Downyoceanhon!

You have to read the title of this post all together and hold your nose while saying it. Then you'll be on your way to a true Bawlmer (Baltimore) accent.

A couple weeks ago we went to the ocean (Ocean City, MD to be exact). We always have a good time, but we've decided that going with little ones is more of a "trip" rather than a vacation. A vacation has to involve me taking a nap on the beach or by a pool without kids to watch. Will it ever happen again?!?!!

Liam decided that 530am was the appropriate time to rise in the morning whilst at the beach. I disagreed but didn't have much say in the matter since all four of us were sharing a tiny bedroom. Needless to say we got a lot of naps!



We shared a condo with Kevin's parents that literally was 25 feet from the beach. For all of the hassle it is to get two little ones out TO the beach, I'm so thankful that it wasn't that far to go. Kevin's brother's family was in the condo right next to us so it made it nice that the cousins could all play together. It helped our sanity many a time as Natalie rarely got bored.



We had crabs, went to the boardwalk one evening, biked the boardwalk one morning, toured the bay on a pontoon boat, hung out at the beach and did putt putt. Such a fun week!

Grandma reading to Natalie. Natalie put up such a fit everytime Grandma put on her reading glasses (wanting her to TAKE THEM OFF) that Grandma bought Natalie a pair just for her when they read together. That fixed that and the result is too cute.

We went out to eat a couple times and lemons kept Liam from screaming (happily) through the entire event. He LOVES lemons, but you'd never be able to tell from the faces he makes!
To top it all off we had several friends who were staying downyoceanhon the same week we were so we got a chance to meet up with them twice to hang out and go swimming in their pool.

Oh My Word...

I started out with SUCH a good attitude today. And perhaps that should have been my first clue. Like maybe that's akin to asking God... "Hey, give me a little lesson in patience today. I'm READY!"

So we get up at 730 and are on a mission to get ready and get out the door by 930. Hey, those of you WITHOUT kids may think, "TWO HOURS?!". But when you have yourself, a 1 year old and an almost 3 yr old to get dressed, feed and get out the door (while trying to clean up after yourself and pack for the days necessities) then, yes, it really does take that long.

Here's a run-down of what happened after that...
1. Within the first hour of being up I had to tell Natalie to stop pulling or pushing Liam three times. By the third or fourth time I'd had it and I punished her for pulling him down the hallway by one arm. Seriously!

2. I put Liam in his carseat only to realize that the bananas he'd had for breakfast were stuck to his pants and low and behold they were now completely smashed into the side of MY shirt as well. Roll the car windows down, run in the house, throw on a new shirt, run out the door.

3. At our first stop, Target, I ALMOST locked the keys in the car. Thank the Lord I did not. I did spend 5 minutes in the parking lot digging in the depths of my purse for them though. Sweating commenced.

4. In Target the items on my list were not advertised on sale (as the circular had mentioned). Spent 5 minutes in the diaper aisle looking for coupons and calculating price per diaper on my cell phone calculator. Liam screams (not upset but just being REALLY REALLY vocal). Because that's just what he does.

5. Realized, after 5 minutes, that the diapers weren't THAT good of a deal. Decided not to get them. Shoved coupons back in purse while trying to get out of the way of other customers.

6. Realize I've lost my list. Spent 10 minutes looking for list. So far there's NOTHING in my cart and I've already been there for 15 minutes. Grrrr.

7. After praying FOUND my list (thank you, Lord).

8. Broke up fights between my kids for taking things from one another and "He's touching this", etc. Quarantined Natalie to the back of the cart.

9. Hightailed it to the checkout to find that one item I'd bought was the wrong one. Left my groceries with the cashier and ran to the socks (of all things) to get different ones and then back. After all that decided I didn't like the socks on sale. /sigh

10. Raced to the library, 15 minutes late, for a playdate with a friend who's got a son Liam's age. Realized she was late too. /Sigh of relief

11. Chased Liam all over children's area of library while trying to look for books for Natalie and keep an eye on her too.

12. Apologized to the ladies checking us out at the counter because Liam was screaming so shrilly (it literally hurts your ears so much that one of them was plugging her ears).

13. Left the library and went to Chick fil A.

14. Had Natalie use the car potty first in a VERY crowded parking lot (I wonder what people think when they see my preschooler peeing in the back of our SUV?)

15. Fielded two kids eating lunch while grabbing things away from Liam within his reach that he couldn't have. Cut up food for both kids, blow on it to cool it off, throw food in my mouth, hold cup for Liam, shove more food in my my mouth, try to hold a conversation with my friend, stop Natalie from tipping up her cup to drink it (it had a straw in it). I swear its an Olympic event feeding both kids, cutting up food, throwing food in my mouth, making sure Liam doesnt throw everything on the floor, etc, etc.

16. I miss Natalie tipping her cup up again and she gets a deluge of milk in her lap. My cup leaks tea all over my lap. I go get a refill and Liam grabs my straw shooting tea all down my shirt and inside my bra. We could all officially use a bath.

17. We play at the Chick-Fil-A playground and then head off to the car for another round of potty in the car and de-germing from all of the crawling around on the playplace floor. And then it's homeward bound.

It's only 1:30 and I already feel like I've run a marathon!!! Looking forward to a little downtime this afternoon before craziness commences again!

Summer Bounty

Kevin's the gardener in the family. I wont even pretend that I've got a green bone in my body. I have trouble keeping any plant alive. Although I have been known to grow a mean weed (that's the "pest" kind... not the DEA-knock-down-your-door kind, mind you).

Anyway, last year was our first year at the garden and while I helped out more then, I was really just the cheerleader. I mean... how much help can a fully pregnant woman really be in the whole gardening arena? I can imagine if we lived in the plains in the old days being pregnant wouldn't have gotten me out of much. Oh well... thank the LORD for modernization (and air conditioning)!

We made some mistakes last year (i.e. planting too early and getting hit by a couple frosts) and suffered garden envy as our neighbor across the street would constantly yield exponentially more tomatoes and cucumbers than we ever did. Yet we decided to try again.

Well, to be exact I decided to WATCH THE KIDS while Kevin did the gardening, but that's beside the point. Come on, you can't really have a 1 year old crawling around in the dirt with the bugs and pesticides now can you? What did those frontier women do in the good ole' days? Strap the kid to their back? With no sunscreen? And bugs? And that whole natural childbirth thing? With the doctor in the next town and maternal death rates what they were? Let's just say God knew what He was doing when he chose for me to be born with all of the comforts of microwave ovens, the internet, a grocery store 5 minutes down the road and Kotex.

Because you dont even want to THINK about THAT aspect of life as a woman on the frontier. YUCK!

Anyway, I digress. We got back from the beach on Sunday and Kevin's vegetable garden was busting with growth. We had gotten so much rain while we were gone (a blessing as everything was pretty brown) that the zucchini and the melons literally took off!

Natalie had a good time helping pick all of the ripe produce and did a better job than last year at refraining from plucking the green tomatoes from their place on the vine. (Last year you might have thought she was color blind!)

We were hoping that by picking things like eggplant and zucchini and fresh green beans she'd be more likely to eat them. Alas, that has not yet proved to be true, but we'll keep trying.

The broccoli was a hit though. It was more on par with broccolini (if you've ever seen that). A bit smaller than regular broccoli and every bit as tasty (especially smothered in cheese). Okay, you could probably smother an old tire in cheese and it would taste good, but that's not the point.


This is the picture of the harvest we brought in. It's exciting as it's the first major harvest this year. Our tomatoes are still pretty green as we planted kinda late this year (perhaps we were gun shy after last year). But if you look at the garden now, you can tell that there's going to be lots to come. Hooray!

Of course the neighbor across the street STILL has better looking plants and we're envisioning some sort of National Lampoon style sabotage going on. If you come over to our house and notice the motion detecting camera set up on the garden, you'll know what's up!

Playing Catch Up

I know, I've fallen off the face of the planet. Bear with me. It's been more than a little crazy and I've got lots of pictures I need to go through to post.

We've been enjoying the summer as it's now in full swing. For the 4th, we celebrated with some friends (Dave and Jill) that live close to us (on Rumsey Island) with a cookout and fireworks over their cove (their townhome backs to water).




Jill and Sequoia


Stud Muffin Deluxe

We had a blast that night except for all of the bug bites Natalie sustained from rolling around in the grass. That part was NOT so fun to deal with the week following and we went through a LOT of cortizone cream. =)

The pool is now open for business and quite the backyard hotspot. The plastic slide support broke at the end of last season so Kevin rigged up a log and a couple paving stones to support the slide in it's stead. It's right next to the extra commode and broken washing machine we have in our backyard (just kidding!). Feel free to stop by if you need to take a dip though. It will really cool down your ankle!




Well it's late and I'm signing off. I'm planning more posts tomorrow... I promise!