traveling circus - day 4

Day 4 of our trip was lovely - no traveling and lots of low-key hanging out with friends.

We started off heading to a park chosen by one of our local friends. Having gotten up extra early (as a result of young Greyson kicking his sister off the bed at 6:30 am), we got to the park well in advance of everyone else. It was definitely a nice location - good play structures, enclosed by lots of trees, and with a handy-dandy set of bathrooms, which we visited several times during the morning. Some days I miss diapers.

It was also a dog park, and several parents of the other children at the park had their dogs with them. This was great for me and two of my children, but Charles ... wasn't so happy. He was pretty open with people, though, explaining that he was afraid of their dogs, and handled the situation well. It seems to be getting marginally better. Hopefully some day he'll be able to love animals again.

Our friends arrived - the parents of the 1-year-old from the first day, and our other good friends, parents of a 7-year-old and a small baby. The baby was adorable - all cuddly and plump and smily. Looks just like her mom. The 7-year-old and my boys took to each other immediately, playing hard (for the record, he looks just like both parents - I could pick him out of a crowd as either one's child).

After a while, the heat, the lateness of the morning, and the mosquitoes (oh, the joy of having a thunderstorm every afternoon) made it necessary to return home for lunch and naps. While my younger two slept, and my eldest played more Civ, I finished Conrad Richter's The Fields. Sequel to The Trees, The Fields carries the story of the pioneers forward as they clear the fields and build their families. It's a pitiless book - the author has no empathy for his characters, and thus it feels a bit more realistic as the events seem more random than is usual for a novel. I found this one a bit too fast-moving - I would have liked a little more detail, a little more character development, really just a little more time with characters and events. But still a compelling read.

With naps past, we headed to join the 7-year-old and baby (and their parents) at a local mall's playspace. It was a nice one - lots of things to climb and play on, and my kids were entertained for hours that afternoon, while the daily thunderstorm went on outside. There was a bit of chaos around dinner-time, as my kids wandered in and out of the playspace a few times without adequate awareness of my location.

Then we headed back for the hotel and to bed. The first night of our trip, hunting for something to watch on TV in the hotel (a limited selection, certainly more limited than we're used to), the kids had discovered a show called Avatar, and Nickelodeon ran it all week long, conveniently right around bedtime. (Nice of them!) It's an interesting series, and I enjoyed watching it with them as well. Saturday night (day 4) was the final movie, and I let the kids stay up till 10:00 watching it. They were in bed with the lights off, so they were able to go right to sleep once it was over. Greyson wound up asleep on Charles's stomach, which was highly adorable.

As they slept, I read The Town, final volume in Conrad Richter's trilogy. I found it disappointing - too much of the point of view of the youngest child and nowhere near enough of the mother's point of view. The father was highly underrepresented during the whole series - which makes a certain amount of sense, as his whole character was based around being something of a mystery - but in the third book I really felt the absence of him. And honestly, the youngest child was, to me, the least compelling character, so I was sorry there was so much focus on him. All in all, I felt a little let down. The series seemed to go downhill from volume to volume. While the third book was decent - certainly not a disaster - I didn't feel it lived up to the promise of the first.

traveling circus - day 3

After our two long days in the car, we had finally arrived at our destination! The morning began leisurely, and we drove out to our friends' house ready to play. Her little boy, just over a year old, was one of those big-eyed bald babies - so cute! And so placid and peaceful, just letting the chaos that I brought to his house wash over him. After we'd been there a little while, he was ready to start unwinding and play alongside my three ... if only Veronica had been willing to share his toys with him!

On our way back to the hotel for that blessed event called naptime, we stopped to get the oil changed. I'd been dreading this, but it turned out to be a nonevent. We dropped off the car, walked down to McD's, got our daily ration of fried food and plastic toys, walked back, got in the car, headed back to the hotel. (Yes, I paid.)

I'd like to take a moment to thank McDonald's, Burger King, Chik-Fil-A, and Hardee's. I had packed a number of different entertainment items, but they all paled in comparison to the items that came in the kids' happy meals - so much so that many of the items I'd brought along are still in boxes, ready for the next trip/gift-giving occasion! Special thanks go to the nice lady from Burger King along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and the nice man from Burger King at the service area in central New Jersey for giving the kids happy meal toys even though we didn't get a happy meal. In both cases, the Pokemon cards and accompanying plastic accessory were much appreciated and loved!

During naptime, as Greyson occupied himself on my computer playing Civ, I finished Lynn Hamilton's The Xibalba Murders. Hamilton used to write on a blog I read, and I'd had high hopes for her series - archaologically based murder mysteries. Sadly, I will not be moving on with the series. The book was chock-a-block with the author's research - as a matter of fact, the research was shoved in wherever it could go, whether it made sense, fit the character, or was actually relevant to the story - or not. The main character was an amalgam - half the time indecisive and hesitant, half the time bold and confident - with no clear reason for either. Overall, I felt that the plot and character (such as they were) had been created to fit the research, and they didn't quite make it.

Later on, the younger two got up (after messing around quite a bit before they'd consent to go to sleep), and we headed over to a local pizza place, meeting our friends from the morning. Who I hope were not as mortified as I was when my lovely daughter threw a complete and total meltdown over the 1-year-old's toys and the fact that she couldn't have them all. We were able to finish our meal, but then it was time to leave. I rarely have to haul one of my kids out of a public place in full tantrum mode, so I feel pretty lucky about that.

Finally, back to the hotel and to bed with my young ones. I read Perry Mason, The Case of the Phantom Fortune. It was one of the few installments of the series where even I felt that Mason's antics to distract the police force justified many of the DA's office's opinions of him. Of course, it all turned out for the best, but altogether it wasn't my favorite.

traveling circus - day 2

So after we arose from our first night in the hotel (during which only one of my children fell off the bed, and that only once - a pretty good record, I thought), it was back into the car for us. We headed on down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway toward DC. The kids were pretty excited to pass by our nation's capital. And we were making great time, so I thought it was time to think about a fun stopover. Now, knowing me, where do you think I was planning to head? That's right, Williamsburg. I was really looking forward to the chance to take the kids. But fate ... and road construction ... had other plans for me. Just as traffic came to a halt, I saw the sign pointing the way to Mt. Vernon, and the convenient exit that was right there. I hadn't been to Mt. Vernon since I was about 8 or 9, and I thought it sounded fun. (I should say that my most vivid memories of visiting Mt. Vernon are getting the Williamsburg paper dolls ... and of biting into a fried chicken sandwich that was piping hot and burning my tongue. Ouch.)

Anyway, so we headed for Mt. Vernon. The kids seemed to enjoy walking around and looking at the buildings, but it was melting hot, so they played out fast. The line to go inside the house was really long, and I thought Veronica made touring a 300-year-old national treasure a bad idea. So we went into the museum instead (air conditioned!) and wandered through the displays showing the events in Washington's life. The kids particularly liked the light-up board that showed different colors depending on who won which Revolutionary War battle, and the little model of Washington, DC. (Greyson knew where - and what - the Lincoln Memorial was. Where did that come from?) Unsurprisingly, the biggest hit was the kids' room, with the tea set, dollhouse replica of Mt. Vernon itself, and wooden revolutionary soldiers. We spent quite some time there. Greyson impressed the docent by needing to run back to the light-up board so he and Charles could play the right battle. And they impressed me by choosing the same set of wooden soldiers (and a plastic set of the battle of Yorktown) as their souvenirs. Both sets have gotten a lot of use.

Worn and highly overheated, we made our way through Virginia. We were moving right along, making good time, when I noticed the little wrench light lit up on my dashboard. Then the light that told me I only had 15% of oil light left ... and the code A1 next to it. This caused a good hour's worth of panic as I tried to maintain speed (trying to just GET THERE already before the car died on me!) while digging out my manual and looking up the various symbols and codes. Turned out that all I needed was an oil change, which was complication enough, but I was glad it wasn't any worse.

Finally we arrive at the hotel in North Carolina, which all of us saw as a beautiful haven of coolness and rest by this point. Only to discover that we had somehow booked a room with a single king bed. For all of us. After a few minutes at the front desk, I found out that the front sitting area had a pull-out couch, so for the rest of our stay, I slept on the pull-out and ALL THREE of my children slept together in one bed. Leading to some interesting sleep positions, to say the least.

I got the kids to bed, after a surprisingly tasty meal at Hardee's (my first, if memory serves), and commenced the great joy of flipping channels in a nice quiet hotel room while my daughter terrorized her brothers in her insistence on not sleeping in the next room. I wound up on the Food Network, watching two episodes of Ace of Cakes (interesting, but not a destination show), and a very disappointing episode of Iron Chef America. Now, I know the challenger isn't supposed to win, but this is the most egregious they've ever been. As the challenger presented his dishes (Battle Rabbit), one of the judges offered almost no commentary and basically refused to even look at him. As soon as the Iron Chef (who admittedly was kind of cute) began presenting his dishes, the same judge became quite animated, smiling and basically flirting with the Iron Chef. I didn't bother to finish the episode - that kind of blatant fixing is just bad TV.

I also finished my reread of Perry Mason, The Case of the Mischievous Doll. Nice plot, decent twist -a solid contribution to the pantheon.

traveling circus - day 1

Back again! It was a long trip, but we all bore up pretty well.

Day 1, we headed off from home, the kids and I packed up into the car, moving down the highways on our way to the sunny south.

As there would continue to be, there was McDonald's. We stopped at a McD's at a highway rest area. The boys (and girl) were tickled pink, and the Transformers toys for the boys and the Littlest Pet Shop ones for the girl got a lot of use over the course of the trip. I had also brought a fair number of items along for their entertainment, carefully packaged into various bags for each day of driving.

The kids were excited to drive through New York, and loved the view of Baltimore's city lights from our hotel room. We stayed at a Best Western in northern Baltimore. The hotel was nice, the staff (including Moses at the front desk, who was extremely helpful) friendly and welcoming. We had two beds - one for the boys and one for me and Veronica. She was quite snuggly, waking up periodically through the night to hug and kiss. (Frankly, while I enjoyed the cuddles, I could have done without the waking up.)

Day 1 I finished Contrary Lovers, Clarice Peters. I've read it many times before - a simple little Regency romance, but lovely characters, witty dialogue, a scattering of slang but not so much as to be incomprehensible. A perennial favorite.

tales from the pool

This week the weather has finally been conducive to daily swimming. With Greyson in camp all morning, we've mostly been swimming in the afternoon, post-naptime.

The kids tend to be impatient with the prep work - rolling up the solar cover, skimming the dead bugs and pine needles off the top, applying the sunscreen. (They're no happier at the end of the session with the clean-up - unrolling the solar cover, picking up the pool toys and putting them away, laying their swimsuits and towels out on the deck rail.) Yesterday, there was an extra delay, as they had to wait while I chased a frog around the pool with the skimming wand, trying to get it out and set it free. Later in the afternoon there was a second frog in the skimming drain, and then when we were getting ready to get out I found the second frog back in the pool - Doofus, I call him. There's a nice swamp not far away where I'm sure they'd be happier!

But in between the chores comes the swimming. Veronica alternates between her little floaty boat, floating around and chewing on the plastic squirt guns, and swimming with bubble and noodle. She looks like a ballerina, dancing around the pool. And is surprisingly fast ... and unsurprisingly fearless.

Charles likes the big black doughnut floaty thing. He likes to hang on the side of it and paddle around. But he also in the last couple of weeks has started pushing himself to swim farther - he loves to swim down to the end and hang on the bottom of the diving board. He still uses (and needs) his bubble, but he's gotten a lot better about getting his face wet and a lot less fearful. He's also trying hard to learn how to float, and doing fairly well.

Greyson has discovered the joys of swimming. Bubble-free now, he spends all his time either jumping in or going underwater. He doesn't feel ready for swimming beyond where his feet can touch, but I think once he decides to do it he'll be able to do well.

Personally, I find the responsibility of being the only adult in the pool with the three of them is a lot when we swim on a daily basis. My attempts to add more people to our swim sessions have fallen flat (at least this week), and by Friday I was pretty tired of the whole thing. (It didn't help that Friday was also the day of the frogs.)

But now we're at the weekend, and next week the in-laws will be with us, or we'll be traveling. I'll have to take the swimsuits, though, as the boys are already excited about swimming in hotel pools!

mothers in parking lots

Parking lots are never my favorite, but this week I've discovered an entire new level of irritation: parking lots at camp. The big boy has been in camp all week. It's located at his elementary school, so it's been an easy commute for us, but it's also a fairly extensive camp with a lot of different programs, which leads to a full parking lot every day. It has been my annoyance to be witness to a number of different careless parking lot behaviors, and I must complain.

There are the moms who:

- insist on walking down the center of the road, surrounded by their children, but not holding onto or actually watching said children. (Multiply this one by 5 if the mom is on the cell phone while the children trail behind.)

- insist on navigating and parking while carrying on their all-important cell phone conversations, and without consideration for other families who may be in their path.

- insist on standing in the middle of the parking lot having a coffee clatch while surrounded by strollers, while other people wait to get past so they can park.

- insist on parking in the middle of the lane to let their children get out, without paying any attention to whether the car they're parked in front of is occupied by someone trying to get out.

- insist on allowing their children to sit down in the middle of an empty space (in a parking lot so crowded that every space is contested) while they try to learn how to put on their own shoes. I'm all for fostering independence, but not in the middle of a parking lot at pick-up time!

- insist on parking in the fire lane, since heaven knows they need to be closer to the school than anyone else. (These largely seem to be women on cell phones who appear to be in the pink of health. If you're nine months pregnant and lugging along a heavy toddler, park wherever you think you can make it to the door from!)

- insist on squeezing their minivans and SUVs down a lane that is parked on both sides, with incoming cars going the opposite way - in total defiance of the sign that tells them NOT to go that way.

Makes me glad to have gotten through the week. I admit to being a bit on the paranoid side where cars are concerned, but given the relative size of even my 6-year-old in comparison with a minivan or an SUV, I feel somewhat justified in my paranoia.

As a side note, I saw the most egregious episode of this yet the other night. I was out shopping, and it was late evening - twilight, and past my kids' bedtime. Two women and a toddler were walking across the parking lot and into a store. Trailing behind them by about 15 feet was a boy who looked to be about 8 years old. The two women walked into the store and started putting the toddler into a cart, all without a backward glance. I was watching this trying to figure out if the boy was really with them. (Note: at no point had these women given any indication that there might be another person along with them, but the boy was clearly trying to catch up with them.) They got the toddler in the cart and turned to start shopping, while the boy struggled with the door, which was almost too heavy for him to open. Finally, I went to hold the door for him, he entered the store and joined the women, neither of whom had looked at (or for) him even for a moment. Very strange.

book reviews

Next stack! (You know, it seems from the number of books I'm completing that my "to be read" stack should be shrinking. HA! They're breeding, I tell you.)

Recently finished:

1776, David McCullough: It's a nice book, eminently readable, really points up how close we were to being relegated to footnotes in the texts on the British Empire's worldwide glory. It's perhaps a bit Washington-centric, but then, how could it not be? Well worth reading.

As the Romans Did, Jo-Ann Shelton: Impressively detailed! This is a comprehensive textbook-like overview of the world of the Romans. Some chapters more readable than others, but overall really, really fascinating and an excellent reference work.

Dick Contino's Blues, James Ellroy: Another work of Ellroy short stories that just didn't do it for me. Dick Contino was apparently a real person who had a minor career as an accordion player and a small cult hit movie. Ellroy has developed one of his obsessions with the guy, tracked him down, got the real story, and wrote it up. Again, though, these stories showcase most of what I'm not such a fan of in Ellroy's writing.

Murder Between the Covers, Elaine Viets: Second book in the Dead-End Job mystery series. Just as much a hit as the first! This will have to be the next series I work on - these are compulsively readable books.

moving on down the road

As you know, I love houses. And the houses I pass every day on my way to and from various places become like personal friends. I mentioned earlier the house that has nudged its way into my brain as "my mother's house" and its next door neighbor, which looks like a house my Aunt Sarah would live in. The next three houses down are also interesting and have very distinct personalities.

There's the "party house" - it's a Tudor style, with lots of windows. When you drive by, winter or summer, after dark, you can see white Christmas-style lights strung all over the house, and a lot of red in the decor. There are also big poinsettia plants in the front windows ... it could well be a house owned by a serious Christmas-lover! Mostly it just looks like they're always ready for a party.

The next house down looks empty. The lawn is always well taken care of, but there's nothing else. No shrubs, no flowers, no decorations, no children's toys. During the winter, if it hadn't been for the small bag of garbage put out once a week, I'd never have known anyone lived there. (With summer time, there's been a slight change - there's now a small vegetable garden in a side yard. The only sign of life to be found!)

On the corner is a house with no "name" attached. It's a pretty normal house really, but has one oddity - in the far corner of the yard, next to the road, is a gate. There's no fence, you understand ... just the white gate. Which you could easily walk around instead of going through. During the spring, the gate fell over, and I wondered what they would do - a few weeks later, they repaired it. Leaving me still wondering - is it a gate to a magic world? Where would you go if you went through it? Hmmm... Maybe I'll have to try it someday.

summer

I think I need to move a bookmark to this page into my blog folder, so I'll hit it on my way up the list every day. I read other people's blogs and say, "Hey, why don't they post more?" while my own is busy gathering dust.

Of course, that's the only thing in my life that stays still long enough to gather dust! The young'uns are working on learning better swimming and biking skills; the calendar and the events contained within it are moving along at a rapid clip; my deadlines continue their inexorable march toward me; laundry, dishes, garbage, and assorted clutter continue to collect; and the skies continue to open up and pour down their never-ending rain upon my lawn every day so it never dries out enough to be mowed.

Mostly I expect to spend at least the next month just trying to keep up, as the pace promises to remain hectic. Who would have thought that I'd look forward to the fall so the pace could calm down?