay with Cameron. Darn!” Jason and I each got a ride on Diamondback and Lily asked us when she would be big enough to ride it!
We headed home at around 5:30 and made a brief stop for Jason to get some Tony Packo’s hot pickles (the real reason I think he wanted to go to Ohio) and then stopped for dinner about two Backyardigans episodes later. The kids were beat and Lily kept asking when she could put on her pajamas. Got them changed and started driving again. About 15 minutes later they were snoozing. Jason and I listened to a comedy show which made the rest of the drive seem very easy. Especially for me since I just sat there and laughed and ate candy.
Next weekend: A birthday party for the dogs. How did I get myself into this?
I love that I tend to first remember the good stuff about a weekend. We had a great one! We did a 5K on Saturday morning, saw some friends and played with the water slide and at the playground on Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning got some things done around the house AND we went to the trail. Lily rode her bike and she an Cameron threw 4,096 rocks off of the bridge into the creek. Then to the grocery store and then both kids took naps! I got iPhoto cleaned up and got packed for our vacation. More water slide and water table in the afternoon. We made ice cream and enjoyed it outside for snack on Sunday afternoon. Pulled the weeds out of the flower bed and went for a 2 mile jog Sunday evening.
Sounds great, right? It was…but I also remember thinking that I could press the reset button on Sunday morning at around 8:00. Both kids were whining like there was no tomorrow. I don’t even remember why now but it. was. miserable. Cam was probably whining because we said he couldn’t watch TV. He wanders around moaning about ‘do, diedo, do’ or ‘Ooh-Why’ (Super Why!), or ‘Back-ar-din’. I know Lily spent awhile in time out one day (Saturday?) because she just would not listen to us. Time outs have become quite an ordeal lately with the screaming and “I want another chance” and the stomping and yelling and moaning. Ugh. Luckily they seem to be few and far between.
Luckily, I won’t always remember the whining. I’ll remember thinking that Cam would be happy for HOURS if we just let him pick up rocks and toss them in the water. They had to walk about 20 feet from the bridge to get rocks. Every time when they had tossed their stash Cam would pat Lily on the head (still wearing her bike helmet) and say, “C’mon Lily!” So adorable! Then they would run back down the trail together to gather more rocks. Love this kind of sibling stuff. For the most part I feel like Lily and Cameron get along amazingly well. Yes, they irritate each other sometimes but the dynamic is different than I would have ever imagined. More often than not it seems like Cameron gets more frustrated with Lily than she does with him. He bugs her plenty but I think she usually handles it a little better than he does. They were bounding in the splash pool of the water slide this weekend and he got so irritated with her when she bounced too much. He expresses this by yelling, “LIIIILLLLL-LLLLLLEEEEEEE!” while his little face gets red and angry. At one point he walked over to the edge of the pool and glared at me and forcefully said, “Mommy” When he had my attention he just narrowed his eyes, shook his head and glared at his sister. “Lily” he said, with a hint of disgust in his voice. Poor frustrated guy!
Reading back through this I realize that I’m pretty exhausted after this weekend. Good thing I’ve got vacation coming up in a few days!
Best Toy: Pumpkin basket filled with plastic Easter eggs. Lily channeled Cinderella in the scene where Cinderella feeds the chickens by spreading seeds on the ground. She held the pumpkin basket on her arm and then flung handfulls of Easter eggs on the floor while yelling, “Breakfast time! Cameron, it’s your breakfast time!”
Best Mummy Impersonation: Cameron trying to walk fast with his arms straight out in front of him.
Best Parental Backpedal: Regretting that we told Lily she could get out of bed on her own after she came sneaking down the stairs ‘after’ her nap on Saturday. We suspect she didn’t really sleep. We still have to think about this one because she LOVED the idea of getting up all by herself and it might be time to give her that freedom…just not sure that we’re ready for it yet!
Best Idea Leading to the Worst Language: Installing cabinet locks in the kitchen is directly related to the increase in 4 letter words being uttered in our kitchen.
Best Project that was FINALLY Completed: Hanging some new pictures in the house. Until this weekend we had only two pictures of Cameron hanging in our house. I finally got a nice collage hung in the dining room and also replaced some of the pictures that were already hung with pictures of Cameron and new pictures of Lily.
Best Semi-Impulsive Major Purchase: Last week we learned that flights to Orlando are insanely cheap in February. Thank you very much Welcome to Our World! So, we decided to make the trek to Disney World at the same time as the Welcome to Our World clan! I’m quite sure that Lily and M will FLIP OUT when they get to see Cinderella’s castle together! We had been planning to take a trip to Disney Land in March when Jason travels to Anaheim for a conference. Flights were so expensive and the logistics of the whole thing (mostly me being either stranded in a hotel with the kids while Jason worked OR me flying to CA alone with the kids at the end of the conference) were just not working out. I’m so much more excited about these Disney World plans and I can’t believe we have 5 months to wait. It’s so not like us to plan this far in advance! Now if only we can convince Shades of Gray and A Piece of Cake to come too! While we’re in Florida I see no reason why It’s All About M.E. shouldn’t make the quick drive to the Magic Kingdom as well! We can call it a big Puppies & Diggers field trip/reunion!
Published on
5/5/2008.
Tags: weekend.
We had a fantastic weekend! Here are the highlights.
*I bought some necklaces for myself! Yeah, I know, not a huge deal but I seem to have a hard time actually splurging for myself so this is a big thing for me!
*We took a road trip to Holiday World yesterday! More to come on that later.
*The kids were SO good all weekend! Lily continues to keep us amused all the time. She was very sweet this weekend telling us that she liked us and loved us SO much! Cameron’s personality emerges more and more each day. He has started to give up smiles and laughs more easily lately and I love this! My favorite is when I walk into the room and he starts making excited squeals and crawls to me as quickly as he can!
*Now that he has both top and bottom teeth (total count is 6 so far) he is grinding them together almost non-stop. ARGH! It hurts me to even think about it. I remember when Lily went through this. As I recall she only did it for a couple of weeks. I hope Cam follows suit.
*As if having 6 teeth and crawling all over isn’t proof enough that Cam is no longer my itty bitty baby, he has started to pull himself up to his knees! At one point yesterday he crawled up to me and reached up to my outstretched hands and about three seconds later he had pulled up to standing! Doesn’t he know he’s not supposed to grow up THIS fast? We’re going to have to lower his crib mattress soon.
*18 days until vacation!
